The ceramic assamblage of the Avar cemetery at Dunaszentgyörgy (Tolna County, Hungary) in the light of archaeometry
Kreiter Attila – Skriba Péter – Bajnóczi Bernadett –Tóth Mária – Viktorik Orsolya – Pánczél Péter
Hadak útján. A népvándorláskor fiatal kutatóinak XXIV. konferenciája. Esztergom, 2014. november 4–6. Conference of young scholars on the Migration Period. November 4–6, 2014, Esztergom
MŐT Kiadványok 3.2 (2017) 21–102
DOI 10.55722/Arpad.Kiad.2017.3.2_02
A tanulmány a 2009-ben feltárt dunaszentgyörgyi avar kori temetőrészlet sírjaiból előkerült edények természettudományos vizsgálatának eredményeit tekinti át. A leletanyag összetétele a Délkelet-Dunántúlra jellemző sírkerámia legtöbb típusát magába foglalja, így a szerzőknek lehetőségük nyílt az egyes kerámiatípusok összehasonlítására, azok kapcsolatának, egymásra való lehetséges hatásának kutatására. A petrográfiai, XRD és XRF vizsgálatok számos alapadatot szolgáltattak a további kerámiakutatásokhoz.
Kulcsszavak: Délkelet-Dunántúl, avar kor, kerámia, petrográfia, műhelyek
The excavation of the cemetery (Dunaszentgyörgy-Kaszás tanya, RM-20) was carried out by Csaba Kálmán Kiss prior to the construction of the M6 Motorway in 2009. During the excavation 372 graves came to light representing the Middle and Late Avar periods. Approximately two-third or three-quar-ter of the cemetery was excavated. From the 372 graves, 75 contained ceramics. Altogether 82 ceram-ics came to light, 47.5% of which are fast-wheeled, 9.8% are slow-wheeled and 42.7% are hand-built. The ceramic assemblage represents all the vessel types that are characteristic of south-east Transdanubia. Therefore, possible relationships between each pottery types could be examined through the 74 samples which were selected for petrographic analysis. Petrographic analysis was supplemented by XRD analy-sis on 29 samples and by XRF analyses on 30 samples.
The results suggest that fast-wheeled grey, yellow and black vessels were made by specialists, proba-bly in workshops. Specialisation is indicated by the unified technology and raw material of each ceramic type. Vessels made by higher technological standards were also fired in higher temperatures (800–900 °C). The composition of black ceramics, showing sand and pebble tempering, may correlate with their functions since these were also used for cooking. XRF analysis shows that some of the fast-wheeled grey and black vessels may not have been made locally, these may have been imported.
Apart from the possibly non-local fabric group, other fabrics seem to cover the whole area of the cem-etery. This implies that ceramics were made in a similar manner for a long period; ceramics were made in similar qualities through several generations.
Slow-wheeled vessels represent a transition towards the fast wheel technique. Their technological relationship with fast-wheeled black vessels indicates that their fast-wheeled production was preceded by an ‘experimenting phase’.
Hand-built vessels were most probably made in households and no specialised production was iden-tified for this ceramic type. The majority of hand-built vessels belong to the first fabric group, in which fast-wheeled black and grey vessels are also present indicating that this raw material was also used by local workshops.
