Strings of pits along the Big Ditches

In some parts of the settlements, rows of pits accompanied the Eastern and Western ditches. These features, approximately identical in size (1–1.2 m in diameter), could serve defensive purposes as they were suitable for holding the large posts of a monumental timber-framed rampart.
What makes this interpretation unlikely is that the pits only follow the ditches in a relatively small section and that at some places, they appear on both sides of the ditch, which, from a strategic point of view, raises the question of who is in and who is out…
 If we omit defence from the possibilities, the next likely explanation is that the features were the storage pits of a relatively large group, who kept their produce at a dedicated place in an orderly way. Some pits contained the remains of killed animals (cattle) and people, which is another argument against them being part of a defensive structure; however, they were likely not used for storing anymore when the bodies were thrown into them. Based on the scarce find material of dating value they contained, the pits were established in the final phase of the Avar Period. The fact that 10th-century AD early Hungarian settlement features were also found along this section of the ditch and that they were seemingly positioned with consideration to the ditch raises the possibility that the people thrown into them were residents of the Avar village who tried to protect their homes from the arriving conquering Hungarians.
Similar, even if shorter, rows of pits were also found next to the Western Dich. The pits in this part were also dug along the ditch, about a metre apart; their depths were similar, and they barely contained any find material.
Next to the section of the Eastern Ditch where the pits accompanied it, several external furnaces were established later. The archaeomagnetic dating of these features revealed that they were used in the second half of the 9th century AD, after the generally accepted end of the Avar Period. This means that in contrast with the common belief that the Great Hungarian Plain became depopulated at the end of the Avar Period, preceding the arrival of the conquering Hungarians, life in this settlement certainly continued.