Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 32/2. (2012)
Articles
18 R. E. Németh culture (Bondár 1992; 2004; 2006; Horváth 2010, 95). The most numerous wagon models from the Early and Middle Bronze Age were discovered in Romania - 63 artifacts followed by Hungary with 19 pieces. The majority of the Romanian finds can be linked to the Otomani and Wietenberg cultures (Bondár 2012, 76, 78, 81). The collection from the Mures County Museum From the 23 wheel models from the collection of the Mure§ County Museum, the find spots of 14 wheels are known, and five are fragmented. Nine were discovered in Tärgu Mure$Cetate, unfortunately in a mixed cultural layer, with Wietenberg, Noua and Early Iron Age sherds. The remaining ten pieces are from different former private collections, and thus the exact find spot of the artefacts can no longer be identified. The finds from Cräciunesti (11), Petrilaca (12), Bezid-Lof and Sängeorgiu de Pädure-Leánymező can be linked to the above mentioned archaeological sites presented in the Mures County Repertory, but none of them was published up till today. Regarding the typology of the wheel models several ideas were outlined. Ordentlich and Chidio^an separated different types within the composite wheel with hubs: 1. without ornamentation; 2. with ornamentation; and 3. spooked wheels (Ordentlich-Chidiosan 1975, 35). Schuster separated the wheels based on their forms: 1. wheels with hubs, a thick modelled nave around the axle-hole in the middle (on both sides or only on one side) and 2. wheels without hubs (Schuster 1996, 118-119). The present paper will use the latter typology. The 23 wheel models in the collection of the Mure§ County Museum are mostly with hubs on both sides of the wheels (Pi. 1/1-7, PL 2/8-11, 15). The wheels with hubs only on one side are quite rare (Pi. 3/12-14, 17, 18). Only 6 artefacts can be included in the category of the wheel models without hubs (PI. 3/16, PL 4/19-23). Four wheels are decorated, two of them having finger-nail impressions (PL 3/15, 17), the surface of one wheel is decorated with punched impressions in a spiral, while on one fragment one can see a typical ‘wolf teeth’ Wietenberg ornamentation around the hub of the wheel model (PL 1/2). While several wheel models can easily be mistaken with the disc-shaped spindle-whorls, not every flat wheel model - those without hubs - can be surely be included in the category of the wagon accessories. As some ‘spindle-whorls’ could have various other functions, several criteria were destined to define and then identify the items actually used as such in the spinning process. There are several criteria which define a spindle-whorl, based on the characteristics of the hole (form, dimension, the centred-position), or defined by the dimension of the spindlewhorl (weight, diameter, height). In order to be functional the hole centred in the middle of the spindle-whorl must be larger than 0.4 cm. The ideal form is a truncated cone, and generally one side needs to be flat (Mazäre 2012,104-109, 125). In conclusion, these types of ‘wheels’ without hubs, can be found in the generally accepted typology of the spindle-whorls too, although their number is considerably lower, than those having other forms (Manuel 2009, 94, Abb. 33). The question remains open about the real function of these objects; and conclusions should be drawn only when knowing the exact find circumstances. To overpass somehow this impediment and doubt I tried to gather several analogies which are surely wheel models, and several original sized wooden wheels after which the smaller ones, the models were imitated.
