Archaeological Investigation in the Area of the Rác Bath

Hungarian Archaeology 2018/Winter, 2018

The Roman Period ruins of Aquincum, still visible in many places, are the first to come to mind when thinking about archaeological remains in the 3rd district of the capital, i.e., Óbuda. Besides these, sites of numerous archaeological cultures from every major historical period are known in this quite varied and diverse landscape. The settlements in most of the cases form clusters in geographical locations providing the most favorable conditions for inhabitation, thus creating archaeological sites where the records of individual periods are often found layered atop one another. The archaeological excavations and monitoring work on these sites, carried out during the past years by the Budapest History Museum, were in several cases completed by interdisciplinary, environmental archaeological examinations either as part of the excavations or in independent projects. In our brief report we would like to present the latest results of our research performed on three multilayer prehistoric sites in Óbuda.

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2015

The Aerial Archaeological Archive of the Institute for Archaeological Sciences of the Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest has been created in 1993. It’s activity is characterised by four important programs:- 13 years of aerial archaeological research (until 2000 in the cadre of the Hungarian-French archaeological co-operation).- Exploration and mapping of aerial archaeological sites, which has been done parallel to the other activities.- Processing of the data obtained from the 768 aerial archaeological sites discovered until 2006. The processing of the systematised archive has begun in two directions: we make the interpretations for the important sites and we prepare the geographical transformations of the aerial photos (if possible) and – principally in the case of settlements- we conduct intensive field surveys to control them.- Cataloguing of earthwork fortifications, tell settlements and tumuli, which has been greatly supported by photographical surveys. This surveys can revea...

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Aquincumi füzetek 11., pp. 101-106.

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In Part One, we have outlined the evaluative system and preparation of preliminary archaeological documentation (henceforth: PAD), as well as the methodological possibilities of site-detection and analysis. In this part, we are going to address the difficulties due to professional, legal and other limitations, as well as failures resulting from these limitations or from other (subjective) factors. Nonetheless, we are on the opinion that the provision of preventive archaeology met the expectations set by legal regulations: heritage services prior to large-scale investments became plannable. Additionally, the results of excavations subsequent to the preparation of archaeological assessments significantly increased our knowledge on the potential archaeological sites, instigating several debates and considerations concerning methodological and theoretical aspects of archaeological prospection and site detection. DIFFICULTIES AND FAILURES The greatest difficulty in preparing PADs is when investigations substantiated by professional arguments cannot be carried out, or only partially. In Part One (Reményi, 2019), we outlined the practice of field-walking , and the limitations of aerial reconnaissence and geophysical surveys: field walking and aerial reconnais-sence are ineffective in built-up areas, or when the vegetation period is not suitable for observations to be made. The effectiveness of geophysical surveys is influenced by different limiting factors arising from soil conditions and the evenness of the surface: in case of uneven surfaces (e.g. ploughing), or when the area is much littered with metallic waste, the data from the magnetometer survey become too noisy and unreadable. Trial trenching faces similar difficulties. In those areas which had been built-up, paved, or dissected by public utility lines, it is generally not possible to carry out trial trenching, or it is unlikely to obtain representative data. In regard to these problems, § 39 Section 2 of the government decree no. 68/2018 underlines that trial trenching should take place only when unfavourable circumstances had been eliminated. However, in case of built-up areas this would imply the demolition of standing buildings. In the course of such projects-particularly when the respective buildings were cellared-it is already possible to find (and damage) cultural layers, including archaeological features, thus one would be able to clarify whether the demolition works pose a threat to the preservation of archaeological heritage, and there would be no need to subsequently schedule trial trenching. In these instances, the sole option-as proposed in PADs-is the excavation of the archaeological features which had been recovered during the demolition works. A similar situation occurs when the technology of the construction does not allow trial trenching, e.g. in case of railway renovations. Since the length of these interventions is minimized in order to avoid train stoppage, there is generally not enough time for trial trenching. However, archaeological features are likely to turn up during the replacement of old railways and banks, thus-with the exception of a few sites where there are already sufficient data available from earlier research-a watching brief is the method of assessment usually proposed. In most cases, this does not pose any practical problem for the archaeologists; however , as excavations within the frames of watching briefs cannot be planned in advance, the assessments would not significantly improve the planning process, but merely underline the risks involved concerning the preservation of archaeological heritage. The feasibility of PADs is only minimally or not influenced by weather conditions. When trial trenching is carried out in inappropriate seasons of the year, or in bad weather conditions, it is still possible to assess the risks involved. On the other hand, such conditions would not allow carrying out excavations according to desirable standards (Fig. 1).

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Archaeological Activities and Scientifi c Projects of the Hungarian National Museum, 2022

During spring 2021, prior to the start of a large regional construction project, multi-phase excavation was carried out by the Várkapitányság NZrt. near the boundary of Iváncsa. The excavation work began with archaeological geophysical survey, which was followed by test and full-scale excavations (the latter was carried out in cooperation with the Szent István Király Museum of Székesfehérvár). During magnetometer survey of the approximately 150 hectare large area, in addition to the identification of archaeological features, observations were also made in relation to the structure of the settlement.

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