Beehive stone
Beehive stones or beehive rocks of Hungary are rock formations, often naturally conical towers, with niches or cavities carved into their sides. A limited number of rocks with niches can be found even close to Budapest, in the area of the Pilis mountains and the Budai-hegység hills, especially on its Tétényi-fennsík plateau. However, the city most densely surrounded by such formations is Eger, in the Bükkalja area.
Nature conservation, protected heritage
One of the location sites near Szomolya was declared as a national protected area in 1961, named Nature Conservation Area of Beehive Stones at Szomolya.According to the definition in decree 17/2014 of the Minister of Agriculture, which came into effect on the 4th of November 2014, a "kaptárkő" is a natural or artificially altered stone formation that has, on its surface, one or more visible carved niches – and similar artefacts, in some cases – with significance in the history of culture, therefore representing value in the conservation of both landscape/nature and cultural heritage. The purpose of declaring the protected status is to preserve the beehive stones, as well as their immediate natural surroundings, for their natural and cultural significance, and facilitating their research and exhibition for purposes of nature conservation.
Some key restrictions relevant to visitors are the following: You must not carve/alter the stones. You must not even climb on them. You are not allowed to put objects onto them. In such areas, technical sports and extreme sports activities are forbidden. If you want to do research activities at beehive stone sites, consult the relevant national park directorate.
Beehive stones and the stone culture of the Bükkalja region were declared as a Hungarian-specific value, due to its unique natural nature – at the meeting of a committee dealing with Hungarian-specific values, on the 17th of June 2016.
Origin
The Bükkalja is predominantly made up of volcanic tuffs, created by intense volcanic activities in the Miocene. The special, conical rocks and rock groups of the Bükkalja had been prepared from the ground surface composed of mostly ash-flow tuffs and ignimbrites with rhyolitic ingredients, by the key factors of landscape formation in the ice-age, namely: downcutting and lateral erosion, attrition, weathering, rinsing effects of wind and precipitation, and frost erosion. These rocks were shaped further artificially. Thus, beehive rocks are valuable in both natural and cultural history aspects.Naming
The rocks with niches were first called beehive stones by residents of Szomolya, maybe after the meadow adjacent to a group of rocks, where beehives could be stored. Near the city of Eger, such rocks were called stones with dummy windows. Some other names known from elsewhere: stones with churns, idol stones, mitre. Names of some specific rocks are also informative: Ördögtorony , Ördög-kő , Bábaszék , Nyerges , Királyszéke , Kősárkány . The most consistently applied wording by the first known thorough researcher and connoisseur of rocks with niches was memorial rock or memorial stone, but he used other names as well: rock pyramid, carved group of rocks, memorial rock with dummy windows, megalith stones and stone with churns. Later, largely due to the research and studies by Andor Saád, beehive stone had become the most widespread and common term. This naming was applied in later studies by researchers working on resolving the mystery of such rocks: Ferenc Kubinyi, Gyula Bartalos, Gáspár Klein, Andor Saád, Péter Mihály and .The most debated aspects were the origin and intended use of the niches carved into the sides of the rock formations.
Niches
On average, niches are 60-cm high, 30-cm wide and 25 to 30-cm deep. In well-preserved niches, the recessed rims along the edges are still observable. These may be signs of niche covers mounted with pegs or wedges hammered into the holes. Niches with still visible rim marks were arranged quite unevenly on the rock sides. The exceptional diversity of niche shapes required custom cover sizes and shapes for each niche. Based on certain considerations, the rims could even have decorative or informative purpose.Location sites
The most typical ones can be found in the area surrounding Eger, near Szomolya and near Cserépváralja. You can find such rocks also in the areas surrounding Sirok, Egerbakta, Egerszalók, Ostoros, Noszvaj, Bogács, Cserépfalu, Tibolddaróc and Kács. In the Bükkalja area altogether, 479 niches on 82 beehive rocks at 41 sites are known. These are listed in the [|table], and described in the Beehive rock registry section of the Hungarian article.A smaller number of beehive rocks can be found in Pest county – on the Tétényi-fennsík plateau, on the Budai-hegység hills, in the Pilis mountains and in the Visegrádi-hegység mountains. In this area, 86 niches on 31 rock formations at 17 sites are known.
Apart from the two collective areas above, some separate location sites are known as well. The easternmost known beehive rock is the Ördög-szikla in the Hömpörgő-völgy valley at Abaújszántó. There is a location site also on the Medves-fennsík plateau, on the Pécs-kő hill near Salgótarján. 2 niches on the Haraszt-hegy hill at Csákvár became known in 2007. In the area of Balaton-felvidék, two distinct location sites are known: one on the Óvár-hegy hill of Tihany and one on the Part-fő of Balatonkenese.
