Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 30/1. (2010)
Articles
160 К. László As tempering material less fine sand was used, mixed with small sized pebbles. Considering the size of the pebbles we can divide two groups of pottery fragments: the ones having mixed in their paste pebbles less than 1 mm large and the ones having 1 to 3 mm sized pebbles. The first group is best represented in this lot, while the second one is represented by 6 fragments only (PI. 2/2; 3/1-5). A thorough microscopic analysis would most certainly modify these simple observations made at a first sight.6 A great amount of the pottery fragments were ornamented. We cannot be sure if the vessels to which the fragments belonged - the ones from the neck part (PI. 2/4-5) or the four bottom fragments (PI. 2/8-9 and PI. 3/9-10) - were decorated. The three ceramic cauldron fragments lack any ornamentation (PL 3/2-4). The jar-vessels were most commonly decorated with straight lines, wavy lines and oblique impressions of different types, made with a comb or a pointed instrument (PI. 4/4). We have two fragments with oblique impressions combined with bands of wavy lines or single wavy lines (PI. 2/2; 3/7). All the ornaments are placed on the neck, on the shoulder or on the body of the vessels and were realised through incisions in the soft paste. A certain particularity presents the fragment from a pot found in S5 from 2009, which was provided with a button (PI. 4/2). For the 10th-13th centuries in this area - and not only - we lack any observation regarding this type of buttons, which are especially familiar to the Dacian milieu.7 Close to the button, there is a thin V-shaped incision which could either be an accident or a decorative element. The product resulted from the pottery making process gives us the information about the technique used to produce it. In case the firing took place in an oxidizing environment, the colour obtained is brick-red, due to the large quantity of oxygen. In a reducing atmosphere, or at low temperatures, when the paste cannot go through oxidation, or when the interval of the firing is too short, different nuances are acquired, from gray to black. An open firing can cause “fire clouds” generating gray to brick-red stains on the surface of the pot.8 Some of the pottery retrieved from G1 belonged to pots burned in an oxidizing environment (Pi. 3/7, 9), but most of the fragments were incompletely fired, where from we have brown to dark brown colours. From the materials collected from the vegetation stratus, the three cauldron fragments were produced in an oxidizing milieu, but apart from them, the fragments have greyish brick-red to dark brown colours. Because of the reduced number of pot fragments, out of which not a single vessel could be completed, we cannot speak about a large diversity of shapes. Nevertheless, the jar-vessels are well represented as number, and we also have shapes like the cauldron and the bowl. The diameter of jar-vessels ranges between 13 and 18 cm; the rims are obliquely cut or rounded and are not provided with any handle. The bottoms that we found have a 10 cm diameter. Considering the dimensions of the rim these vessels are medium sized recipients commonly found in the households of the epoch. In the case of cauldrons we encounter two kinds of rims. The first one is profiled towards the exterior and has a square shape (PL 3/2) and the second one is profiled both outwards and inwards (PL 3/3). The only bowl was unfortunately retrieved from the vegetation 6 In Hungary, the microscopic analyses performed lately modified the archaeological observations regarding the tempering material used in the Arpadian epoch. The clay found on the shores of the rivers already contained impurities, and it was used as such, without any further insertions. A certain change was produced in the 12th- 13th centuries, when “pebble” mixed sand was deliberately used (Simonyi 2005, 43-45). 7 Dacian fragments with alveolar girdle were found in this site (Berecki-Cioatä 2010), as well as at the close site at Dealul Bunii (Lazär-Opri? 1989, 95-97, fig. 3/5). 8 Renfrew-Bahn 1999, 320.
