Bencze Zoltán - Gyulai Ferenc - Sabján Tibor - Takács Miklós: Egy Árpád-kori veremház feltárása és rekonstrukciója (Monumenta Historica Budapestinensia 10. kötet Budapest, 1999)
Gyulai Ferenc: A Rákospalota-Újmajor 1. lelőhelyről származó növényleletek archaeobotanikai feldolgozása
ARCHAEOBOTHANICAL ANALYSIS OF THE BOTANICAL REMAINS COLLECTED FROM THE 1996 EXCAVATIONS AT THE MOTORWAY MO SITE NO.l RÁKOSPALOTA-ÚJMAJOR In 1996 archaeological excavations were conducted tracing the route of the would-be motorway MO in the area of Rákospalota-Újmajor. From archaeological objects, dating back to various periods, found at site No. 1 twenty-six examples of soil were collected for archaeobothanical analysis. In the example from the Neolith Period there were no remains of crop. In the example from the Middle Copper Age the number of indicated species is low. From the cultivated plants it is only the grains of the six-row barley that could have been found. However, this data fits the otherwise scattered knowledge about Copper Age agriculture, i.e. compared to the Neolith Period, in the Copper Age the proportion of animal keeping and cultivation increased to the latter one. The objects from Scythian times were richer in archaeobotanical finds. The majority of the almost thousand items comprises of cereals: six-row barley, eincorn and sorghum, but seeds of lentil were also found. These botanical finds of the Scythian times are of enormous importance because they are the only remains of their period from the Carpathian Basin. Seeds of rush are still present in the Scythian-period material, which suggests the prevailence of a nearby wetland. Half of the examples from site No. 1 come from the Árpádian Age. All of them date back to the 12 th —13 th centuries. The soil has been taken mainly from indoor and outdoor ovens of Árpádian Age pithouses. The reconstruction of one pithouse was built at the Szarvasgede Biohistory Farm in autumn 1997. The majority of the carbonated seeds come from the indoor and outdoor oven of the building. Probably, they are the remains of the waste used for the fire. The majority of them cosists of cereals: six-row barley, wheat, rye and sorghum. Also eincorn was identified. The inhabitants of those times did not only grow cereals but collected and ate wild fruits too, which were rich in vitamines. The crab-apple could have come from the nearby woodland. The majority of the identified weeds are Secalietea, whereas the rest belong to Polygeno-Chenopodietalia. There is a lot of Ruderália. Though the number of species belonging to the natural environment is few, they suggest a variety of clearings meadows and riverines. The archaeo-botanical finds from the motorway excavation at Rákospalota-Újmajor fits in the series of other finds from the period. From the number of seeds it can be concluded that the people living east of the Danube, despite their settling down, maintained their semi-nomade traditions of cultivation, their main crops remaining barley and sorghum. Though they also grew agrotechnically more delicate naked forms of wheat and rye they did not forget the main bread crop of preceeding periods, the Eincorn.
