Csengeri Piroska - Tóth Arnold (szerk.): A Herman Ottó Múzeum évkönyve 54. (Miskolc, 2015)

Régészet - Koós Judit: A fémművesség emlékei egy késő bronzkori települése: Muhi-3. kavicsbánya (Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén megye)

A fémművesség emlékei egy késő bronzkori településen: Muhi-3. kavicsbánya

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TRACES OF METALWORKING IN A LATE BRONZE AGE SETTLEMENT:

MUHI-3. KAVICSBÁNYA

(Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County)

The village of Muhi is located where the Bükk Mountains and the Great Hungarian Plain meet, on the left bank of the river Sajó. Due to the area’s favourable geographical features it was intensively inhabited during the Bronze Age, thus many well-known archaeological sites can be related to the village (Plate. 1). Following how the sites are situated, it can be determined that it is this stretch of the area where the changes that underwent during the RB D-Ha A1 period in the graves of the Piliny culture are clearly visible.

In the summer of 2004, a short rescue-authentication excavation was conducted in the area of 3. kavicsbánya (Fig. 1), which belonged to Muhi village. During this operation it became evident that the southwestern part of the site which spanned over multiple hectares was effectively destroyed due to intense mining. During the salvage operation 17 features were excavated (Fig. 2—3). The defining majority of the collected assemblage was that of Late Bronze Age ceramics (Fig 13; Plate 2. 8; Plate 3—5; Plate 6. 1—2; Plate 7-10; Plate 11. 1, 3; Plate 12; Plate 13. 1—6; Plate 14. 2—5; Plate 15). However, despite the vast amount of ceramic finds, there were only a few opportunities to reassemble the sherds as a direct result of the damage caused by mechanical earthworks.

The revealed features were larger pits and pit complexes (Fig 4—12). Burnt clay remains from these pits suggest that multiple buildings with wattle-and-daub walls were located at the settlement. Large pieces with wattle and stake impressions that were smoothened on the other side as well as curved pieces were unearthed from multiple features that can be dated to the Bronze Age (Features 2, 6,12,14 and 16). Features 12 and 16 included structural elements and large amounts of burnt ruins, which suggests that there could have been a building located on the empty space eastwards of these two features. Features right next to these ones had larger quantities of fine and coarse ware, including secondarily fired pieces as well (Features 11, 13, 14, 17; Fig 3). Based on these finds it can be assumed that the ruins of a burned down building (possibly a house?) and the pottery of its household ended up in these pits.

There is an on-site example how the pits were used for special purposes: on the inner curvature within a large, beehiveshaped pit (Feature 13) we found a bowl with two handles, lying on its side, which had a small cup with a single handle inside it, its mouth turned upside down (Plate 11. 1, 3). We also noticed an oval-shaped digging at the bottom of the pit. The feature had a large amount of ceramics in it, including secondarily fired ones.

The cup and the bowl were placed inside the pit after they were filled with burnt refuse containing charcoal and ash. Because these finds were hidden in one of the settlement’s features, it is difficult to tell whether they were buried with profane intent or as part of a ritual. This question is hard to answer in the case of any similar bowl finds within a settlement (CZYBORRA 1997, 88). The fact that certain bowls were placed with their mouths facing downwards in the pit probably had specific importance. They could not be part of household wares, nothing could be hidden inside them, and they could not use them to store food or drinks. Therefore a cultic-ritual motivation had to be behind burying these, perhaps following a community event when the empty pottery were buried or destroyed; their contents either sacrificed or consumed beforehand (SCHAUER 1996, 408-410; CZYBORRA 1997, 91-92; PALÁTOVÁ-SALAS 1999, 129-133). Because of this, the notion of hiding valuable items can be discarded; the reason behind such acts can be more likely credited to an act of piously giving up necessary supplies for a ritual ceremony (NEUGEBAUER et al. 1999, 42; STAPEL 1991,142). As these items were part of a ceremony, they became sacred refuse afterwards. By removing these bowls from further use they prevented future profanation (EIBNER 1969, 47-48; STAPEL 1999,139-141; 263-264; PALÁTOVÁ-SALAS 2002,129).

The two-piece, high-quality assemblage of Muhi’s Late Bronze Age site belongs to the category of small stock depots consisting of one or two bowls (Plate 11. 1, 3), of which the bowl-cup combination is the most common (STAPEL 1999, 101—103). The depot consisting of a drinking and serving bowl was an assembly that was possibly used during rites related to households. The use of fire, the presence of a burnt layer, ash and charcoal within the pit are striking features of such depot types, but the compilation of the bowls and the peculiar way they were placed also stand out (STAPEL 1999,106—115).

Moulds are prominent remains of the Late Bronze Age settlement’s metalworking. There is a fragmented sickle mould (Plate 16. 1—2; Plate 18. 1) however with completion it can be determined that they were casting single button sickles with wide blades, curved backs and reinforced with two ribs. The earliest pieces of button sickles appeared in the Middle Bronze Age in the Carpathian Basin, and they remained in use for a long time (FURMÁNEK—NOVOTNÁ 2006, 50). It became the dominant item type in the basin’s north-eastern areas by the time of the Opályi Horizon. These sickles appear in vast quantities within different metal finds from the Late Bronze Age and even until the Early Iron Age (RB D-Ha B). Analogies of the mould’s sickle can be found in the assemblage of Polgár-Folyás-Szilmeg, belonging to the later metallic find horizon of Hajdúböszörmény; furthermore, there is another specimen from Aszód (WANZEK 1989, Taf. 51, 1; MOZSOLICS 2000, Taf. 74, 9, 12,13). A socketed bronze axe mould (Plate 17. 1a—c; Plate 19. 2a— c) was found broken into three pieces, which could have been the mould for a socketed axe with a crescent shaped rim, oval mouth and a loop. The socketed axe was a characteristic piece of Late Bronze Age metalworking. Items of this group type have rather long lifespans; we can find decorated