Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 10. 1969 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1969)

Közlemények – Mitteilungen - Kovács Tibor: Prehistoric Horse-Bits of Antler Found in the Carpathian Basin Recently. – Újabb őskőkori agancszabla leletek a Kárpát-medencében. X, 1969. p. 159–165.

Köröstarcsa,

11 Nitriansky Hrádok, Maié Kosihy,

12 Roggendorf, Burgschleinitz,

13 Sobatinovka.

14 The enumerated specimens have only one common characteristic : the existence of two oval holes placed in the central part of the cheek-piece, serving for the insertion of the mouth-piece and the curb rein.

15 However, we notice numerous variations in the situation of the wholes pierced for the bridle and other straps. It suffers no doubt that the structural differences observed on pieces of the same type are due to minor or major divergences in the manner of harnessing.

18 Nevertheless, one may ask whether these structural differences are dependent on the cultural features of the cheek-pieces or on the various dates of their production. The former suggestion seems to be ruled out by the fact that as to structure (/'. e. as regards the number and position of the holes) the Mezőcsát piece

17

, belonging to the Füzesabony culture in all probability, is identical to the specimen found at the Százhalombatta settlement of the Vatya culture. In spite of their fragmentary condition we may add the specimens of the Magyarád culture from Maié Kosihy, Nitriansky Hrádok and Vesele to the former.

ls Investigating the bit cheek-pieces having two oval holes further, we suppose that the definition of possible finer differences in chronology may be helped by the comparison of ornaments, or the connection of structural and ornamental parallels. An especially good chance is offered by the finely incised ornament of a band of undulating lines on the Százhalombatta cheek-piece. It has attracted the interest of a wide circle of scholars already. Following the details illustrated by numerous earlier studies, Rolf Hachmann treats the bone carvings with "Mycenizing decoration" in the framework of Northand South-East European Bronze Age, i. e. bone cylinders, buttons and bit cheek-pieces ornamented by spiral hooks or undulating line-bands, respectively. He regards them as important proofs of the immediate connection between the peoples of Central and South-Eastern Europe in the Bronze Age, in the Fig. 1 : Szászhalombatta—Téglagyár » A. MOZSOLICS, A. Arch. Hung., 3, 1953, pp. 74-80. 12 A. TOCIK, Rejeráty о pracovnyeh vysledkoch ceskoslovenskych archeológov za rok 1955., Liblice, 1956, c. II. 36, T. X. 5; ID., Stud, zvesti AÚSAV, T. 3,1959, 44, T. III. la-b. 1

3 ST. FOLTINY, о. с. p. 28. " Cf. A. MOZSOLICS, A. Arch. Hung., 12,1960, p. 129. » S. BÖKÖNYI, о. с. p. 117, fig. 3. i" Here we mean, among others, the application or lack of nose-or chin-straps, respectively, and in connection with it the one-branched or divided bridle. According to the data regarding the horse-trappings of the peoples of the Ancient East, collected by J. H. Potratz (o.e. pp. Í02 seq.) and к.ф. Смирнов (Археологические данные о древних всалниех поволжско-уральсиих степей, CA, 1961/1, pp. 46 —72), the application of straps on the nose and under the chin was a very old custom in those areas. The latter was used in Ancient Sumer as early as around 3000 before our era. In Egypt the harness with straps on the nose and under the chin, with a twobranched cheek-strap, is frequent in the second millennium b. o. e. Similar ones are found on relics from Assyria and Ancient Babylon, dated to the end of the second millennium. — Considering these data, any variety or simultaneously more varieties of horse-harnessing, generally accepted as a technique of southern origin by now, may have been imported into the Carpathian basin. We have to stick to this objectively possible hypothesis, till we shall be able to define the people which has brought the harnessed horse to our territory for the first time, and her original settlement with certainty. 17 A. MOZSOLICS, A. Arch. Hung., 3, 1953, p. 79, fig. 14. •

8 Cf. note 12 and A. TOCIK, Opevnená osada z doby bronzovej vo Veselom, Bratislava,1964,p.45,fig.29.,T. LXI' 14. sixteenth century before our era.

