Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 23. 1984-1985 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1987)
Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Biró Mária, T.: Gorsium bone carvings. p. 25–63.
jects it became feasible to lay down on absolute chronology for such groups which were, up to now, undeterminalble. This method helped to prove that one group of bone carvings found at the two building XV belongs indeed to the later building, while the other group comes from the filling up of the early fort. The bone carvings found on the site of the 4th century (building XXXVIII), erected above the offices of the concilium provinciáé almost of identical proportions, all proved to be of the later period. It may even be supposed that the tabernae, building XXXVIII and the cemetery, were in use at the same time. This method had shown that bone carvings between the above mentioned building XXXVIII and building IX are of a very early period buried probably before the building of the templum provinciáé and were used by the same population that lived in the uicus. The only case where I could not apply my system occured at building VII; unfortunately on this site there is no more information to be found on bone carvings in the documentation on the excavation either. Bone carvings are found on the whole building site, showing that, with the exception of a few objects, they were not manufactured in the early period but in the 4th century. The are articles made at the near-by bone carving workshop. Fig. 1. The employment of acus crinalis with different hair—does In the case of Gorsium, it was feasible to work out the relative chronology of the bone carvings with such considerable exactitude because we have a great amount of finds and these finds are primitive local carvings. The pecularity of "bone industry" is such that precisely the well turned out piece is a mass product and the primitive piece made by unskilled hands is the original one, deserving detailed examination. The lathe-turned shapes are at Gorsium exactly the same as in any other province of the Empire (e.g. the playing figure of ludus latronculorum). While the other group contains the articles made by local workshops and can always be connected to the settlement the origin of the pattern which they copy can be identified and it can be followed in which way the original design is becoming mis-shapen or modified according to the skill of the makers. The bone carvings are always characteristic (excepting the above metioned latheturned articles) for, as in cass of stonedressers' work, there is now way to massproduce them. Primarily we look for workshops and craftsmen. The material made in a given period of the settlement is buildt up according to the variety of forms and technique possessed by these craftsmen. We know the shops where the inhabitants could buy these objects and we know, as well, in which building the people lived who used them. Of course, the whole picture is completed and given chronological exactitude by the bone articles got here by way of commerce. The basis of my treatment is regional, it is not my wish to create a typological system. The object of my study is to describe which building yielded particular finds, what kind of bone carvings were found in the well, in the cemetery, etc. I treat regional units chronologically. I give details of respective types in connection with the building where they are found in the greatest numbers and in the most typical connection. I. Vicus (Figs. 1—23) Beside the Und military fort, at the southern part of Gorsium, whose modern name is Margittelep, lies a village of very primitive huts. Éva Kocztur is of the opinion that it was settled by the remainder of native inhabitants, (1972,69—148), While Jenő Fitz supposes that it wasFig. 2. The employment of acus crinalis with different hair-does settled after the Markomann wars explains it by the building of the military fort (Fitz-Bánki 1979, 195). The uicus was ruined at the end of the second century, on its site are late Roman stone building and the graves of the cemetery, dating from the 4th century. The form and technique of the early bone carvings found at Margittelep are identical with the necklace and with the counters buried before the building of templum prouinciae (building IX.) The oval object decorated with concentratric circles known from the necklace appears at the uicus as well, with the difference that the holes, through which it was attached, are open outward (Fig. 5), which is only possible if the ornaments were strung by a thicker thong or broad ribbon. The pair of the pebble-like counter with the incised crossed X was also near the outer wall of building IX (Fig. 4). The only specimen at Gorsium of the "large-sized decorative hairpin" was found at the site of the vicus (Fig. 15). This largesized decorative hair-pin is known in antique literature as acus crinalis (Apul., Met., 13) or comatoria (Petron., 21) resp. shortly Crinale (Ovid., Met., V, 53). The new fashion in hairstyle, the diadem, the arrangement in thick tresses made 26
