Savaria - A Vas Megyei Múzeumok értesítője 24/3. (1997) (Szombathely, 1997)

Kovács Tibor: A kiskőszegi (Battina) bronzkori és korai vaskori ékszerlelet

SAVARIA A VAS MEGYEI MÚZEUMOK ÉRTESÍTŐJE SZOMBATHELY 24/3 (1998-1999) PARS ARCHAEOLOGICA 1999 A BRONZE AND AN IRON AGE HOARD FROM KISKŐSZEG (BATTINA, YUGOSLAVIA) KOVÁCS TIBOR Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum Budapest Following several decades of indifference, scholarly interest is now again centred around various early bronze hoards from Transdanubia. Some of these came to light quite a few years ago, while others are more recent discoveries. One feature shared by these hoards is that they can all be associated with the Encrusted Pottery culture. The more recently found hoards include the one from Tata (Komárom county) (CSEH 1998), and the Mucsi hoard (Tolna county) found in 1988 (KOVÁCS 2000). Of the older hoard assemblages, the Bonyhád hoard (Tolna county), discovered in 1909, was exhibited in Berlin and also described in the catalogue to this exhibition (HANSEL 1997, 112-113). The Szigliget hoard (Veszprém county) and an unprovenanced hoard in the Hungarian National Museum will be published in a forthcoming volume (cf. KOVÁCS 1994, 159-160). The Kiskőszeg (Battina) hoard from northern Yugoslavia, described here, has an interesting history. In 1986 the Hungarian National Museum purchased various archaeological objects from the collection of László Mauthner, an antiquities dealer active in the interwar period. Very little in the way of authentic documentation has survived about these finds since Mauthner's notebooks in which he recorded what he knew about these and other finds disappeared - and probably perished - during World War 2. The single piece of documentation is a small note accompanying some of the artefacts which records their findspot. Also, the fact that some artefacts were mounted onto the same piece of cardboard can be taken to indicate that they were possibly part of the same find assemblage. One such 'assemblage' includes ten anchors shaped pendants, three ribbed pendants and three stylized anthropomorphic pendants, accompanied by a note reading Kőszeg, Vas county. There was some doubt as to the reliability of the findspot and the actual association of the artefacts from the very beginning since the condition and the surface patination of the anchor shaped pendants and the ribbed pendants is basically identical (Fig. 1. 1-13), while that of the strongly corroded anthropomorphic pendants differs markedly (Fig. 2. 1-3). The former can most likely be associated with a hoard of the Encrusted Pottery culture. In contrast, anthropomorphic pendants are alien to the metalworking traditions of this culture. Another cause for suspicion is that aside from the uncertain Carnuntum hoard (Deutschaltenburg, Austria) (RUTTKAY 1983), comparable contemporary hoards are only known from the heartland of the Encrusted Pottery culture, and both Kőszeg and Carnuntum lie outside this territory. Fortunately, some of the problems surrounding this hoard can now be resolved owing to a lucky coincidence. The Prehistoric Collection of the Hungarian National Museum includes three anthropomorphic bronze pendants whose size and form corresponds to the ones in the above described hoard. These pendants came to light at Battina (Yugoslavia), formerly called Kiskőszeg, a site lying in the Danube-Dráva area in northern Yugoslavia (cf. Fig. 2. 4-6). This area lay in the heartland of the Encrusted Pottery culture. There can be no doubt that the pendants from Mauthner's collection and the ones in the collection of the Hungarian National Museum come from the same assemblage, indicating that the 'Kőszeg' hoard was actually found at Kiskőszeg (Battina). Finally, we may assume that Mauthner's mistake can in part be attributed to the similarity of the two place-names - Kőszeg and Kiskőszeg - and in part to the sun wheel motif on one of the anthropomorphic pendants which closely resembles the ornamentation of the ribbed pendants (Fig. 2.1).