Cultural and Chronological Horizons of the Choma Archaeological Complex
Abstract
The purpose of the research paper is to identify, describe, and characterize the cultural and chronological horizons of the Choma archaeological complex, located in the Berehove District of the Transcarpathian Region, in the northern part of the Szipa Hát tract (in Hungarian, ‘Sipa Hill’). Given the key status of the monument, this study is important for historical reconstructions of settlement processes in the northeastern part of the Verkhnyotis historical and geographical region in antiquity and the Middle Ages.
The scientific novelty. The attention of researchers of the Choma archaeological complex since the beginning of its excavations in 1986 has been focused on the burials of the second half of the 10th century AD as the key horizon of the monument, which were defined as Old Hungarian without proper argumentation. Information on materials from other cultural and chronological horizons, to the extended analysis of which this publication is devoted, was introduced into scientific circulation in a fragmentary and cursory manner, and was sometimes completely absent. As a result of the comprehensive examination, it was possible not only to question the Hungarian attribution of the burial ground, but also to identify the preceding antiquities of the Thracians and Germans, as well as the multicultural horizon of the second half of the 11th–12th centuries AD, i.e., the time range after the period of the burials.
Conclusions. During the archaeological research of the expedition of Kemerovo State University (headed by V. Bobkov) (1986-1987) and Uzhhorod State University (1993-1994, 1996-1999), objects (dwellings 1-2, building, pottery kiln, cremation (I-II) and inhumation (1-68) burials) of five time periods were discovered: 1) Late Bronze Age (dwelling 1); 2) end of the 2nd century AD (Germanic cremation burials I-II); 3) 3rd–4th centuries AD (pottery kiln); 4) second half of the 10th–11th centuries AD (68 burials of nomads); 5) second half of the 11th–12th centuries AD (dwelling 2, building 1).
The early horizon of the site’s occupation is represented by a dwelling of the 1st classical phase of the Gava culture (10th–8th centuries BC). The second Choma layer is represented by two cremation burials located on the outskirts of the tract in the immediate vicinity of the Sip stream. The third chronological horizon of the site in the Szipa Hát tract is distinguished on the basis of a two-tiered pottery kiln. The fourth, most representative horizon of Choma, represents the burials of nomads of the second half of the 10th–11th centuries AD. All graves are oriented in the same way – northwest-southeast. Based on the topography of the burials, it was established that the cemetery was mainly laid out in a regular pattern. The fifth chronological horizon of Choma is represented by two objects of semi-dugout construction: a dwelling and a building of the second half of the 11th–12th centuries AD.
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