Folia archeologica 10.
Kőszegi Frigyes: Az oroszvári bronzkori temető
The Bronze Age cemetery at Oroszvár 57 THE BRONZE AGE CEMETERY AT OROSZVÁR ( R U S О V С Е ) During the years of 1942—1943 J. Nemeskéri and A. Bottyán carried out excavations in the outskirts of the village Oroszvár beside the late gendarmerie barracks near the railway line. During these works which were destined to explore an Árpád Age cemetery Bronze Age graves were also found. From the 21 Bronze Age graves unearthed the finds of the Gâta culture came to light. The pottery of the cemetery are identical with the customary ceramic forms of the Gâta culture; vessels with one and two handles, mugs, further dishes with outstanding rim are common in the material of the Oroszvár finds. There is also a fairly large number of jewels known from the graves. Apart from the small bronze spiral tubes and dentalium shells which are the most frequent, there were found bronze "Noppenrings", disc headed pins, spiral armlets, a torques and other smaller jewels. One of the most interesting finds is a gold ring made of doubele wire, belonging to the grave 2. (Pl. VII. 4.) In all the graves there were skeletons in contracted position. The skeletons lay on their right and left sides respectively, but this has not yielded enough data as to their sexes, since there were too many children's skeletons. The skeletons were lying mainly in the West-Eastern direction, but there were also orientated Southwest-Northeast as well as to South-North. It is difficult to get a clear picture about the system of the arrangement of the graves, since they occurred on various spots of the large excavation area. A few graves from a more enclosed area (graves 10—13, 17, 19.) suggest here burials in rows. Some of the graves were disturbed. The Gâta culture is connected in many respects with the other cultures of the same period, which was seen clearly from the analysis of the material of Oroszvár cemetery. On the one hand it is in relation with the groups of OkaSarród, Loretto, Alsónémedi and Guntramsdorf-Drassburg, which preceded it directly. On the other hand the Gâta culture might have been connected also with several other cultures of the same period e. g. the cultures of Aunjetitz, Kisapostag, Perjámos and Szekszárd. Besides this we most call attention to an other connection too. In the grave 7 of the Oroszvár cemetery behind the skull of the skeleton there was a horse skull turned upside down. The horse skull belonged undoubtedly to the grave, as there were no traces of any disturbances, which might mislead us. The horse in the graves became common with the appearance of Scythians in Hungary. On the other hand on the territory of Southern Russia this appears much earlier, first of all within the range of the Maikop interments, as well as in the closely connected pit and catacomb graves, generally known as ochre graves. 8 1 The presence of horse skeletons or that of horse bones in the graves is tought to be of a sacrificial character. 8 2 In Hungary similar phenomenon to the above mentioned occurred elsewhere too, but there were not accompanying archeological find determine their date. 8 3 The next parallel to the horse skull of Oroszvár is known from the Grosshöflein-Föllik grave. In this grave covered with stones were besides the contracted skeletons and corded pottery horse skeletons and other animal bones, as well as also a separate horse skull. 8 4 The horse skeleton found in the