In Hungary altogether, up till 2013, 564 niches on 104 rock formations at 56 sites had been surveyed topographically. of the Hömpörgő-völgy valley near Abaújszántó is included.]
List of beehive rock location sites in the Bükkalja area
History of research
Regarding the intended use of the "beehive" niches, a number of theories has arisen. The first known thorough researcher of the subject area was Gyula Bartalos, a historian and archaeologist priest from Eger. His theory was that the beehive rocks had been shrines, with ashes of human remains put into the niches. He linked the carving of rock niches to "Hun" Hungarians first, and to Celts and Scythians later. Gáspár Klein, a chief archivist of Borsod county, suggested that the dummy windows could have served as idol niches, and dated them to the age of the so-called Hungarian conquest. Bartalos had already mentioned the currently most accepted opinion, with expressing his doubts: "Ordinary people who tend to guess right away call these rocks «beehive rocks»; they think these could have been apiaries of ancient people, as if bees would live in rocks and on shadowy sides". – published in the :hu:Archaeologiai_Értesítő|Archaeologiai Értesítő , 1891. The dominant agent of the beekeeping opinion was Andor Saád, a medical doctor from the city of Miskolc. In the early 1960s, he even conducted some archaeological excavations in front of beehive rocks, with archaeologist József Korek, at sites near Cserépváralja and Szomolya. However, their archaeological finds, dated to the 11th–14th centuries, could not justify any of the theories.Archaeological excavations
The number of archaeological excavations conducted to reveal the secret of beehive rocks is relatively low, and those few did not bring up many finds.In the early 1960s, the dominant agent of the beekeeping purpose opinion conducted some archaeological excavations in front of beehive rocks, with archaeologist József Korek, at sites near Cserépváralja and Szomolya. In front of the Nagykúp near Cserépváralja, two pottery fragments with wavy lines and a sword fragment were found. At a higher level, they found a piece of glass and a wrought-iron candle holder. As for the site near Szomolya, in the filling of a human-sized cavity along a natural rock fissure on group number V and in front of that, ceramic fragments dated to the 14th–15th centuries were found. The conclusion drawn from the poor finds was far-fetched: “... the niches were used in the 11th–15th centuries AD". These finds could relate to the use of the niches during the Árpád-kor period of the Kingdom of Hungary indeed. It is important to note however that regarding the first uses of such niches, these finds may not serve as proof. In the rock surface in front of the tuff cone, channels, multiple small recesses and a larger recess were found. It would be hard to take Korek's opinion: "probably, these could be for water retaining and storage, and could be related to the beekeeping activity".
Intended use
Despite the lack of significant archaeological and ethnographic data, the accepted and publicly known view is still the theory that such rock niches are mementos of forest rock beekeeping in the medieval period, and this way of beekeeping was introduced by Kabars who joined the Hungarians during the so-called Hungarian conquest or by Agrians in earlier ages.The idea of using the rock niches for actual beekeeping would induce some doubts though. The diversity of cardinal directions of niches, as well as niches carved very close to the ground level or to unreachable points, into dark and cold rock fissures or into vertical sides of gullies raise questions. Narrow and shallow or even somewhat downward-facing niches do not seem to be suitable for beekeeping either. Written sources from the 11th century are evidences of the existence of beekeeping activities, but the sources do not mention anything about rock beekeeping. Regarding the cultic vs. economic debate, oral lore is not consistent. The mystery of beehive rocks is therefore still unsettled.
Currently, the purpose of carving the rocks and the intended use of the niches are unknown. So far, the "Who? When? Why?” questions could not be answered without doubts remaining. However, the results of research to date, accompanied by the statistical probability based on evaluation of topographic data, make the idea of the beekeeping use rather doubtful; while "reasons to exclude cultic, sacrificial use of the niches have not been drawn up".
Some fundamental questions would still be unresolved however:
- How did the cultic rituals related to the niches look like, and what was their underlying religious formation and mythology?
- What was the time range of carving and using the niches ?
- Who created the niches, and who practiced the rituals? What sort of population can the formation of beehive rock carvings be associated with?
- One is expanding the known set of "identical analogies", i.e. finding rimmed niches in other regions and including data associated with the analogies.
- The other is studying other rock carving features found on beehive rocks or in their wider surroundings or phenomenons related to the niches.