Balogh Csilla – P. Fischl Klára: Felgyő, Ürmös-tanya. A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Monumenta Archeologica 1. (Szeged, 2010)

The Bronze Age settlement and cemetery at Felgyő

A felgyői bronzkori temető és település 113 Bona, globular headed pins were a typical accessory of the costume worn by the communities of the Encrusted Pottery culture; the pins most likely reached the neighbouring cultures (Vatya 2-3 and Füzesabony) through the mediation of the Encrusted Pottery culture (BONA 1975, 219).

1

4 The typical pin types of the R Br A

2 period in the Carpathian Basin were the vertically or obliquely pierced globular headed pins and the biconical headed pins, appearing at roughly the same time. The earliest globular headed pin in the Vatya distribution comes from a burial of the Budapest-Növényi Street cemetery, dated to the Vatya 2 period (REMÉNYI 2002, 84). Plain globular headed pins with a straight shank resembling the one from Felgyő are much more rare, known only from a few Vatya cemeteries, for example from Dunakeszi (KOVÁCS 1989, Abb. 12. 4) and Izsák (BÓNA 1975, Taf. 48. 4). Decorated variants with twisted or sickle shaped shank were more widespread, occurring mainly in the graves of the Vatya 3 period (e.g. at Dunaújváros and Izsák) and in several cemeteries of the Füzesabony culture (e.g. at Megyaszó: BÓNA 1975, Taf. 186. 13). The twisted and/or sickle shaped shank is a typical trait of late pin types; their survival into the Koszider period is reflected by a rich array of pins (NOVOTNÁ 1980. 45; KOVÁCS 1989, 61). The bronze fragments with trapezoidal section from Grave 2 (Fig. 1. 3-5) probably come from pins with twisted shank whose head cannot be reconstructed. In his analysis of biconical headed pins, Bona distinguished the so-called mushroom headed pins found in the Vatya distribution from the classical biconical headed pins of the Füzesabony culture (BONA 1975, 290-291). The upper part of the Vatya pins is more elongated, while the lower part is squatter, hence the form resembling a mushroom. The Felgyő pins resemble the biconical pins of Novotná's Gajary type (NOVOTNÁ 1980,43). Maria Novotná too regarded the biconical pins of the Otomani-Füzesabony complex as a separate type. In her view, the plain pieces date to the beginning of the R Br A2, while the later pins were decorated with engraved lines around the head and the neck. She derived the pins with sickle shaped shank from this type, noting that their use ceased at the close of the Hungarian Middle Bronze Age (NOVOTNÁ 1980, 46-47). Biconical headed pins were popular in the Vatya culture as shown by the pieces from Új hártyánVatya (BÓNA 1975, Taf. 34. 8 11, 35. 5. 36. 1-8), Cegléd-Öreghegy (BÓNA 1975, Taf. 47. 14. 6-7), Izsák (BÓNA 1975. Taf. 47. 8-9, 13-18, 48. 1-2, 3-5) and Dunakeszi (BÓNA 1975. Taf. 55. 18). A comparable pin is known from Gyulavarsánd-Laposhalom (BÓNA 1975. Taf, 150. 35). The biconical headed pins from the Megyaszó cemetery have a curved, twisted shank (BÓNA 1975. Taf. 183-189; SCHALK 1994, 159-160). Pendants The two large bronze pendants (Fig. 54. 6-7) represent a special sub-variant of crescentic pendants with rudimentary spike and a suspension loop. Even though the two pendants from Felgyő can be assigned to the same type, they are not identical. The difficulties in the precise typological and chronological ordering of similar ornaments stem from the fact that there is no consensus regarding their manufacturing technique. This can in part be attributed to the often poor state of preservation of these pendants. The most generally accepted view (BÓNA 1975, 217; MOZSOLICS 1967, 89; HÄNSEL 1968, 121) is that the pendant was cut out from sheet bronze. In view of the moulds from Tiszafüred (BÓNA 1960a. 261

) and Bárca (FURMÁNEK 1980, 16), however, an entirely different manufacturing technique also seemed likely, namely that these ornaments attained their final form by casting (FURMÁNEK 1980; KOVÁCS 1986). Adding to the uncertainties over how these pendants were made was the fact that some prehistorians came to wholly self-contradictory conclusions regarding this issue in their own writings.

1 The pendant type was fairly widespread and popular in several Bronze Age cultures, and it would seem that several techniques were used for their manufacture. The two moulds simply indicate that cast varieties were also made alongside the ones produced from sheet metal. The pendants are relatively large and have a curved suspension loop. The middle element comes in several varieties: a spike, sometimes very rudimentary, an anchor or a comb shaped middle element. The pendant is usually assigned to a specific type based on the form of this element (MOZSOL1CS 1967, 89; KOVÁCS 1986, 32; HÄNSEL 1968, 122; FURMÁNEK 1980, 16). The greater part of these pendants can be assigned to the type with anchor shaped middle element, known as the Nagyrozvágy or Bárca type, worn during the R Br Bl-C-D periods (KOÓS 1996, 130-132;'

6 DAVID 2002, Taf. 98; HORVÁTH 2004, 47) Most of these are elaborately decorated. They have been recovered from both hoards (e.g. Zsadányi-Orosi puszta: KOVÁCS 1986), settlements (e.g. Nagyrozvágy: KOÓS 1988) and burials (e.g. Dunaújváros: MOZSOLICS 1967, 137). Tibor Kovács has argued that the pendants resembling the pieces from Nagyrozvágy served as the model for the double crescentic pendants from Rétközberencs (KOVÁCS 1981, 164). The pendants quoted by him indicate that the Late Bronze Age pendants with a rudimentary middle element, most often cast pieces, did not have a separate suspension loop but were perforated under their upper, peaked part (KOVÁCS 1981, Abb. 3) and can thus hardly be regarded as either formal or chronological parallels to the pendants from Felgyő. Pendants resembling the ones from the Felgyő settlement have likewise been found both in hoards and in cemeteries, while these are the only ones recovered from a settlement context. A comparable plain piece lay in Grave 2 of the Szőreg cemetery (BÓNA 1975, Taf. 128. 6), which was dated to the cemetery's early phase (onset of the R Br A2) in view of the other metal finds and the grave pottery. Pendants of this type have been brought to light in several cemeteries of the Füzesabony culture, for example at Füzesabony-Kettöshalom (SZATHMÁRI 1997, Abb. 10. 3). from Grave D345 at Tiszafüred (KOVÁCS 1981. Abb. 2. 3; KOVÁCS 1984a, Taf. LX1X. 13) and at Gelej. Two pendant types made from sheet bronze were found in Grave 68 of the latter site, which yielded a double crescentic pendant and two pendants 14 In his typo-chronological classification of the pins, Bona assumed a southern ancestry for some types. Bona's chronological classification of globular headed pins and their variants based on the decoration of the head has been rejected by some scholars. Cp. NOVOTNÁ 19X0. 45; KOVÁCS 19X9. 61. 15 Cp. FURMÁNEK 1977; FURMÁNEK 19X0. 16 Cp. the findspots of the other Bárca type pieces. 17 Even the excavator was uncertain regarding the manufacturing technique of the pendant from Füzesabony-Kettöshalom (SZATHMÁRI 1997. 71).