Zalai Múzeum 14. Müller Róbert 60 éves (Zalaegerszeg, 2005)

Lőrinczy Gábor–Straub Péter: Alpi típusú övgarnitúra a Szegvár–oromdűlői 81. sírból

Alpi típusú övgarnitúra a szegvár-oromdűlői 81. sírból 155 Alpine-type belt set from Szegvár-Oromdűlő, grave 81 This article describes a grave (grave 81) with a tunnel grave and finds from a known cemetery at SzegvárOromdülő (LŐRINCZY 1992; LŐRINCZY 1995). An Alpine-type belt set found in grave 81 is presented and discussed. The importance of the belt set is that along with other objects in the grave, they are analogous to western/Germanic finds. In the grave (Fig. 1; 6, 1-2) skulls of a two year old calf, an adult horse and a 8-10 month old lamb were found. The lower legs and skins of these animals were cut across at midpoint of their length and placed in the chamber of the grave. Amongst the sacrificed animals, the horse was the most valuable in the examined period in terms of work and utilisation, whereas calf and lamb was the most valuable in terms of consumption. The community sacrificed the tamed horse which was at the peak of its strength, whilst the other two animals were chosen for communal consumption as part of a feast. The bottom of the tunnel grave was concave and a 30-35 years old man was placed in a dug/out coffin (Fig. 6, 1, 4). The body had the characteristics of mongoloid-cromagnoid type. In the burial pit horse furniture was found (Fig. 2), that is a horse bit, a pair of stirrups, a girth buckle and an iron bridle ring. Next to the corpse a so-called Alpine-type cast bronze belt set was found (Fig. 3-4). There was also an iron knife (Fig. 5, 7), two iron buckles (Fig. 5, 5-6), bracing of the mouth and the lower part of a sabretache (Fig. 5, 1, 4). In the sabretache there was a greyish-black glass bead which was decorated with white and turquoise knobs and loops (Fig. 5, 3) and an iron disc (Fig. 5, 2). Next to the skull within the carved coffin sheep lumbar vertebrae were placed. One of the interesting features of this grave is that the horse was not placed into the grave with its harnesses, because the bit was not in the mouth of the horse. Even amongst partial horse burials it is uncommon to place a horse into a grave without being harnessed. Such is the case in a single burial in Biharkeresztes-Lencsehát (MESTERHÁZY 1987, 222, 229, 231, 235; LŐRINCZY 1992, Amn. 27), in a grave from Gyoma (SOMOGYI 1997, 99, 101), in a partial horse burial from Hódmezővásárhely-Szárazér-dűlő (KOREK 1942, 156) and in grave 500 from SzegvárOromdűlő. Further research should reveal whether these are isolated cases or indicative of a transition in burial habits when only harnesses were placed in the grave without the animal. In considering this problem from the chronological point of view, the two practices may be linked, because the majority of burials with harnessed horses are known from east of Tisza. This practice appeared there from the middle of 7

th century and became more characteristic in the last third of that century (BENDE 2000, 254; BENDE 2003, 318). Horse burials with separate harnesses appeared in the second third of the 7

th century. In grave 81 from Szegvár, the lumbar vertebrae of a sheep were placed as food for the dead. In the early Avar period east from the Tisza, food was rarely put in the graves. When food was placed in the grave it was the sacrum, vertebrae caudalis (tail), or vertebrae lumbalis of a sheep. These parts of a sheep appear in graves separately or all together and they were almost always put next to the skull (LŐRINCZY 1992a, 165). Such finds were found in Szegvár-Oromdűlő from the already published graves: 1., 81., 100., 109., 130. (LŐRINCZY 1991, 131; LŐRINCZY 1992, 103; LŐRINCZY 1995, 399). In a cemetery at Székkutas from the second half of the Avar period 43 graves exhibited such characteristics, as did 19 graves from Pitvaros (BENDE 2003, 322). In the early Avar period, east from the Tisza the practice of placing part of a sheep with the dead is an Asian habit, which first appeared in the Carpathian Basin during the Hun period. A good example of this is the north-south oriented grave from Árpás (ТОМКА 2001, 164, Pic. 3). In the second half of the Avar period, certain elements of earlier burial habits (such as provisioning for the afterlife with the lumbar part of a sheep) also remained in practice within the chronological horizon of later cemeteries (BENDE 2000, 245). This practice, even though rare, also appeared in 10

th century graves such as in grave 3 at Tiszavasvári-Aranykerti-tábla (VÖRÖS 2001, 592) and in grave 101 at SándorfalvaEperjes (VÖRÖS 2004). The horse bit from the examined grave (grave 81 Szegvár-Oromdűlő) is of a rare type. The bit has two rings at the ends of its arms and the rings were fashioned in similar alignment. A very good analogy for this horse bit was found in Békéscsaba (MEDGYESI 1991, 112, Fig. 16, 6; MRT 1998, 238, Fig. 92, 5). This type of horse bit is often associated with wood, antler or other keratinous material which was used as cheek pieces. Such cheek pieces were often coated with metal, such as in grave 1 at Hajdúdorog where they were plated with tin (KRALOVÁNSZKY 1992, 126, Fig. 7, le; GARAM