Cejkov

Cejkov — an important archaeological site in eastern Slovakia, in the Trebišov district, in the hills Zemplínske vrchy. It is one of the most valuable sites of the late Gravettian culture – the middle phase of the Upper Paleolithic – in eastern Slovakia. Additionally, there are also traces of a settlement from the late Iron Age on the site with a rich princely female grave from Roman times an exceptional find. Relief remains of a medieval castle, fragments of a stone wall and clear traces of ramparts and moats are all preserved on the site of Várhegy.

Finds associated with the Gravettian culture were made on five sites. First, on the hill Tokajský vrch (site Cejkov I) and on the highlands below the hill (site Cejkov III). Further sites: Cejkov II, IV and V are located higher up the hills Zemplínske vrchy, close to the stream Lagaš. All the sites are located at an altitude of 150 to 200 meters above sea level.

Finds from the Cejkov I site include artefacts attributed to a chipped industry as well as some other pieces of artworks, a lump of burnt clay, tools made of reindeer antlers (diggers and T-shaped hammers), and animal bones. The majority of the settlement on the hill Tokajský vrch is dated to the late Gravettian culture. The chipped industry includes blade scrappers, wedged and edged burins, blades with retouched tips, small blades with blunt edges, rare shank arrowheads and one with an obsidian notch. Obsidian dominates among raw materials accompanied by chert, flint, radiolarites, limnosilicite, opals and sandstone.

Cejkov I is the only Gravettian site in eastern Slovakia where artworks were found. The most important finds from this site include a heart-shaped stone idol (sculpture) with remains of some red dye, a fragment of a bone sculpture representing a bearded male face and a lump of modelled and burnt clay. A hearth is another notable find. By the hearth, fragments of mineral dyes, stone tools and animal bones were all found. Mineral dyes played an important role in rituals as proved by graves of Palaeolithic hunters in Moravia and Lower Austria where the deceased were sprinkled with red dyes. Lumps of dyes and stone vessels used to grind them were found at several Gravettian sites. The dyes could be used to colour bodies, artefacts and tools during ceremonies.

At the Cejkov II site, numerous finds associated with the late Gravettian culture were found including items made of patinated sicilite, quartzite, obsidian, radiolarites and limnosilicite. The Cejkov III, IV and V sites are dominated by obsidian artefacts from late Gravettian.

Traces of the Late Iron Age (La Tène) settlement as well as two cremation graves from the middle La Tène period were found between 1960 and 1962 on the Cejkov I site.

A princely female grave dated to the turn of the 3rd and 4th centuries – found in 1855 – is unique in Europe. The grave inventory is deposited at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien. The inventory contained rare items imported from the Roman Empire and local Germanic products: a gold necklace, a massive arm ring, appliques, chains, a silver ring with an onyx gem, silver brooches, glass beads, a piece of amber jewellery, hammered bronze vessels and fragments of glass vessels, glass playing stones, a coin of the emperor Antoninus Pius (139 CE), a bone comb, and pottery.

At the Várhegy site, there are ruins of a medieval castle mentioned in written sources for the first time in 1403. The castle was ultimately destroyed in 1673.