Arrabona - Múzeumi közlemények 1. - In memoriam Floriani Romer (Győr, 1959)
A. Uzsoki: Details to the History of Gold-Washing in Transdanubia
DETAILS TO THE HISTORY OF GOLD-WASHT.NG IN TRANSDANUBIA One of the oldest metals of mankind is gold. In prehistoric, times it was washed out from the sand of rivers and brooks. Its extraction by mining began later as proved by recently discovered places of occurence of gold and by the circumstances of the discovery of platinum. Gold was washed from many rivers and brooks of Europe from prehistoric times on till to the present days. The richest region of gold-washing in the Danube-basin was Transylvania. The authors of antiquity refer to it too. Apart from Transylvania, important gold-washing went on also in Transdanubia, in the reach of the Danube in the plane of Northwestern Hungary, and in the reach of the Drava and Mura rivers in Muraköz. The gold of these three rivers is supplied by brooks which origin in the Alpes, in the Fichtel-Mountains, in the Bohemian Forests, in the Bohemian-Moravian Downs and in Slovakie. The standard of the Danubian washed gold amounts to 93—95%, that of the gold of Muraköz — to 92,59%. One found in Transylvania in the Bodza-pass in 1837 fifteen gold bars. Each of them weights half a kilogram. They are called in the back to the 11 th century. In Szigetköz the memory of gold-washing is preserved by some sagas, locutions and by names of by-ways. Some old gold-washers lived in this region still in the thirties years, in Muraköz however we find gold-washers still in our days. One found in Transylvania in the Bodza-pass in 1887 fifteen gold bars. Each of them weights half a kilogram. They are called in the special literature of archeology bars of Kraszna. According to the marks on them, they were prepared in Pannónia, in the mint of Sirmium, to the end of the 4 th century. They could not be moulded from Transylvanian gold because the Romans left Transylvania already in 271. The standard of the gold bars amounts to 980 per mill. Gold of such a high standard is — apart from the washed gold of Transdanubia — not to be found in the Karpatian-basin. These facts prove also that the Romains obtained the gold in Szigetköz and Muraköz by means of washing. In the late iron age, preceding the reign of the Romans, the Celts were famous gold-washers. They brought this art from their Celtic country of origin. The gold founds of the early iron age probably originate from Transylvanian gold-washing but chemical analysis proves also gold of Transdanubian origin. We suppose the working of gold-washing places in Transdanubia in the bronze age and the copper age, and take into consideration the possibility of gold-washing in Bohemia at this time. 82
