Vaday Andrea – Bánffy Eszter – Bartosiewicz László – T. Biró Katalin – Gogältan Florin – Horváth Friderika – Nagy Andrea: Kompolt-Kistér : Újkőkori, bronzkori, szarmata és avar lelőhely Leletmentő ásatás az M+-as autópálya nyomvonalán (Eger, 1999)
The site of Kompolt, Kistér
360 THE SITE OF KOMPOLT, KISTÉR The Sarmatian settlement The Roman Period site of Kompolt - Kistér belongs to the earliest Sarmatian settlements known in the Carpathian Basin. It may thus be compared to the sites of Gyoma 133 and Újhartyán respectively. Four houses found at this Sarmatian settlement were given feature numbers 102, 152, 211, and 212. In addition, the presence of houses may also be hypothesised in the case of two other features, 186 and 268. These houses were all semi-subterranean dwellings with rectangular ground plans. Two of them (102 and 152) had their long axes oriented south-southwest/northnortheast while two others (211 and 212) were oriented W to E. House 102 was the largest, with a floor surface of 15.8 m 2. House 152 measured 11.48 m 2. House 211 was only of a size of 10.2 m 2. The smallest building, Feature 212, measured only 4.4 m 2. Houses labelled Features 102 and 152 were relatively shallow, while the two others were deeper. These houses are compared to those from Gyoma 133 in Chapter 7 and Graph. 36). Indoor pits were observed in two of the houses, while two others had inner fireplaces. No post hole was detected in the house labelled Feature 102. Data on the reconstruction of Sarmatian houses with no post structures were gathered at the settlement of Gyoma 133. At that site, wattle and daub bricks were found at several places, it is thus possible to hypothesise that the walls of houses were made from this material, 3 0 although the floors of those houses were also dug below the natural surface. It seems that the Kompolt houses with posts were, in general, built following a single post structure. Forty-five Sarmatian pits were found at this settlement. Their shapes and depths varied. They appeared in the form of round or oval spots on the surface. Of the pits, fifteen were 10-30 cm deep, while the depth of twelve pits ranged between 40-60 cm. Another twelve pits reached the depths of 70-90 cm. Two of the pits were as deep as 140 cm. Similar variability of pit depths were observed at both the Újhartyán and Gyoma 133 settlements. Very shallow and deep pits equally occur. Thus, if one also reckons with the fact that the upper portion of features was destroyed by modern-day tillage, it may be hypothesised that even shallower pits had existed at the settlement. These may have been single purpose refuse pits that could not be used for storage. Two basic forms of deeper Sarmatian storage pits were observed at Kompolt. One of these two types was cylindrical, while the other beehive-shaped. Both the shapes and proportions of the pits excavated at the Kompolt-Kistér site were different from those of the beehive-shaped storage pits observed at other Sarmatian settlements. They are shallower and their lower broadening portions used for storage are also much smaller. 3 1 A similar observation could be made at Újhartyán and Gyoma 133. The height of the lower, broad portion of storage pits was significantly smaller than their cylindrical, upper shaft. 3 2 This may be, indirectly, indicative of the fact that relatively small quantities of crops were accumulated in storage pits. Only a few pits at Kompolt had special niches cut into their cylindrical walls. Ten Roman Period wells came to light at this settlement. Five Sarmatian wells were recognised at Gyoma 133, while none of them were found at Újhartyán. Nine of the Kompolt wells were of cylindrical shape, while one had an oblong ground plan (Feature 158). This latter was discovered within the workshop area. 3 3 Only one of the wells at Gyoma 133 had a downwardly narrowing shaft. Four others were characterised by a round or oblong outline on the surface, then their walls ran steeply down to a deeper surface where a more-or-less horizontal floor surface was formed. The rectangular shaft of the well was dug further down from this level. 3 4 Such step-like well forms did not occur at the Kompolt settlement. On the other hand, it is noteworthy that the site of Gyoma 133 was established on sandy soil. It is possible that the wall of the well's shaft collapsed, or at least threatened with a collapse, therefore the settlement's inhabitants cleaned the feature and reinforced its walls in the upper portion with a lining of wood. The water, however, was taken from a level further below. 35 Such measures may have not been necessary at Kompolt, since this settlement had occupied an area characterised by a firmer, obdurate type of soil. The wells were also put to secondary use as is shown by the stratigraphy and find material in their fills. Four of the wells contained but a small number of Roman Period artefacts from the Barbaricum. There was no metric similarity between these wells, the areas of their shafts as well as their volumes measured down to the water level were different. Their sizes also vary from small to large. The uppermost fills in the shafts of six other Sarmatian wells also contained Roman import and Avar Period sherds, in addition to the aforementioned Roman Period finds from the Barbaricum. 3 6 Given the small number of samples, it is not possible to decide, whether it is by pure chance that they also contained Roman import artefacts. Should these occurrences be non-random, they may be of help in identifying the latest wells in the Roman Period settlement, used as secondary refuse pits during the Avar Period. When the artefacts recovered from these features are used in terminus post quem dating, they may be indicative of the Roman Period abandonment of these wells. It is noteworthy, however, that the distribution of Avar Period materials is uneven in these wells. With one exception (Feature 157) the number of Sarmatian finds is, in absolute terms, significantly higher than in the other group of wells. When conclusions are based on the quantity of Avar finds in the fill of wells, 3 7 it seems that three of the wells (Features 111, 115 and 145) were shallower, that is, pit-like during the Avar Period. Wells recorded as Features 20, 69 and 158, on the other hand, were significantly deeper at that time. This picture, based on the