19 The detailed analysis of objects of bone and antler decorated with this pattern is given by Amália Mozsolic s.

20 She dwells on the investigation of the ornament of the undulating line-band, observed on gold objects (the gold cup No. 4 from Bihar, the gold bracelets from Pipe and Transsylvania, the pin of the Borodino hoard) and on bone carvings. In the last resort she comes to the following chronological conclusions: the golden find from Bihar and, in connection with it, the application of the undulating line-band decoration, may be attached to the horizon of the Hajdúsámson hoard; the date in which the mentioned assemblage has been hidden may be expressed in absolute numbers in the date around 1500 befora our era.

21 Utilizing the results of the quoted papers we should like to emphasize the following. 1. The so-called Mycenising decorations cannot be valuated as a whole. Presumably the motif did not reach the Carpathian basin in the same way and manner. 2. The identity of the spiral hook ornaments visible on the relics of the Mycenaean culture (the gold buttons from Mycenae, the bone spoon, the bone disc from Kakovatos) and on the bon discs found in the Carpathian basin (Füzesabony, Veterov) alludes to an indirect, possibly immediate, commercial relation only.

22 3. The pattern of undulating line-bands, applied on the bone carvings of the Carpathian basin, is almost identical with the ornament of a cylinder of bone found in Alalakh (Asia Minor).

23 It cannot be found in the Aegaean region in this form. These data bear out the inference that the use of the motif of the undulating line-band became known in the Carpathian basin under Minor Asian influence. The cheek-piece from Monteoru, decorated with a band of undulating lines, and the gold objects from Transsylvania mentioned above allude to the possible area of mediation. One ought to notice that the following cheek-pieces decorated with undulating line-bands:

24 that of Százhalombatta (Vatya culture), Male Kosihy, Nitriansky Hrádok and Vesele (Magyarád culture), reveal a wholly identical form of harnessing.

25 From this fact we may conclude that just a part of the cheek-pieces having two oval-shaped holes (the so-called Tószeg type) were used at the time when the ornament of undulating line-bands became diffused, i. e. in the second half of the sixteenth century before our era. 2. Mende—Leányvár A semi-finished cheek-piece of a bit from the strongly curved point of a deer's antler. Its upper, pointed end is unfinished. Its convex side of a circular cross-section is cut off in a slanting plane, possibly as a preparation to the piercing of the holes. The lower one third is fully wrought. The convex side of the latter is cut off straightly down to the inner diploe. On the thicker end of the concave side, on the tongue-shaped part, there are six ornaments resembling buttons. Length: 16 cm. (Fig. 2., Fig. 6.5.). As the finders say, the cheek-piece has been uncovered in 1967 on the settlement of the Vatya culture on a mound, from a depth of cca 30 to 40 cm. According to the results of the verifying excavations, conducted in 1966, the one-layer settlement 19 R. HACHMANN, Die frühe Bronzezeit im westlichen Ostseegebiet und ihre mittel- und südosteuropäischen Beziehungen, Hamburg, 1957, pp. 174 seq., T LXX 20 A. MOZSOLICS, Der Goldfund aus dem Kom. Bihar, MAG, 1964, pp, 104-112. 21 Ibid. pp. 106, 111-112. - A. MOZSOLICS, Goldfunde des Depotfundhorizontes von Hajdusámson, BRGK, 46 — 47, 1965 — 1966, pp. 24 — 26. 22 This is supported hy the negative result reached by Amália Mozsoli с s in the search for finds alluding to other relations between the Carpathian basin and the Mycenaean world (cf. MAG, 93/94, 1964, p. 112). 23 L. WOOLLEY, Alalakh, An Account of the Excavations at Tell Atchana, Oxford, 1955, T. LXXVIII. - Cf. A. MOZSOLICS, MAG, 93/94, 1964, p. 107, fig. 10/9. г« A. MOZSOLICS, BRGK, 46-47, 1965-1966, pp. 24-25. 25 Two oval-shaped holes for the insertion of the mouth-pieceand the rein in the central part of the cheek-piece. At the upper end a round hole starting from the inside (tube-like execution), at the lower end a boring at right angles to the former for the immission of the bridle reins. — After finishing this paper I have found a cheek-piece that is not published yet. It is decorated with a so-called band of undulating lines. Balassi Bálint Múzeum, Esztergom. Inv. no.: 55.584.1. 160