A Debreceni Déri Múzeum Évkönyve 1960-1961 (Debrecen, 1962)

A. Kiss: Late Medieval Iron Tools Found Near Debrecen

Attila Kiss Late Medieval Iron Tools Found Near Debrecen The find consisting of iron implements came to light in a bundle in the municipal sand-pit of Debrecen. It embraced the following objects: two axes, four sickles, one reed-mower and two spearheads.Observations did not reveal the trace of a settlement or a cemetery in the neighbourhood, thus we must conclude that they were hidden intentionally. On the basis of typology and following the method of exclusion, the find may be dated to the late middle ages in all probability. The fact that they were hidden allows an inference to their value. The scanty data at our disposal, however, contradict the supposition that iron objects possessed a serious value in the late middle ages. From all these we gather that the objects had a value for their proprietor, probably a poor man, on account of their usefulness in everyday life. This is witnessed also by the condition of the objects, as all of them wore the traces of use. The fact that agricultural and military objects were hidden together might be explained with the help of ethnographical observation: the spear has been a familiar weapon during the middle ages, even in the hands of peasants, so the find may have belonged to a small rural community. The reason for the concealing of the mentioned objects ought to be looked for in historical events. As a probable date we suggest the period between the end of the 15th and the 17th century, a period of devastation and depopulation in the history of the Great Hungarian Plain. 37