Celtic Settlements

Ménfőcsanak a kelta vándorlás egyik kulcsfontosságú lelőhelye Győr közelében. Ez Magyarország, de talán a teljes Kárpát-medence legnagyobb felületen és legteljesebben kutatott késő vaskori települése. Közelében az azonos korú temető több száz sírja is feltárásra került, köztük olyanok is, amelyek mellékleteik alapján egyértelműen a Kr. e. 4. század első felére datálható kelta népmozgással hozhatók összefüggésbe. A lelőhely jelentősége a kelet-magyarországi Sajópetrihez mérhető; a Ménfőcsanakon napvilágra hozott leletanyag feldolgozása és elemzése jelenleg is folyik. Ez a könyv a Győr–Ménfőcsanak határában, a Szeles-dűlőben, a mai 83-as számú út és a mellette létesült bevásárlóközpont területén 1993–1998 között végzett régészeti feltárásokon napvilágra került késő vaskori település leletanyagának bemutatását és tudományos értékelését tartalmazza. A kötetben tárgyalt kutatási eredmények által átfogó képet kapunk egy falusias jellegű késő vaskori településről, vagyis a kelták mindennapi életének színteréről – Sajópetri és Polgár után – a Dunántúlon is.

Ménfőcsanak near Győr is the largest excavated late Iron Age settlement complex in Hungary. Its contemporaneous cemetery has also been brought to light, featuring burials with grave goods that connect the site to the Celtic migrations in the first half of the 4th century BC. This site’s relevance is comparable to that of Sajópetri in East-Hungary, and the enormous assemblage unearthed from here is still being processed and analysed. This book presents the findings from the late Iron Age settlement excavated on Szeles Hill at Ménfőcsanak in 1993–1998, providing a comprehensive view on a rural settlement in Transdanubia in the late Iron Age. The book includes a detailed summary in English as well as English captions for the tables and images.

The village Komjatice is situated in the SW Slovakia in the district of Nové Zámky, in the territory of the Nitra Region, between the cities of Nitra and Šurany. During several rescue excavations, between 1977 – 1979 a part of the La Tène settlement was explored in the site “Kňazova jama”. The exploration outcomes, as well as the required material, have not been systematically processed yet. 6 sunken pits and one cultural pit were identified. The huts represented a classical middle La Tène type settlement with two-pole construction and a bench along one of longer walls. From the features´ backfill a relatively large amount of material was obtained, especially pottery (2358 fragments in total, weighing 74.8 kg). Small items and other artefacts were found only sporadically, in the form of small iron (mostly difficult to determine) fragments, clay whorls, fragments of bracelets from sapropelite and glass, whetstones and clay weights. The pottery set contained, based on the way of production, groups of pottery produced manually and on the wheel. In all features pottery made on the wheel prevailed. As for the forms, there are mainly bowls with s-shaped profile and bowls with tapering mouth. Soft rounded profile prevails, and no single case of smoothed ornaments is represented in decoration. Alongside the bowls, more numerous occurrences were also determined for the pottery containing graphite, especially situlas and situlate pots decorated on the surface by horizontal combing. The manually made pottery was typical for its biconical and hemispherical pots and bowls with rounded or flat profile. In some cases they were decorated by plastic ornaments. Ceramic forms and types of decoration are very typical for the middle La Tène. Based on the absence of younger elements, such as oblique and metope-like combing, or painted pottery, it is impossible to confirm a longer life of any of the explored features. Bowls with slightly rounded profile and the absence of smoothed ornaments do not permit confirmation of their longer existence than the close of the LTC1. Such dating is confirmed also by the accompanying, chronologically more sensitive, material, i. e. a fragment of iron coil spring which probably corresponds to the middle La Tène scheme type of brooch, dated to the LTC1a – LTC1b – c. Moreover, the finds of two sapropelite bracelets, whose most frequent occurrence in the vicinity of Nitra can be determined between the stages LTC1 – C2 (Březinová 2005, 24). Beyond settlement contexts, also two finds of circular jewel made of glass come from the location. Both are dated within the LTC1 stage.

