Excavations at Körösladány-Bikeri, 2005, Block 4 Overview
by Nisha Patel

Block 4 was opened up in the field season of 2005 at Körösladány-Bikeri in order to expose what appeared to be the foundation trenches of a structure identified during geomagnetic survey of the site in 2004. Surface collection of the site conducted in the first week of the field season revealed a moderately high concentration of artifacts in and around this area. As with the other blocks, we removed most of the plowzone with a Bobcat. The bottom few centimeters were removed by hand. Our goal in this block was to take each layer off one by one to get a good idea of the horizontal distribution of features and artifacts. However, in the northwest corner we dug a 1x1m test unit to get a better sense of the stratigraphy. The dark clayey silt gradually graded to a lighter and lighter color until we hit the subsoil. Within the stratigraphy of the dark clay, however, was a distinct layer that appeared to be some kind of walking surface and contained a large amount of white flecking. With this knowledge we began excavating the rest of the block.

Two distinct features were visible at the base of the plowzone, a large pit containing dark soil heavily flecked with daub in the northern section of the block, and a cluster of ceramic, bone, and a grindstone in the eastern section of the block. We excavated the pit to find that it was slightly bell shaped and contained large amounts of daub, ceramic, bone, and charcoal. We also discovered that this pit had been cut into another, much larger pit feature. The artifact cluster was exposed more slowly as we realized that it continued deeper into the level. We dug down to the level on which the artifacts were resting to find several pots and bone clusters. As we began removing the artifacts we discovered that two of the pots had bone in them. As we excavated further we realized that a human infant skeleton was located underneath each of these two pots. Two children had been placed side by side with a pot directly over each one and several other artifacts around them. Though skeletons of babies have been found within vessels of slightly different time periods other areas of SE Europe, nothing like what we discovered at K-14 has ever been uncovered.

In the western section of the block we found a concentration of hard, packed subsoil within the matrix of the cultural level. Underneath it was a pit containing what appears to be a complete pig skeleton. This feature could not be completely excavated because it continued into the wall of the trench. Several small pit or posthole features were also identified in the eastern part of the block. We did not discover any traces of actual foundation trenches in this block and it remains to be seen what will be uncovered during the next season of excavations at Körösladány-Bikeri.