Fitz Jenő (szerk.): The Celts in Central Europe - István Király Múzeum közelményei. A. sorozat 20. A Pannon konferenciák aktái 2. (Székesfehérvár, 1975)

I. Bognár-Kutzián: Some new early La Téne finds in the Northern Danube Basin

influence. The views differ also as to the contemporariness of the burials. On the other hand, there is little difference in their dating : the turn of the 5th and 4th centuries or the end of the 5th(10 11). The highest dating is by T. P o w e 11: the second half of the 5th century on the basis of the belt-platef11)

In this comparison it is worth mentioning that some Stupava graves were found covered with stones. I stressed this feature of the funeral rites in connection with the Basaharc cemetery. Although its use in the Carpathian Basin in La Tène B is not unknown (Sopron —Bécsidomb), it is frequent in the Szent~ lőrinc cemetery as early as from the last quarter of the 5th century(12), i. e. close in time to the Stupava cemetery. Its antecedents can be found in Hallstatt C cemeteries with or without mounds. The use of stones for covering or surrounding is characteristic of burials at Dürrnberg near Haliéin dated in La Tène A/B. This ritual was represented there, for instance, by grave 44 wich is excellently dated by the attic blackfirnissed kylix belonging to the chariot burial No. 2 about 425 B. C(13 14 15). Although the ritual in question lived long, it gives a wider foundation to the 5th century dating of Stupava by

L. Márton and I. Hunyady and even corroborates the boldest dating given by T. G. Powell.

Again the Dürrnberg chariot burial Xo. 44/2 was the one to have yielded a Cauri shell near the helmet (u). Similar shells recur as accompanying deposits in cremation and skeleton burials also at Basaharc (in graves 371, 373, 375).

The same chariot burial contained the gold-foil disc framed with a bronze pad. The ornamental elements are as follows: concentric circles dividing the entire surface into parts, the minor concentric circle motive and a design consisting of tiny embossed ribs(13) which recur at Basaharc on two thin bronze plates: the concentric circle on a disc standing perpendicularly to the right shoulder of a child (Pl. VI,1) and on one on the right shoulder of a woman (Pl. VI,2a). As far as their position is concerned, they might have been disc-shaped fibulae but this is made rather improbable by the fact that the dress

(10) J. Eisner, o. c., 168; L. Márton, o. c., Atlung, XI, 1933, 29; I. Hunyady, o. c., DissPann, 11/18, 1944, 3, 19, 20, 26, 149.

(11) T. G. Powell, The winged beasts from Stupava. Národniho Musea v Praze, Sbornik XX, 1966, 133 — 136.

(12) L. Márton, o. c., Dóig, IX —X, 1934, pi. XXXVII 1,2; E. Jerem, o. c., 175, 194.

(13) E. Penninger, Vorläufiger Bericht über die neugefundenen latènezeitlichen Gräber von Dürrnberg bei Haliéin. Germania, XXXVIII, 1960, 353 ff.; Id., o. e., MB, XVI, 1972, 80, pis. 46 33, 114 1; W. Dehn and O.-H. Frey, Die absolute Chronologie der Hallstattund FrüMatènezeit Mitteleuropas auf Grund des Südimports. Atti del Congresso Internazionale I, Firenze 1962, 204; P. Harbison, The chariot of Celtic funerary tradition. Marburger Beiträge zur Archäologie, 1969, 38, 42.

(14) E. Penninger, o. c., MB, XVI, 1972, pl. 43 10.

(15) Ibid., pl. 43 9 and pl. 113 6.

was already bound on the shoulder of the female skeleton with a pair fibulae of the Dux type linked with a chain. Owing to the ill preservation of the discs at Basaharc there could be no indication of their having originally been fibulae which seems rather improbable also on account of their small size — the actual diameter being 2.7 and 2.9 cm. The diameter of the disc fibula at Szebe3zló (Sebeslavce) is 10.2 cm and that of the one at Balf is 4.8 cm. (1B). A similarity can be observed between the last two and the ornamental elements at Basaharc, yet the Szebeszló one has circles with raised centers instead of concentric circles while the fibula from Balf has a zig-zag line all along the row of short embossed ribs. Both finds have an early date: the second brooch of the set from Szebeszló has a bird’s head. The brooches are linked up by a double chain, some of its pendants being trapeziform with embossed beads and circles which correspond to the decoration of a pendant in grave 324 at Basaharc. The disc brooch at Balf presumably comes from a skeleton grave: it is made of gold foil, hammered on an embossed bronze layer. L. Márton dates it in the latest Hallstatt period, while I. Hunyady gives it an early La Tène dating(17).

Out of the many analogies of the brooch from Balf, that is, of the cross-bow Certosa fibula, let me refer to the fibula from the soil fill of grave 50 at Dürrnberg containing two skeletons, again a cross-bow fibula with a lower-string structure (Ostalpiner Typ) (18). Their short feet are shaped like animal heads.

In the light of the finds from the chariot burial 44/2 at Dürrnberg, the dating of a helmet from the Carpathian Basin has proved low. It had been known for quite a time as coming from the former Turóc county (now Western Slovakia) though P. Jacobsthal corrected the error(19). Without knowing exact site and circumstances of its recovery, it can be assessed typologically only. This was how P. J a c o b s t h a 1 dated it in the early La Tène, L. Márton in B, a dating endorsed also by I. Hunyady, though adding that it may as well be later('20). The closest analogy of the helmet can be recognized in the example coming from the Dürrnberg

( 16) F. Pulszky, A szebeszlói ruhakapocs. AËrt, 1880, 160, pl. XV; F. Márton, o. c., AHung, XI, 1933, 17, 21, pis. II—IV; I. Hunyady, o. c., DissPann, Il/18, 1944, 22, 70; P. Jacobsthal, Early Celtic Art. Oxford, 1969, 28, 197, pi. 166. 394; j'. Filip, o. r., Keltövé ve Stfedni Europe. 421.

( I 7) L. Márton, o. c., AHung, XI, 1933, 17; I. Hunyady, o. c., DissPann, 11/18, 1944, 21.

( 18) E. Penninger, o. c., MB, XVI, 1972, 86, 87, pl. 56 I.

(19) P. Reinecke, Magyarhoni emlékek a La Tène kor kezdetéről. AÉrt, XVIII, 1898, 310-314; E. Márton, o. c., AHung, XI, 1933, fig. 7 ; P. Jacobsthal, o. c., 226, No. 137, note 1, pp. 178 - 179, pl. 77.

(20) L. Márton, o. c. AHung, XI, 1933, 51 ;I. Hunyady, o. c., DissPann, 11/18, 1944, 123. J. Eisner dating the helmet hesitated between the 5th and the 4th centuries (o. c., 308).