 everybody and thank you very much for the possibility to be a part of this session. I will speak about the special deposits in rural settlements of the Hungarian kingdom from the 11th to the 14th century. This is more or less coincides with the time frame of the rule of the arpad dynasty. I say Hungary and Kingdom and not that all these deposits were made by Hungarians because naturally it was a multi-ethnic state and as you will see later in some cases it's possible to see some kind of deposits as ethnical markers of certain settlements. So the first such finds emerged already at the beginning of the archaeological investigation of rural peasant settlements in Hungary. These only started in the 1950s because before of that era archaeological research into medieval peasantry in Hungary was very sporadical before it all most of the researchers were concentrating on churches, religious buildings and royal castles and from the 1950s partly because of the ideological pressure from the socialist state it became important to start to deal with the material culture of the so-called working classes. All together it had a positive impact on the research. The first such finds were found by the forefather of this researcher Istanmeri. He was the first found rooster with a broken neck put into one of the post-holes of a medieval semi-subterranean dwelling house and he immediately identified it as a building deposit and unfortunately later on it became almost automatical if somebody found at a medieval ruler's settlement something which seems to be strange seems to be some kind of sacrifice it automatically became identified as a building deposit even if there were no traces of being a building at the site at all or and especially and sometimes even in cases when local people just came to the museum they carried a pot what they found there was a knife and some some bone fragments inside it and the archaeologists usually automatically presumed that it was also a building deposit which was not correct as you will see later for example this was the very case in the case of the Yasago find local people just just found this plot a few chicken bones and a few egg pieces were found inside it and especially in the case of Kestredobogu where no less than seven such pots were found there were no real traces of any building around them but Kari Shagi immediately suggested that there must have been some kind of superficial building which which left no traces and these were the building deposits belonging to them some of these finds are very wrongly documented they have just a few photos there is an egg as well it's very common to to have iron pieces inside the spots in in the in the case of the phoenix find arrowheads and knife parts and in this case a big nail and and sometimes there are blue pearls it's it's very rare but this this is a blue pearl nearby chicken bones and the bubble showcase it's interesting because a blue we have later ethnographical data that there were folk beliefs about that if you if you put up a blue pearl somewhere on you or on a little baby it can defend him from being cursed with a blue eyed but by a blue eyed witch so probably putting a blue pearl inside the the default could have a defending effect against the witches so for the main questions which arise by these definitions are that we first have to investigate that exactly what kind of items became deposited and can any kind of pattern or general customs we observe in their positioning inside the settlements or inside the houses if indeed they were found inside houses sometimes they were as we can see and what kind of archaeological and ethnographical parallels might be found uh exact archaeological parallels of this all of these customs outside the Carpathian basin are practically non-existent there will be one example I will deal with that at the very end of the presentation but the partial parallels naturally there are and I will speak about it to you and in the end the main question emerges what could have been the purpose or the purposes of such rituals because we will see even if formally two rituals seem to be identical from the archaeological remains their function their function can be can be still can be different yeah I I try to to collect the materials don't be frightened by this picture I will deal with the main things is that the most important thing that eggs are very common mostly mostly chicken eggs and chicken bones as well these most likely connect somehow with fertility beliefs there are very few cases but there are cases than bones of water birds or or in the back is even an egg of a spoon built that was found and it was suggested in that case that that it it even can have traces back to Bronze Age mythologies when the when the when the wall creation was from eggs of water birds perhaps it's it's a bit stretchy but but anyway the the eggs must must be the symbols of fertility and creation most of the sacrificed animals are either fans or roosters and but there are the there are unique cases which is which are difficult to explain I did not include it the rare the few years before excavated examples of the village of Canada because those seem to be very special and the very local thing because no no less than 14 pots were found inside several buildings and mostly several types of fishes and sometimes even frogs were were were inside those but those seem to be those are so unique inside the carapacean basin that that seem to be some kind of local part of some kind of local belief system which is which can be hardly identified anymore go back for a while here is another special case partially because you can be seen a part of a bedstone stones are also can be find sometimes just just just very small ones it has in my opinion the the usage of a bedstone can can have a connection also with the