Tárnoki Judit szerk.: Tisicum - A Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Megyei Múzeumok Évkönyve 19. (2009)
Természettudomány és régészet - Alice M. Choyke - László Bartosiewicz - Telltale tools from a tell: Bone and antler manufacturing at Bronze Age Jászdózsa-Kápolnahalom, Hungary
Természettudomány és régészet antler, either worked or especially as raw material at the contemporary settlement of Százhalombatta-Földvár. Objects made from various parts of the antler rack were used to divide straps and attach the bit and reins on various parts of horse bridles. 4 9 Because they are generally beautifully made, these spectacular pieces have been much discussed in the literature. 5 0 Incised motifs are common and different ones appear side by side. Motifs include meander designs with clear links to contemporaneous Aegean cultures or copy motifs on coeval ceramics and decorative metal. These artifacts represent a classic example of iconological style with broad distributions. 5 1 They arise at the same moment horse numbers drop sharply compared to the early Bronze Age. Their beautiful execution and elaborate designs underscore the high status accorded horse. Although horse flesh was sometimes eaten 5 2 this was not common at sites of this period since horse was clearly more important for transport of individual riders, perhaps wealthy, traders. This also explains why these incised motifs and decorative types in general become increasingly widespread. A number of these decorated objects may even have been produced by semi-specialized craftspeople who may also have traveled from center to center, increasing the distribution of formal styles. Metal axes were used to cut off antler tines and section the beam but otherwise chipped stone and abrasive stones were used to manufacture utilitarian objects for everyday life. Only some these special decorative pieces of (mostly) antler seem to have been carved and incised using metal tools, increasing their relative value in the eyes of people using and observing them (the audience). Antler tine 'net-weaver'. Only two so-called 'net-weavers' came to light at Jászdózsa-Kápolnahalom, one from the late Hatvan and the other from the Koszider occupation at the site. They are beautifully carved from tines with a thin point and a long guide hole drilled longitudinally at the other end. They are both well worn. Such objects are scattered consistently on sites of this period although they are never common. Their consistent form over wide areas also suggests that they may not have been strictly utilitarian but also somehow involved in display. Thus, whether they were actually used as net-weavers is debatable. The convention is to call them net-weavers based on similarities with ethnographically attested specimens. Some kind of filament was, never the less, definitely passed through the cylindrical guide hole. Large antler tools The categories of worked antler at Jászdózsa49 CHOYKE, Alice, 2005.154, figs. 12, Plate 1, image 1. 50 BÖKÖNYI Sándor 1953, FOLTINY, Stephen 1965, H ÜTTEL, HansGeorg 1981, MOZSOLICS Amália 1962. 51 STARK, Miriam T. 1999. 29. 52 CHOYKE, Alice M. et.al. 2004. Kápolnahalom also include largely utilitarian handles, picks and heavy-duty hammer-adzes and axes made from the robust burr and beam of the red deer antler rack. Since by definition these objects are made from a specially selected raw material - antler - all finished objects fall toward the Class I end of the manufacturing continuum. There are numerous examples of half-finished objects and relatively large amounts of refuse in the form of cut-off tines showing that such tools were manufactured on site. This speaks to the idea that the people at the settlement traded in red deer products, including antler. The amounts of manufacture refuse are particularly high compared to other comparable sites from the Middle Bronze Age in the region. Since most of the identifiable pieces seem to come from gathered, shed antler, this suggests that insuring the supply of antler was important for economic reasons and that, perhaps, more might have been procured than was necessary to meet the immediate demands of the local population. In other words, there may have been a surplus of antler, traded on in the form of finished utilitarian tools. Certainly, if the amount antler objects found at Százhalombatta represents what would have been necessary for daily life then there was a true surplus of antler at Jászdózsa. The fact is that most of the antler objects seems to have been produced (based on distribution of the refuse antler) in the central mound area of the site. As a hypothesis, this may also suggest that free access to antler was limited to certain segments of the community - individuals literally living at the center of the settlement who might have controlled gathering, stockpiling, manufacturing and trading in antler objects. Burr and beam hammer/adze (H 10.6%; H-F 12.7%; K 14.8%; S 8.8%). These tools are based on the burr and beam segments of the red deer antler rack. There are only three examples of antler from hunted animals with the pedicle still attached being used as the hammer part of the tool (Plate IV, a). The burr (or pedicle) functioned as hammers with remains of battering visible on their surfaces. The eye tines are cut off flush with the surface of the beam and the hafting holes were drilled or cut out in a medial-lateral direction. Finally, where the butt ends remain they are either oblique, used as adzelike rather than axe-like instruments (Plate IV, b and c) or cut straight as hafts for a separate blade (Plate IV, d-g). The latter are more characteristic of the western Middle Bronze Age Vatya culture (Pákozdvár-Várhegy, SzázhalombattaFöldvár, Mende-Leányvár, Igar-Vámpuszta). 5 3 Holes for most tools needed to be re-drilled as the butt-end broke off during use which sometimes accounts for the final location of holes directly behind the burr. There is one example from the late Hatvan phase of a hammer/adze decorated with a row of dots around the hafting hole (Figure 7). Such decorated 53 CHOYKE, Alice M. 1979, 1984. 365