Studie byla publikovaná v knize ,, Dürrnberg und Manching: Wirtschaftsarchäologie im ostkeltischen Raum : Akten des internationalen Kolloquiums in Hallein / Bad Dürrnberg vom 7. bis 11. Oktober 1998" vydané v Bonnu roku 2002. The study was published in the book "Dürrnberg und Manching: Wirtschaftsarchäologie im Ostkeltischen Raum: Act of International Colloquiums in Hallein / Bad Dürrnberg vom 7. bis 11. Oktober 1998", published in Bonn 2002. ISBN 3-7749-3027-9.

Karcsa is located in the Bodrogköz near to the Hungarian-Slovakian border, in an area not very well known
to Iron Age research. During the probe excavations of the Hungarian National Museum in 1999, a Late Iron
Age settlement feature was found from which ceramic fragments and a piece of a broken currency bar came
to light. Beside the well-known Celtic and Scythian components, a new element could be defned based on
the ceramic fnds, the origins of which reach beyond the Northern Carpathians.

Polgár 1:Iron Age settlement (3 rd century BC). The Celtic settlement at Polgár was an open rural settlement. This type is generally considered to have agricultural features, which, however, cannot be supported by finds. On the contrary, the clay tuyere found in feature no. 100 and the soot layer that covered the floor of building no. 318 attest to industrial activities. The composition of the find material shows an absolute dominance of pottery sherds. According to the analysis, pottery vessels that can be linked with the so-called Scythian autochthonous population of the Great Hungarian Plain can also be found beside La Tène ceramic types. Accordingly, the survival of the former population and its amalgamation with the immigrant Celts can be supposed. This find situation is basically identical to the archaeological picture of the settlement uncovered at Sajópetri. This is reinforced by the fact that both settlements were established in the LT B2 period and both were peacefully abandoned by the inhabitants in the LT C1 period.

The village Komjatice is situated in the SW Slovakia in the district of Nové Zámky, in the territory of the Nitra Region, between the cities of Nitra and Šurany. During several rescue excavations, between 1977 – 1979 a part of the La Tène settlement was explored in the site “Kňazova jama”. The exploration outcomes, as well as the required material, have not been systematically processed yet. 6 sunken pits and one cultural pit were identified. The huts represented a classical middle La Tène type settlement with two-pole construction and a bench along one of longer walls. From the features´ backfill a relatively large amount of material was obtained, especially pottery (2358 fragments in total, weighing 74.8 kg). Small items and other artefacts were found only sporadically, in the form of small iron (mostly difficult to determine) fragments, clay whorls, fragments of bracelets from sapropelite and glass, whetstones and clay weights. The pottery set contained, based on the way of production, groups of pottery produced manually and on the wheel. In all features pottery made on the wheel prevailed. As for the forms, there are mainly bowls with s-shaped profile and bowls with tapering mouth. Soft rounded profile prevails, and no single case of smoothed ornaments is represented in decoration. Alongside the bowls, more numerous occurrences were also determined for the pottery containing graphite, especially situlas and situlate pots decorated on the surface by horizontal combing. The manually made pottery was typical for its biconical and hemispherical pots and bowls with rounded or flat profile. In some cases they were decorated by plastic ornaments. Ceramic forms and types of decoration are very typical for the middle La Tène. Based on the absence of younger elements, such as oblique and metope-like combing, or painted pottery, it is impossible to confirm a longer life of any of the explored features. Bowls with slightly rounded profile and the absence of smoothed ornaments do not permit confirmation of their longer existence than the close of the LTC1. Such dating is confirmed also by the accompanying, chronologically more sensitive, material, i. e. a fragment of iron coil spring which probably corresponds to the middle La Tène scheme type of brooch, dated to the LTC1a – LTC1b – c. Moreover, the finds of two sapropelite bracelets, whose most frequent occurrence in the vicinity of Nitra can be determined between the stages LTC1 – C2 (Březinová 2005, 24). Beyond settlement contexts, also two finds of circular jewel made of glass come from the location. Both are dated within the LTC1 stage.