A Herman Ottó Múzeum évkönyve 53. (2014)
Régészet - Tóth Krisztián: Noteworthy Findings of the Roman Age and Early Migration Period from Borsodszirák, Northestern Hungary. First Investigations
Noteworthy Findings of the Roman Age and Early Migration Period from Borsodszirdk 177 Legend ^ Geophysical survey locations overlaying an elevation map • hoop, bronze Metal detector survey + plate, bronze ■ bust, bronze • roman coin, bronze # cob, bronze ▲ strap end, bronze $ brooch, bronze ☆ object, bronze # roman coin, silver 'em Fig. 9. Locations of the geophysical surveys with the distribution of the metal findings 9. kép. A geofizikai felmérések helyzete a fémleletek eloszlásával also taken two detectors with us. In the area of the Roman Age setdement we detected fresh traces of this activity, but found no metal. It is likely that they looted this part of the site in the recent years. After that we attempted to investigate the location of the 10th century silver fitting, where we found metal objects from the Roman Age (Fig. 3. 2—5, 7) However, no pottery of the same period could be associated to them (Fig 8. red polygon). A part of the ceramics presented in this paper have been revealed during this field survey (Fig. 5. 2, 4—5; Fig. 6. 3, 7; Fig. 8. 1), about 250 meters from the Roman Age settlement indicated by the ceramic dispersion. With geophysical survey we could investigate a 0.9 hectare territory of the settlement of the Roman Age and Early Migration Period, and 1.8 hectares on the location of the metal objects. Archaeological objects occurred at both places as well-visible anomalies, which can be interpreted as round pits and sunken- featured buildings of the settlement (Fig 10). At this place the features are scattered, therefore it is probable that one period can be reckoned. At the place of discovery of the metal objects a trench system as well as a number of closely arranged anomalies could be identified. The dense, closely arranged spatial patterns of the anomalies could be explained by features created in different periods. At the western part of the terrace a simple and at the eastern part a double ditch system probably belonging to the Bronze Age has been established. We could divide the artefacts into two main groups: metals and ceramics. Except for the bronze bust and the iron plate, the metals were discovered on the western part of the site. The ceramic fragments — presumably together with the ones from the ‘90s — have appeared at the eastern part of the site. Among the bronze objects the bronze strap end (Fig. 3. 7) and the Roman coins (Fig. 3. 2—3) can be dated to the third century, while the returned foot exterior chord brooch made of single metal piece (Fig. 3. 4) probably existed between the end of the second century A.D. and the beginning of the fourth century A.D. While the strap end seems to be a unique type, the fibula was a widespread, popular form in Central Europe. The specialty of the Mammaea denarius lies in the fact that it is extremely rare in the Barbaricum. The fact that these metal objects were isolated from the hypothetical settlement and they were discovered
