Roman Cemeteries of Aquincum, Pannonia by Judit Topál / The Western Cemetery (Bécsi Road) II. / Aqvincvm Nostrvm / Budapest Historical Museum 2003 / Paperback

Paperback 2003

ISBN: 9789639340190  /  978-9639340190

ISBN-10: 9639340197

PAGES: 321

PUBLISHER: Budapest Historical Museum

LANGUAGE: English / Angol

English Summary:

The present report contains the second part of the western cemetery of Aqvincvm mili-tary town situated along the present Becsi road of Budapest.(Fig.1-2). More than 300 graves will be discussed here belonging five separated medium-sized graveyards. (From north to south: Nr. V, IV, III, II and I, see fig. 3-4). This report is, for the most part (just as the former one) is based on the rescue excavat-ing work of the author in the years 1980, 83, 85, 87, 1991 and 1995. Some of the graves in the graveyards Nr. I and II were unearthed in the 1890's, 1912 and in 1936 by L. Nagy and J.Szilagyi. The system of description: grave number (Arabic), rite of the burial, age and sex of the deceased (when possible), grave-goods with inventory numbers (all of the items can be found in the Roman collection of the Museum Aqvincvm). Measurements will not be given for sake of economy, they can be readily seen on the scaled drawings ,- the measurements of the grave-spots and the depth of the grave-pits (above the Adriatic or Baltic level) as well. The upper edge of the plates of drawings always corresponds to north, therefore alignment will be given in case of inhumations only. We used a compass of 64 points where each point means the same direction: the first number indicates the skull.

Types of the burials. Cremations (C)  Cl burnt, plastered grave-pits. C2 burnt, unplastered grave-pits C3 unburnt, unplastered grave-pits. C4 bustum grave (in situ cremation). C5 pseudo-urn grave: the cremated bones together with the remains of the funeral pyre (rogvs) were put into a wooden box, leather or textile bag/covering. C6 urn burial: the calcined bones were selected from the remains of the rogvs and were put some sort of pottery vessels. C7 tegulae (roof tiles) chamber in which the calcined bones together with the remains of the rogvs were deposited in the grave-pit. C8 grave-pit with stone packing which covered the scattered ashes.
Inhumations (I) Il simple pits with extended skeletons. 12 simple pits with croached skeletons. 13 coffin made of stone slabs. 14 tegulae coffin made of roof-tiles or bricks or both. 15 wooden coffin 16 immured grave chamber. 17 sarcophagus.

The numbers of the grave-goods coincide mainly with those of the drawings and the photopages. We give dimensions (mostly in cms) only in those cases where the object could not acceptably be represented on the plates . We describe the material, colour (by Munsell Soil Color Chart, 1975) and present condition of the grave-goods (e.g. secondarily burnt, etc.) only, other attributes can be seen on the drawings.