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At least 100,000 bodies burried in the antique cemetery of Budapest – video
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Ancient Aquincum was once where now Óbuda, the 3rd district of Budapest is located. Experts knew about the necropolis there even before but now a new section of it was discovered near the Bécsi street.
Though we already know many burial sites of the Roman military base and the capital city of Pannonia Inferior, Aquincum, the biggest one of these was where now the Bécsi street lies in Budapest 3rd district. In fact,
it had a commanding size,
it started where now the Kolosy square is and ended where today the junction of Bécsi and Vörösvári streets can be found. According to pestbuda.hu, at least 100,000 bodies were burried in the huge cemetery which was used for more than 200 years between the end of the 1st and the mid-4th century. In fact, there was a road on the track of Bécsi street even during the Roman times and the cemetery was created on its Western side, between the city and the Buda hills.
The excavations are being led by Péter Vámos, the archaeologist of the Budapest History Museum’s Aquincum Museum and Archeological Park. The territory on which they are working on was used as a parking lot before but now it is planned to be built up. Though the area was empty for long centuries, in the 18th and in the 19th century Swabians came to settle there and built houses for which they always dug a basement so
many of the onetime graves were destroyed.
Furthermore, on the side of the Danube river, the level of the underground water is high which also makes excavations and research difficult. This is because in the antiquity one of the distributaries of the Danube flew much closer; however, in the modern ages, it was regulated so today water cannot leak away.