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.

beltgear to fasten the castula (RICH, 1862, 118). Such a beltgear can be seen in a relief of the Palazzo Spada, on the figure of Artemis standing behind Amphion and Zethos. Recessed dots also occur on dice found in streets where the numbers are not marked by the usual concentric circles but by recessed dots (Fig. 215). This can be seen on the bone tip found in front of the Forum (Fig. 216). On the fourth century floor level there were even several half finished pieces of bone carvings lying about. A spoon in progress follows the natural shape of the bone (Fig. 228), it is carved out of a knee piece of a young animal. The lower part of the spoon is still loose knit, not hard bone yet. Maria Sándor observed at the bone carving workshop in mediaeval Buda Castle that the younger the animals were the whiter the bone carvings turned out to be 1963, 107—124). They also endeavoured to re-model their carvings which were of valuable raw material. Traces of re-carving are noticeable on the outer part of the black ivory band (Fig. 230). Building XV (Figs. 236—238) North of the area sacra, in the SE corner of dwelling house XV, there was a die (Fig. 237), and a globular-headed pin decorated with three grooves on its neck. (Fig. 238). An individual piece is the fragment of a bone jar. (Fig. 236). In the stripes separated by three shallow groves engraed there are dotted concentric circles. Tabernae (Figs. 239—282) In the fourth century on the north side of the EW oriented main street were built the palatium and the two early Christian basilicas, in front of them, the other side of the street was lined by a long row of shops. Behind the small shops opening from arcades were the warehouses. The bone carvings were, sarting from west, in rooms 2,3, 4,5 and below the arcades. In the second room there was a broad, flat plate rounded at its end, (possibly a mirror-handle?), with traces of iron rivet (Fig. 243). Beside it a stick ending in a ring, its end broken (Fig. 242). These ring-ended sticks make up a particular group of bone carvings from the fourth century, at their other end there are human, or, more rarely, animal representations. Investigating the southern bounds of the fourth century cemetery, at Gorsium, a round building was discovered which may have been a late burial chapel. Below it a fourth century grave was found. In the neighbourhood of this building another ringed stick was unearthed on which there was a fulllength female figure (We know the fragment of another ring from Gorsium as a stray find). Supported by the fragment foud in the cemetery it can be taken that our finds belong to the group of ring-ended sticks known from Intercisa. The bone pions found at the Forum also indicate an early commercial connection between the two settlements. Either the bone work-shop at Intercisa produced an influence on Gorsium or a number of articles was made at Intercisa. Regarding their craftsmanship the ornamental pins found in the tabernae do not fit to the forms of the local workshop. Their exact analogies are known from several sites. The two cylindrical ornamental pins, decorated on their mantle with a twisted line and having a flat respectively pointed end (Figs. 244, 245) are very beautiful. Ruprechtsberg e r believes them to be a characteristic late Roman type in Noricum (RUPRECHTSBERGER 1978. Nr. 29—31). D u 1 a r has not published a single specimen from Slovenia, while they are common on Hungarian sites of Pannónia. The delicately carved pin-head (Fig. 252) showing very thin astragal motive has a parallel corresponding to the millimetre in the collection of the Hungarian Natinal Museum from unknown site (probably from Intercisa). The globular-headed pins found at the,tabernae are mostly the late, finely polished large-headed pins (Figs. 256, 264, 271, 272, 273, 274). Here is to be seen the earliest "pointed needle" which occurs in great numbers in building XXXVIII (Fig. 251.) Building XXXVIII (Figs. 283—303) The buildings of the concilium provinciáé took up the east side of the area sacra with their halls richly decorated with frescoes and coated with stuccoes. On the site of the ruined offices a large residential building was erected in the fourth century. The bone carvings in this building are late ower. The combs could be earlier. The fragments of the combs belong to the group of double sided fine-tooth combs, they are not ornamental combs. The parallel lines running crosswise on their band alternate with the double or triple vertical engravings. Both ends finished in a straight line (Figs. 295, 300, 302, 303). Finetooth comb was also placed in a grave of the cemetery (Fig. 406). The needle pointed at both ends also appears in the 4th century. They turned up from the tabernae and from this residential building. Their material is dark, wood-like, the eyelet is not rounded but "needle sharp", thus it was not possible to use them for sewing in the usual way for, if it got stuck in the material, it could not be pushed through. Such a needle type may be practical, for instance, to sew leather, where thick yarn or a leather strip has to be guided through holes prepared beforehand. In such a case the pointed eyelet assists in getting through a thick leather strip or a stiff yarn (Figs. 293, 294, 296). The globular-headed pins are small and their heads are long-shaped (Figs. 288, 290, 291), being common in the tabernae as well. On the east side of the building near the drain there were a decorated knob and two carved pins. At the edge the knob there is a ridge with isnentric circles on it. (Fig. 283, 298, 299). Beside the disc there was an animal figured pin worn past recognition (Fig. 299). Only a the bird's outlines can be made out on the shiny white pin. Such a shiny white pin is the one with the cock, left in grave nr. 95 of the cemetery. Though here, the extremely worn figure of the cock is decorated by a secondary incised-cross hatching motive. Independently from the representation the motive runs across the small animal, its base and also along the pin itself. This kind of incised-crosshatching decorates also the end of the other ornamental pin which was found in the drain (Fig. 298). The pair of this pin at the north 48