The Gepid Period row cemetery at Tiszaug-Országúti bevágás was unearthed in 2018–2019.
Grave 301 was one of the outstanding burials amongst the 194 graves unearthed thus
far. It kept the remains of a 9–11-year old boy, who was laid to rest in a scale-down
burial created according to the funerary customs of the area and era but dressed in
a mortuary costume and provided with goods befitting adult men. He had a purse hanging
from his belt, containing an iron knife, and some pieces of flint. A double-row antler
comb was placed beside his head. A cast copper alloy belt buckle with a shield-shaped
pin base and punch-mark decoration fastened his clothing on the front. While buckles
of this type were widely used at that time, the closest analogies to the punch-mark
decoration could be collected from the Carpathian Basin. Based on those, the burial
could be dated to the mid or late 6 th century AD. Another outstanding feature of
the cemetery was the four burials (including Grave 301) where the deceased were laid
to rest in coffins made from or imitating log boats. Grave 301 also contained a rounded
conical ivory object. The optical microscope and vibration spectroscopy analyses confirmed
the initial hypotheses of the finders about the raw material of the artefact. Despite
carrying out a comprehensive survey for analogies and an analysis of production and
use-related marks, we could not determine what the object could have been used for;
it may be a semifinished product, but it could also be a toy or amulet. At any rate,
it was made from a raw material
which was extremely rare in the eastern part of the Carpathian Basin in the period
in question. Grave
301 was positioned in a cluster comprising more child burials, with the graves of
two adult women at
the fringes; the ongoing archaeogenetical investigations may shed light on the connections
between
them.
