New Results in the Topographic Research on the Early Iron Age Tumulus Cemetery at Érd-Százhalombatta (Kom. Pest / H)

Abstract

New Results in the Topographic Research on the Early Iron Age Tumulus Cemetery at Érd-Százhalombatta (Kom. Pest / H)

Located on the fringes of the eastern Hallstatt culture, the tumulus cemetery at Érd-Százhalombatta is one of the earliest identified archaeological sites in Hungary. The first map of the site was drawn in 1847; the number of mounds registered at the time (123) did not change substantially until the end of the 20th century. The aerial archaeological investigations began in 2001 and the magnetometer geophysical survey from 2012 led to the identification of 103 ring ditches, which probably mark the location of formerly undocumented Early Iron Age burials. The surveys indicate that the cemetery’s area covered at least 70 ha (instead of the once assumed 50 ha) and that its layout also differed from the previously reconstructed internal topography. Formerly, the cemetery had appeared to be made up of two large groups of tumuli, a reconstruction that can now be discarded in view of the closely-spaced ring ditches lying among the known tumuli. These ditches apparently encircled burial mounds of varying sizes – however, the possibility that they enclosed small graveyards cannot be ruled out either.