Construction of H2Offices Office Building
Site ID: 85709
Keywords: Migration Period, Late Avar, settlement, house
Between August 13 and November 17, 2020, archaeological monitoring and associated excavation were conducted on the property at 23–27 Váci Road, District XIII, Budapest (plot no. 28199/2) in connection with the H2Offices development project. As part of the project, the former buildings of the Budapest Waterworks were demolished, and new office buildings are being constructed in multiple phases.
The area is of significant archaeological importance. In 2019, Dávid Kraus identified a new archaeological site nearby at 61–63 Dózsa György Road, where prehistoric settlement features were discovered.
The current project affected an area of 68 m², all of which proved archaeologically positive.
On August 18, 2020, during topsoil removal under the western ramp of Phase I, archaeological features were uncovered (Fig. 1). Excavation revealed a semi-subterranean house with a stone-lined oven in its northeast corner. The positions of roof-supporting posts were also identified within the house. Based on the ceramic fragments, the structure can be dated to the Migration Period, more precisely to the Late Avar period (Figs. 2–4). An incised spindle whorl was also found in the fill of the structure. The feature was already visible at a level of 102.4 above Baltic Sea level.
In the northeastern part of the plot, where the archaeological feature was discovered, a fill layer of approximately 2–2.5 meters covered a humus layer of varying thickness (30–120 cm). The archaeological remains began in the humus and extended through the brown-yellow mottled subsoil into the underlying yellow, sometimes grey, natural soil.
No archaeological features were found during additional earthworks on the western side of the plot. The concrete foundations of the previous building complex had disturbed the subsoil to several meters’ depth, and in some places even the humus layer had been removed. However, in the northwestern corner of the plot, the probable trace of a former watercourse was observed (Fig. 5).
Archaeological supervision of the earthworks associated with Phase I of the development at 23–27 Váci Road was completed on November 17, 2020. However, archaeological supervision remains essential for the upcoming phases, as further features are expected, particularly on the northeastern and eastern parts of the plot.
Contributors: Boglárka Mészáros (lead archaeologist), Dávid Kraus (archaeologist), Anna Nagy (archaeological field technician), Levente Virágh (archaeological field technician), István Fábián (surveyor), Tibor Kovács (surveyor)
Boglárka Mészáros