ArcheoBudapest 2020/07

Kulcsszavak: őskor, középső rézkor, kora bronzkor, középső bronzkor, magaslati település, ház

On March 18–19, 2020, we carried out an archaeological observation in connection with earthworks for the construction of a family house at the address mentioned above. During the machine excavation of the strip foundations of the residential building (45 m²), archaeological layers were encountered. The features documented in the section contained ceramics dated to the first half of the Middle Copper Age (4000–3800 BCE), as well as to the Early and Middle Bronze Age (2200–1500 BCE). These features were likely floor levels and collapse layers of houses, from which a small number of finds (ceramics, animal bones, daub) were recovered. The profile walls revealed alternating yellow clayey, brown humic, stony, and ash-charcoal layers. In the strip foundations and in the utility trench running northeast of the house, we were able to identify four probable house structures. In some areas, the archaeological layers started right from the surface (approx. 120 mBf), due to previous landscaping and cutting, while the subsoil generally appeared at a depth of 120–130 cm. The section of the water connection trench facing the street cut through an area already filled with modern humus. In this direction, a significant slope drop was observed, which may indicate a continuation of the enclosure ditch identified in 2015 in front of 6 Hegyfok Street (Kraus 2016).

The observed area lies outside the Bronze Age hilltop settlement’s enclosure ditch on Hegyfok Street, representing an outer part of the settlement not previously known, and its extent remains a subject of investigation. The Copper Age finds provide entirely new information about the site: their presence suggests that prehistoric settlement on the hilltop may have started before the previously assumed Early Bronze Age period. However, no intact features from this period could be identified.

Hegyfok Street and its surroundings represent a highly significant prehistoric hilltop settlement within Budapest, but its investigation is hampered by the fact that only small-scale, shallow earthworks are expected to be carried out in the near future.

Contributors: Dávid Kraus (archaeologist), Gábor Szilas (archaeologist), Balázs S. Szabó (archaeological field technician), Levente Virágh (archaeological technician)

Dávid Kraus