Gunda Béla et al. (szerk.): Ideen, Objekte und Lebensformen. Gedenkschrift für Zsigmond Bátky - István Király Múzeum közelményei. A. sorozat 29. (Székesfehérvár, 1989)
Mária Kresz†: Kettle and Pot
Map 1.: Deposits of “fire-clay” in the Carpatian Basin. (After S. Kalecsinszky 1892) gyarság Néprajza, pp 67—68). He was also interested in the method of cooking within the oven, differenciating it from cooking on an open hearth. Bátky states: “The “kuruglya” or “bürüglye” is in its simplest form a long rod with a fork or hook at its end. The fork or hook is hung into the handle of a heavy earthenware pot to place it into the oven or to pull it out. It is also called “ovenrod” or “oven-fork”. The more practicle ones have wheels and can be shoved on these, such are called “oven-cart”, “cart to push a jug”, “devil’s cart”. (See page 68 and table X. page 67.) This implement was used mostly in western Transdanubia and in the Great Plain. In the western regions it is called “kuruglya” since olden times, and the word is of Slovenian origin. Both the implement, its name and the custom to cook within the oven have come to Hungarians via the Slovenians.” (p. 68.) In the chapter on Architecture Bátky returns to the problem of cooking within the oven : “The type of house of western Hungary and the Slovenian territory has an enormous oven to cook food for both man and beast. Cooking vessels were placed either at the opening of the oven or into the oven and a long rod was used to push them in, the socalled “kurugla” or “biiriigle” already mentioned. (See p. 167.) Both words come from the Slovenian and point to the fact that the ancient Slave custom of cooking within the oven came to Hungarians via the Slovenians. The “kurugla” therefore is an object of distinctive importance.” (P. 168.) As B á t k y neglected the earthenware pot as such, he did not take the fact into consideration that while the fork for placing a pot into the oven is known only in certain parts of the country, earthenware pots were used in every single locality in all Hungary, not only in villages, but also in towns and castles, among all strata of society. The earthenware pot was an indispensable requisite for cooking. Pots are the most frequent vessels of archéologie material, yet perhaps just because of their frequency archeologists neglect the further investigation of this important form. The word “fazék” for “pot” is known in the whole linguistic territory of the Hungarian language from County Vas in the west to the Szeklerland and the Moldavian Magyars in the east, from the Uplands in the north, till the river Száva in the south. Basically the same shape is termed with this name and its predecessor was the Celtic- Roman pot (Holl 1963). The bottom of the pot is flat. Among medieval pots the bottom might have a mark in relief which shows that it was turned by hand on the medieval form of a potter’s wheel. (About medieval pots with a mark on the bottom see Balogh 1927 ; Höllrigl 1930/32/33; Holl 1956. A basic work on the medieval wheel is in Russian by Rybakov 1949). 252