with the fertility of of earth this case is very interesting because even though it was found inside the building it was there was no additional hole back for it and neither was in in in any constructional part it was simply lying on the floor of the dwelling house so so the only explanation can be that that the that this special definition was was placed after the usage of the building was finished and it's possible that the ritual repealment was taken taking place when the locals left that place of the village here i we have sometimes very little data about the orientation of the findings compared to buildings or compared or or compared to the maps of the villages in the kings of sentiental polvo there were three finds and each of them were at the southwestern corner of the house it was their excavator on real polish told and she's most likely right that it it cannot be simply by chance so they they choose of the southwestern corner must must have had some some kind of meaning we do not know how but but later similar finds emerge there but also the southwestern or or western parts were used and such was the case as well in the above mentioned secondary definition of the general alpha and that if you look closely to the map of the cast head dovago site excavation just expand briefly so here here was the medieval village and all the and the the c and the e markers mark the location of the the definitions and this ditch most likely marked the border of the village but but the last houses were found here so in this case it's possible that the two definitions here which were not inside buildings one of them was just a part of best solid some charred crane inside it the the other is a company best solid bit again and again the nail inside it it's possible that these were some kind of board border guards here and together in the ditch these could have somehow guarded the the the settlement from the outside world the rich physically and these on a more on an on an other kind of magical level and I just put in these parallels even the they seem to be far stretching because they are from the middle then you region bronzy uh lake bronzy and larkinage settlement but the better traction has noticed that at numerous settlements there is also a pattern at the islandage settlement there that the inside the houses inside the post halls generally the also the southwestern corner was chosen for the definitions he he couldn't come up with the solution either and it's a completely different era and partially different region but the similarity of the of the custom is still astonishing it is a traction's data about the orientations so these are either southwestern orientations or or the exact opposite which is likely also isn't isn't just a coincidence it's it's just another interesting parallel from a biking gauge long hands very very very also the southwestern quarter was used just nearby the entrance for for a table of the detonation there's a different platform from Finland it's not visible but the egg egg pieces were also found nearby is the leap rose engulf which which was just at the southwestern corner of a huge building and it could be dated by c reporting to this era no back to to the question of the refluent processes here can be seen the John Paul of the case before the vessel was a thing that you can see that that it's it's literally on the on the floor and not inside the post hall which is which is here so there's there's no way that it was placed there after the building because nobody would just just go around it by by using the the house there are a few examples inside the Anglo-Saxon settlements of similar depositions which by the opinion of Helena Hammerow also show marks of the refluent processes so so so then most likely when the village side was both left they might not just live there sometimes the the the building houses but some kind of ritual might have been taken place together when several items were placed inside it this leads us to another interesting element the the placement of horse schools inside the buildings in in Hungary the first such horse school was found by islami as well and here this is you know and he rightly identified it that it might have been put to the top of a semi-subterranean building it it has very interesting links with with the migrant customs before christianization of the country because in the 19th between the 19th century hungarians horse burial was a common thing and as christianity arrived there are laws especially the laws of king saying that this is which which forbade the eating of horse meat most likely because it was a kind of pagan sacrifice if if one cut down horse and and he ate its meat and slowly the the horse burials disappeared from the christian cemeteries sometimes there are few few horse bones put inside christian graves but then it disappeared as well and the the the putting of of horse heads to the top of the semi-subterranean buildings of already christian people might have been a late remembrance of pagan worldview in some cases it's very interesting that's that's a different example here are the horse pieces of the horse horse school these horse schools sometimes rise very in a very intact station even though they are easily breakable so in my in my opinion it's it's it's also a possibility that these might have been as well placed there in as part of the rational process so when the when the village moved the house were was torn down they put down the horse school from the top but they didn't throw it away but but instead laid it down to the to the remains of the modern house there are a few ethnographical parallels to it especially in mongolia but but also amongst the cases nomadic steppe people like to preserve the head of beloved horses in case of the mongolians these sites are called oboe where where they