Sewer construction
Site ID: 85709
Keywords: Prehistory, settlement, layer finds
Between August 14 and November 29, 2020, archaeological monitoring of mechanical earthworks related to sewer reconstruction was carried out, during which stratigraphic material and sporadic prehistoric finds were recovered.
The earthworks were conducted in three sections: from the corner of Angyalföldi Road and Dózsa György Road to the corner of Kassák Lajos Street, between Tüzér Street and Lehel Road, and between Szabolcs Street and Vágány Street. The sewer line consisted of an open trench laying of a 1.20-meter-wide main pipe with depths varying between 1.30 and 4.3 meters, spanning 175 + 183 + 88 meters, supplemented by 1-meter-wide, 1.5–2-meter-deep trenches, partially drilled, for stormwater and sewage drainage from buildings. The work trenches were shored with boards.
Since the active soil layer generally began at depths of 130–170 cm, investigating the site posed challenges. Cross-sections of the trenches were manually cleaned and surveyed.
The pavement elevation of Dózsa György Road varied between 104.88 and 103.50 a.B.S.l. along the entire construction section. It was nearly horizontal between Angyalföldi Road and Szabolcs Street but started to slope toward Vágány Street due to a modern cut for the railway underpass.
During the monitoring, the stratigraphic sequence seen during the construction of the “E1 Strategic District Heating Pipeline Kispest–Angyalföld (2018)” project was encountered again. Supplementary observations were possible only where the sewer trench cut deeper into the soil layers than the heating pipeline ditch. The reconstruction involved dismantling a former brick sewer, installing fittings at the channel base, and installing manholes. The excavation pits for the manholes and the main pipeline dismantling exposed only the enclosing layers preserved on the cross-sections, but even these were disturbed by intersecting or parallel utilities.
The typical stratigraphic sequence of the section between Angyalföldi Road and Kassák Lajos Street, measured from the pavement level (104.39 a.B.S.l.), is as follows:
Road base, fill 100 cm; gray clayey sand fill 130 cm; yellow sand (with silting of modern debris particles) 170 cm; mottled transitional zone 190 cm; dark grayish-brown clayey sand 220 cm; light gray calcareous clayey sand 250 cm; river sand down to 300 cm depth.
The dark grayish-brown layer was overlain by yellowish-brown sand fill, deepening towards the Danube. The above stratigraphic sequence changed little southeastward, up to Tüzér Street.
Tüzér Street–Lehel Road section:
The stratigraphic levels in this section were uneven; beneath the fill, dark grayish-brown sand appeared directly, along with a thicker, shell-fragmented grayish-brown clayey layer. In the working pit of the manhole in front of buildings no. 138–142, the blurred outline of an archaeological feature was visible.
Stratigraphy of the section measured from the pavement level (103.97 a.B.S.l.): road base, fill –80 cm; dark yellowish-brown (with silting of modern debris particles) –100 cm; dark grayish-brown –120 cm; grayish-yellow sand –130 cm; gray clay –180 cm; light grayish-yellow silty sand –200 cm; light gray river sand –240 cm.
The prehistoric feature was observed in the southwest profile of the manhole’s working pit. It was likely originally circular, 60 cm in diameter, with its portion dug into the gray clay observed at a depth of 130 to –175 cm from the pavement (103.97 a.B.S.l.). Its outline was quite blurred.
Its fill: at the bottom, an 8 cm thick layer of dark gray sooty clay containing small, weathered animal bone fragments; above it, dark gray, looser sandy fill with shell fragments and charcoal particles. It was sealed by a dark grayish-brown layer.
Two fragments of prehistoric pottery with sandwich firing and coarse sandy temper were recovered from the lower sooty layer.
For a 35-metre-long stretch between Tüzér Street and Lehel Road, the trench for the district heating pipeline was only 1.20 m deep; thus, the sewer reconstruction data allowed for supplementing previous measurements down to the subsoil level.
Szabolcs Street–Vágány Street section:
Most of this section fell within the stretch of road descending toward the railway overpass. During the creation of the artificial terrain depression, the natural topsoil was deeply cut through; it was traceable for approximately 20 metres from the line of Szabolcs Street.
The observations made during this monitoring provided new data for the study of the peripheries of recently identified nearby sites (Szabolcs Street, 61–63 Dózsa György Road, Angyalföld section of the E1 district heating pipeline). Due to the nature of the construction and the limited extent of the examinable surface, it was not possible to recover additional sporadic material from the previously identified cultural layer.
The terrain intersected by the route remains varied, showing a mixture of minor elevations belonging to the Danube floodplain and infilled marshy, stagnant-water depressions, with material washed into the low-lying areas. It is not possible to determine which settlement remnant the prehistoric feature found between Tüzér Street and Lehel Road belonged to. Identified Neolithic and Copper Age settlements were uncovered at 61–63 Dózsa György Road.
Contributors: Gábor Gyenes (archaeological field technician)
Gábor Gyenes