ArcheoBudaPest 2020/10

Keywords: Prehistory, Bronze Age?, Neolithic, layer finds, Roman Age, settlement, building

Between March 25 and July 21, 2020, archaeological monitoring was conducted by the Budapest History Museum in connection with earthworks related to a planned apartment building at 35 Ürömi Street, District II. The plot lies within the area of the Roman military town rising from east to west, with a break in its middle section. In 2007, preventive excavation was carried out by Krisztián Anderkó at the adjacent property (37 Ürömi Street), during which Roman building remains were discovered (Anderkó 2008).

From that excavation, it was determined that the walls of the structure extended southward beneath plot no. 35. As a result, full-surface excavation was prescribed. However, because pile foundations were planned for the new building, excavation was permitted only in the locations of the pile foundations, which significantly complicated the archaeological work. (Fig. 1)
Permission was granted for the excavation of a section along the northern strip of the property in order to identify the continuation of the walls discovered beneath the neighboring structure. As a result, a wall corner was documented at the eastern end of the area at an elevation of 112.20 a.B.S.l., consisting of northeast–southwest and northwest–southeast oriented wall segments. (Fig. 2) In the central zone of the site, due to the upward slope, another presumed Roman wall segment running northwest–southeast was found at a higher elevation of 113.60 a.B.S.l.. (Fig. 3)

The walls had been inserted into a dark-colored prehistoric subsoil. Further excavation of the trench toward the west and full investigation of the revealed walls was not possible due to the structural risk posed to the adjacent building, and thus the excavation was halted. The work was subsequently continued with the construction of the pile foundations.
Out of the 38 planned pile foundations, three would have impacted the identified walls; these were repositioned accordingly. In the western part of the site, up to the line formed by the two topographic breaks of the plot, several meters of modern, debris-filled backfill were encountered during every pile excavation. This fill was interpreted as the former basement infill of a previous building on the site, suggesting that the archaeological stratigraphy had likely been destroyed during earlier construction.

In contrast, in the eastern section of the site, a dark brown prehistoric subsoil was observed at approximately 2 meters below the current ground level in several places, with variable thickness. Very few finds were recovered, but in addition to Roman-period material, ceramic fragments possibly from the Bronze Age, and the Neolithic period were also collected.

No architectural remains were identified within the pile foundations. It is possible that the exposed wall corner marked the edge of a building, or that no piles were placed along the alignment of the remaining walls. The next phase of construction involved the implementation of beam foundations. These did not reach the depth of the previously discovered walls, and no archaeological features were encountered during their creation. In the western area of the site, the beam foundations ran exclusively through the debris fill, making archaeological observation unnecessary.

Contributors: Fanni Fodor (archaeologist), Noémi Fuchsz (archaeologist), Tibor Kovács (surveyor)

Fanni Fodor