7,000-year-old artifacts were also unearthed during the development of the Debrecen-Füzesabony railway line
The modernization of the Debrecen−Füzesabony railway line 108 began in the spring of 2020. The project is a V-Híd Zrt. will be realized with a net value of more than HUF 65 billion.
During the work, among other things, in addition to the renovation of the existing 11.6-kilometer trail, the necessary corrections will be made on a length of nearly 3.6 kilometers. A second track between Debrecen and Tócvölgy stations is also being built. The construction will improve traffic in the North-West Economic Zone, which will also house the future BMW factory.
During the modernization of the Debrecen section of the railway line, between 2019 and 2021, experts from the Déri Museum in Debrecen carried out archaeological excavations and archaeological supervision at a total of five sites. The excavations Rita Deák is an archaeologist were conducted under the leadership of, with whom we talked about the behind-the-scenes of the process.
“An archaeological exploration team usually consists of four people: an archaeologist, a photography technician, a drawing technician, and a technician dealing with artifacts. In order to speed up the work, we worked with two teams, usually 20-30 people together with the manual earthworks”
– he explained at the beginning of the conversation.
Major investments take a long time, which includes the preparation of preliminary archaeological documentation. This includes a field trip, geophysical survey, literature collection, and a test excavation, during which research trenches 2 meters wide and 50 meters long are dug. Archaeological findings were already found in the project during the trial excavation in December 2019.
The area has been a known deposit for more than a century
In connection with the railway development, two specially protected archaeological sites were also affected. The Szántay and László mounds located on Lóskúti Street in Debrecen, which are prehistoric burial places, were already known a hundred years ago.
“In the parts designated for excavation, we remove the upper hum layer with mechanical earthwork, so that when we reach the yellow subsoil, the archaeological objects can be found. From then on, we only did manual earthwork, using a traditional spade and shovel”
– informed Rita Deák.
The contractor was responsible for preparing the areas to be excavated. In order to coordinate the works, the team of archaeologists and contractors constantly consulted with each other.
Among the areas, the site south of Tócóvölgy station, Debrecen-Lóskúti utca, called László-halom déli lába, in the center of which stands a specially protected archaeological object, László-halom. The Late Copper Age, nearly 5,000-year-old burial mound was not affected by the railway project, but around it lies an intensive, multi-era site of more than 1 hectare.
Archaeologists have found traces of ancient belief in God
Objects older than the pile, from the Neolithic period, nearly 7,000 years old, came to light from a pit located under the planned second pair of rails. Here they found extremely rich finds: chipped or polished stone tools, including many obsidian stone blades, large quantities of animal bones, tools made from animal bones, and fragments of ceramic vessels.
“A small object shaped like a human foot made of clay stands out among all of them, which may have been the foot of a statue of a small ancient deity or the foot of an altar made for him. also worth mentioning is an object made of bone, decorated with polishing, which could be worn around the neck as an amulet.”
Traces of settlement from the Iron Age (middle of the 8th-1st century BC) were also found at the site.
Coordination of the work of the contractor and the archaeologist in the excavation of the Sarmatian tomb
In addition to prehistoric artefacts, objects from the Sarmatian population were also found. The horse-nomadic people of Iranian origin lived in most of the Great Plain at the same time as the Romans. AD 3-4 The 19th-century finds consisted of high-quality gray, disc-shaped vessels, animal bone, metal objects, and burnt clay, also known as apothecaries. This population traded with the Roman people living on Transdanubia, so Roman artefacts characteristic of them also occur, including Roman coins and coins. terra sigillata, which is in keeping with the luxury ceramics of the period.
Several burials have been found from this era. One of them was a young woman, who was buried next to her, among other things, a whole, undamaged vessel, a bronze fibula (a pin for clothes of Roman origin – Ed.), two silver plates, a spindle button and pearls.
The excavation manager highlighted: “I consider the location of the young Sarmatian woman’s grave, which we found right at the foot of the railway embankment, very important.”
Then he added: “In addition to the excavations, we carried out expert archaeological supervision. The contractor’s representatives said that if an area where there was no known archaeological site was cleared with mechanical earthworks, no excavation was required. The staff of the museum will inspect the given area where construction has already taken place. We discovered this grave and many other archaeological objects during such expert supervision. Excavating and documenting the grave took one day. I think it is important to highlight this, considering that the burial and the objects recovered from it would have been lost without it, so the construction of the railway did not have to be suspended because of it.”
The amount of found material can be estimated at nearly a hundred bags. Most of these are ceramic fragments, which the restorers will work on. It is very rare to find an intact vessel.
The processing of the found material can even take years
After the excavation of the pit is completed, the objects are packed, transported to the storage base and cleaned. The dating is – if possible – already carried out during the excavation, the pieces in question are determined after the restoration. The objects then go to the restorers. The completed items are then cataloged and placed in the warehouse.
“Usually only the outstanding finds make it to the exhibition, for example we carry out natural science tests on the other pieces. If we are lucky, we can also find traces of food remains. We know from international examples that even prehistoric recipes can be compiled from these, and it turns out what our ancestors ate 7,000 years ago.”
There will be an exhibition here, then it will take place in the Déri Museum.
Finally, turning to the challenges of the excavation, Deák Rita said that:
“In the case of the weather, only the rain causes minor or major disruptions. In one case, we had to wait a few days, while the approx. A 2-meter-wide, but several 100-meter-long excavation section has dried up, as it turned into a river as a result of a previous storm. A bigger problem was caused by the wires and cables located next to the railway track, which in many cases disturbed the archaeological objects.”