Szentkirály - The small girl, the old lady, and the headless man

The site of Szentkirály–Szolnoki Road has been known since the 1970s when Late Avar Period graves were disturbed during the building of a channel. Elvira H. Tóth visited the site; she collected the large strap end of a belt, a bronze bracelet, and human bones from the workers but conducted no excavation. The related cemetery was only localised in the autumn of 2023 during the archaeological monitoring of the construction of an agricultural storage facility. The soil stains of seven graves from the Late Avar Period (8th century) became visible in the foundation pit of the building.
The soil stains of the NW–SE-oriented graves arranged in regular rows could already be discerned at a relatively low depth, -0.4 m. They likely represent the edge of the cemetery, which continues north of the excavation area. Women had been laid to rest in five of them and men in two. Four burials included coffins, and several featured the postholes of some wooden grave structure. All but one burial was undisturbed: a shaft was dug in the chest and head area of a man, but the ‘plunderers’ only removed the head with some of the uppermost vertebrae and left the rest of the skeleton intact. Whether the skull was removed in context with some superstition or in search of valuable items has remained a question.
The remains of food offerings were found by the shoulder and arm of many deceased: mostly animal bones, in two cases pottery vessels. A pile of eggshells was discovered right to the skull of a young girl (Grave 9); originally, the eggs were probably placed in a basket in the grave. The mortuary attire included jewellery (earrings, bead necklaces, a bracelet, finger rings), clothing accessories (belt buckles) and personal utensils (iron knives and spindle whorls). All belts, of both men and women, were fastened by simple iron buckles, and the iron knives were worn on the left side. The spindle whorls were placed next to the left elbow of the women. All women were interred with a simple or a more ornate bead pendant earring; the most beautiful one is the pair from Grave 3, with a hoop with ‘rays’. The typical neck jewellery was a necklace strung of melon seed beads. Men were interred with fewer items on average: iron knives, belt buckles, a few beads, and a single bronze earring have been recovered from their graves.
The anthropological analysis of her remains has revealed that the 45–50-year-old woman in Grave 5 suffered from leprosy, which caused lesions on her bones; based on the traces, the inflammation affected mainly her face and extremities. The edge of the nasal cavity widened as the bone started to be resorbed; besides, inflammatory lesions could be observed on the bones of the feet, the shinbones, and the fibulas. The grave of the seriously ill woman did not differ or was separated from the rest: she was treated in death like any other member of the community.