keep the horse school and ensure respect to it sometimes by by by putting color strings after it and there are a few examples when in hangar even that the horse schools are not excavated inside buildings but inside separate pits and it's it's possible that these pits show the end of the life cycle of perhaps similar the the third part which part interconnects in the magical pots are dog sacrifices these these sometimes are are found just inside ditches but it's very common that in the filament of old ovens complete either complete or or or sometimes half-cutted dog skeletons can be found and i've included this case it's very interesting no less than four such vessels were found and into each one the skull of a beheaded dog was was was pushed into and and then in this case the question remains is that what what kind of belief systems could be to be connected to the dogs we have only one written source about the pagan era of the hangarians a letter of arbishop tailed mark he was an arbishop of south work and he brought a letter to the pope in which he was speaking about that who who bad people the moravians were because even though the moravians are formerly christians as he is telling they they allied with the hangarians and during these alliance they took oaths to to dogs wolves and other horrible things the more the the interesting part and it is not not if he was right about the moravians because naturally it's a political that he wants to explain the pope that why why it was the cause of the moravians and not that of him that the hangarian tried to be became so strong in the area but if but if there is some kind of truth behind it then it might be suggested that early hangar and of early hungarians they might have been accustomed to take an oath after either a wolf or a dog sacrifice and in case most likely the dog was was there instead of a wolf which must have been much more difficult to to carry to the place of the oaths but we have much more written evidence about the kumans or kipchaks other name whom have settled into the hungarian kingdom in in great numbers during the 13th century because of the Mongolian invasion on the Russian steppes and it's it's very well documented that among the kipchaks it was a common belief to adore wolves as gods and as well to make dog sacrifices we we know a very special case when the hungarian king Belodiforce made a marriage between his son prince stefan and a kipchak prince alizabeth that after the christian ceremony the dog was sacrificed as well because the the kipchaks wanted that it must have been made because it was part of their marriage customs so it's difficult to decide that if that if at a rural settlement remains of the dog sacrifice appear that can be connected to the kipchaks or is it just a later remembrance of previous hungarian pagan beliefs in the case of the of the triangular site the answer is easy because at the same site was was excavated the very ridge grave of a kuman chieftain so in that case it it it must have been the local kipchak people who sacrificed these goods business another example of rathomand it's an almost complete clay cauldron which was found inside the rathomand of a semi-subterranean building at Chonakport so all together in my opinion even though i i have not built the effort but the similar pots are sometimes found inside churches and even monastical buildings so in some cases they have they must play different roles but in the case of rural but in the case of rural settlements these must have been connected to the life cycle of such a settlement because there there is a time when the settlement leaves and later these settlements were were moving we we know it even from the royal laws because laws were made that about that how far hungarian village might go away from the church to to which it belongs because it was important that all the people had to go to the church every Sunday it's a early 20th century picture from from from Serbia from a moving wooden house but it it must have been similar the the more the the most important wooden material must have been collected from the houses and they moved them and sometimes perhaps returned and and such a sacrifice of so processes might have taken place both when the new settlement was created or either after it because these might have given to the land fertility because after the site of the of the previous village was was was grazed and then reused as agricultural territory and finally the village might have even returned so we can see that early medieval cyclic are agriculture just forced the presently to a theoretical movement and such depositional practices if they if they can be related to the periodical advent of the settlements could forth part of agricultural coast sacred fertility of the soil for the future and I love the most interesting part of our from outside Hungary to the left this was a found in Dalmatia in in Croatia and the publisher the Croatian artist Anton Milosović himself is on the opinion that that it must have been some kind of ethnography some kind of ethnographical influence from the Hungarian kingdom because he has found no power to it inside Croatia or Dalmatia these were fine then he said is very prestigious building as kind of a building sacrifice again a western pieces of egg and two and two vessels perhaps it's a perhaps it might be a stretch to to connect it to some kind of ethnical hunger and influence because even though the Hungarian king officially was the overlord or lord of the territory he lived very far away and it's and it's difficult to imagine that any kind of cultural influence of a peasant of Hungarian peasants might have influence on the on the coast of the Adriatic Sea so except the case of if it's if similar such finds will reappear I might not make that connection but it's interesting