A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyve 41. - 1999 (Nyíregyháza, 1999)

Régészet - Eszter Istvánovits: Tiszavasvári-Városföldje, Jegyző-tag. A settlement of the 5th century

Eszter Istvánovits pieces from several sites of the Upper Tisza region, e.g. from Tiszalök (PÁRDUCZ 1959.Taf. XXI.7).

13 This is a ceramic form known mainly from the territory neighboring with Germanic tribes. Other clay objects We have found only two handmade and one wheelmade spindle-whorl (PI. IV. 1, XVII.2, XXIII.6). At the same time we also have two plain spindle discs made with the same technique but without a hole (Pl. IV.2, XLIX.l). Discs with a perforated hole in the middle usually are defined as spindle-whorls. It is a question, what was the function of discs without a perforated hole. In the case of objects carved in the shape of a disc out of a potsherd we can suggest that they were half-ready spindle-whorls (in the vicinity similar pieces were found, for example, in Tiszaeszlár: KOVALOVSZKI 1980.13. t. 5-9), but the objects from Tiszavasvári were produced without perforation. Similar carved ceramic discs have been found among the finds of other ages as well. In the Tiszavasvári site we have unearthed a piece made out of a vessel of the Late Bronze Age (Gáva culture).

14 Recently similar discs (some of them perforated in the middle) have been found in Poland, in a sacral place dated to the 1st century B.C. I have already referred to this shrine in connection with the human remains. Here I would like only to notice that together with these discs decorated, round, plain clay objects have been found showing a further evidence that simpler pieces like ours also could have had ritual function (BEDNARCZIK 1998.).

15 Similar objects are regularly found at Scythian settlements in Crimea. According to a recent publication they were used as pieces of a table game or- as it was also suggested- in the course of firing of pottery to separate vessels from each other (VYSOTSKAIA 1995.49). Stones Minerals found at the site - except for metamorphic and sedimentary rocks (these were found in a small number and appear at the present territory of Hungary only in alluvia) - with a great probability come from the Tokaj-Zemplén Mountains. The so called 13. Hungarian National Museum, Archaeological Department inv. no. 67.2.4., unpublished. 14.JAM 87.132.12., 87.135.100., 87.141.10. 15. This suggestion can not be excluded even if discs without any perforation can be really connected with the spindlewhorls. 16.1 thank Péter Rózsa (Kossuth Lajos University, Debrecen) for the thorough examination and analysis of the minerals. JAM Ad. 93.32. "Bodrogkeresztúr tuff (houses 3 and 6) belongs to the material of the Kakas-hegy (Kakas Mountain) from Bodrogkeresztúr. Minerals have been brought to the site from the southern periphery extending from Sátoraljaújhely to Szerencs.

16 Metal objects Finally, we have to devote some words to the metal find material of the site. On the first place we have to deal with the cicada fibula found in the fill of house 1 (Fig. 10-11). This is our main evidence for the dating of the excavated part of the settlement (ISTVÁNOVITS Fig. 10 Tiszavasvári-Városföldje, Jegyző-tag, house 1: cicada fibula 10. kép Tiszavasvári-Városföldje, Jegyző-tag 1. ház: cikádafibula Fig. 11 Tiszavasvári-Városföldje, Jegyző-tag, house 1: cicada fibula 11. kép Tiszavasvári-Városföldje, Jegyző-tag 1. ház: cikádafibula 180