Szalkszentmárton - A lonely horse burial by the Danube

Field walking surveys were conducted in October 2015 related to the expansion of a gravel quarry in a bay of the Danube at Szalkszentmárton. That the area was inhabited since the Bronze Age became certain in a short time as the mining disturbed urn graves; thus, the earthworks continued under archaeological monitoring. Features of several other archaeological periods – some Neolithic wells, two Bronze Age urn cemeteries, two Avar Period graves, and a low-intensity part of an Avar settlement – were brought to light.
The two N–S-oriented Avar Period graves were far from each other; both the low-intensity burial ground and the orientation are characteristic of the 6th–7th-century Avar groups of steppe origin. One of the deceased was provided with only a brownish-yellow pottery vessel, but the other grave abounded with finds. It had a sidewall niche opening from the bottom of the main shaft, where the deceased was slotted in. The 23–39-year-old man had oriental features; his mortuary clothing included two mount-decorated belts and a sword with a ring-shaped pommel placed by his left hand. The belts were adorned with silver and gold sheet mounts with copper alloy backplates. The man was a member of the first Avar generation to arrive in the Carpathian Basin, who died in the first decades of the 7th century AD. His attire is similar to the ones observed in the exceptionally rich graves at Kunbábony and Bócsa.
The partial remains of a flayed, harnessed horse were discovered in the main shaft of the grave, proving that sacrificing the animal and consuming its meat were part of the funerary ritual due to such an elite member of society. The remains consisted of the leg bones and skull of the animal, which had been left in the folded hide placed into the grave. Iron arrow points and the bone plates of a recursive bow were found next to the animal’s remains. The burial, in a grave pit with a sidewall niche and with a partial horse offering, is unique in the Danube–Tisza Interfluve, as the custom is closely related to the communities of Eastern European steppe origin inhabiting the Trans-Tisza Region at the time.
The adult man had clearly Asian features. His paternal DNA (Y-chromosome) belongs to haplotype N1a1a1a1a characteristic of both Avars and conquering Hungarians. The condition of the sample was too poor for further analyses, so the man could not be linked with other elite persons from the Danube–Tisza Interfluve. His maternal DNA (mitochondrial haplogroup C46b) was widespread in eastern Asia. His genome had a predominant (~70%) eastern steppe component and a mixture of genetic patterns pointing towards the Pontic Region, Kazakhstan, and the Carpathian Basin. He likely had fair skin and light eyes, but his hair was certainly not ashen or light blonde; the available genetic information is too fragmented to specify his pigmentation.