SACRIFICE CAULDRON UNCOVERED : EURASIAN STEPPE CULTURE of ANCIENT HUNS : MOUND BURIAL BUILDERS

MKI GOV HUNGARY : SACRIFICIAL CAULDRAN : ANCIENT HUNS  It's a rare, thousand year old cauldron, and it's also about diplomatic relations. 

Excerpt: When an excavation area is designated, there's no way of knowing what the burial sites are hiding.  But usually the chances of finding such a wonderful find are slim.  Indeed, after the fall of the Hun Empire, the Chinese emperors supported and sometimes even financed the looting of Hun graves.  On the one hand, they were after the gold and treasures, and on the other, they were seeking to eliminate scared sites that had played an important role in the identity of the people living there.  The imprint of this today is that almost all the Hun tombs are in plundered state.  That is why we had great luck with the excavation of the Asian Hun cemetery at Ar Gunti.  Here we found unmolested graves, and in one of them the amazing artefact we have just unpacked.

- Let me add,"the Ambassador resumes, "that these graves are easy to find and rob because the tombs are still visible on the surface, in the form of stone and earth piles that have been standing for thousands, sometimes two thousand years.

- Such burials were very common among the steppe peoples. From the Scythians to the Cumans it was customary that the more important the ruler, the more soil was brought to the tomb from distant parts of the empire, and the higher the mound was under which the ruler could rest in eternal sleep. We have such tombs in the area of Százhalombatta, for example. That's why the name of the town translates into English as 'hundred mounds' explained the Director-General.

SZAZHALOMBATTA BRONZE AGE TELL ARCHEOLOGICAL SITE : WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE PART OF THE DIG?

Százhalombatta : Oh this looks like a very interesting way to spend three weeks! 

SZAZHALOMBATTA BRONZE AGE TELL ARCHEOLOGICAL SITE

Finds from the site include pottery, daub, plaster, metalwork, moulds, loom weights, bone tools, antler objects, ground stone, lithics, amber, animal and occasional human bones. Many of the Bronze Age houses were burnt. This has resulted in outstanding preservation of organic material including botanical remains such as thatch from house roofs and Bronze Age food like crabapples, peas, beans and lentils. There is also worked wood and basketry. Thin section soil micromorphology, phytoliths, charcoal and coprolites add to the data from the site.

Excavation at the site is directed by Dr Magdolna Vicze (Hungarian National Museum), Professor Marie Louise Stig Sørensen (University of Cambridge), and Professor Joanna Sofaer (University of Southampton). Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Katharina Rebay-Salisbury, head of the University of Vienna team, is also our project partner.