ArcheoBudaPest 2020/31

Keywords: Roman Age, stray finds, Modern Period, settlement

Between November 21, 2019 and March 18, 2020, archaeological monitoring was conducted at Budapest District XII, 44 Alkotás Street, during earthworks related to the waterproofing renovation of Building A10 at the University of Sports Science.

During the excavation of utility trenches south of Building A10, a 50–100 cm thick humus layer was observed beneath modern fill, with yellow clay subsoil underneath. In the middle of the courtyard, a gray clay pit cut into the trench, which, based on stratigraphy, is no earlier than the Modern period; no artifacts were recovered from it. Other modern-period pits were also visible, from which animal bones and modern pottery fragments were collected. From the humus layer, a faint reddish-burnt Roman-period pottery fragment was found as a stray find. Further east, the number of pits filled with recent waste increased. In some places, modern and more recent bricks were mixed into the yellow clay, likely due to previous landscaping activities that disturbed the stratigraphic layers.

West of the building, a trench for a drainage pipe was excavated, extending south from the northwest corner. In the approximately 3-meter-deep trench, beneath the road and roadbed, a 7–10 cm thick blackish fill layer was present, followed by yellow clay subsoil, with groundwater appearing at the trench bottom. Several pits could be observed in the upper ~1 meter section of the subsoil, with the first one at the northern corner containing a fragment of modern pottery in the west–east profile wall. In the section corresponding to the northern wing of the building, five such pits were documented, spaced fairly evenly, while further south, three more pits appeared at somewhat wider intervals. On the eastern wall of the trench, these were visible over a width of about 70–100 cm, while on the western side they narrowed into smaller patches.

Contributors: Mónika Kurunczi (archaeologist)

Mónika Kurunczi