Site IDs: 66154, 15635, 42729
Keywords: Early Modern Period, Modern Period, cemetery
Between January 23 and January 24, 2020, archaeological documentation work was carried out at the above address in connection with utility construction.
Our museum learned from the media that human bones had been discovered in the courtyard of Budapest’s City Hall. The workers on-site first notified the police, who, after conducting a site inspection, removed the human remains. We were only informed later, and by the time we arrived at the scene, the utility trench had already been fully excavated, and no human bones were visible.
According to the forensic expert, the remains belonged to individuals buried 50–100 years ago. However, field observations did not support this assumption, as the lowest layer of the trench – about 1.4 meters deep – where the bones were found, proved to be significantly older.
In the trench, which was approximately 20 meters long and 1.5 meters wide, a 20th-century levelling layer was present from the surface down to about 40–50 cm deep. Beneath this was a lime-mortar-rich layer. Below that, a layer with brick debris matching the material of the surrounding building indicated the relative date of construction. Beneath this, a 30–40 cm thick, yellowish-grey, heavily mixed layer was identified, from which fragments of human bones were uncovered along the entire length of the trench during cleaning of the trench wall. This made it clear that the previously found remains were not from an isolated grave, but rather part of a disturbed cemetery layer containing scattered human remains.
This layer – and the human remains within it – may have been deposited here during earthworks carried out before the construction of the Invalidus House (today the Mayor’s Office), during the levelling of the area. On the western side of the plot once stood an Ottoman-era place of worship, the so-called Szépmecset (‘Beautiful Mosque’), which was demolished in 1735. Although the mosque may have survived until the completion of the Invalidus House, the associated cemetery likely soon became part of a construction site.
It is unknown how many human bones may have been destroyed during the deepening of the utility trench. The larger bones that appeared in the media only became known because one of the workers arranged them into a “pirate symbol” (a skull with two crossed femurs underneath) at the edge of the trench – a gesture that prompted a conscientious security guard to call the police.
Contributors: Tamás Szolnoki (archaeologist)
Tamás Szolnoki – László Daróczi-Szabó