Mária T. Biró: The Bone Objects of the Roman Collection. (Catalogi Musei Nationalis Hungarici. Seria Archeologica 2; Budapest, 1994)

III. JEWELLERY - 1. Bracelets

1. Bracelets It is due to the more careful observations of excavations that the find group of Roman-Age bracelets easily damaged is ever growing in our days. Earlier even when unearthing cemeteries these finds were not separated from bones of the skeleton, either — being mostly small, 2-3 cm fragments, the decoration of which could not be discerned because of the soil on it — therefore, based on the similarity of material, they were not registered as archaeological finds. Perhaps as the technique of excavations of provincial settlements is approaching the minute methods introduced in Palaeolithic explorations, these finds will have more chance to survive. This is the explanation why they occur in great number in Late-Roman cemeteries and they are missing from settlements belonging to these same cemeteries. In the Late-Roman cemetery of Tác their number was around a hundred while there was only one fragment found in the town.

65 The stand-point of research today is that the fashion of bone bracelets was characteristic of the 4th century. In this period they appear in masses in the Late-Roman cemeteries of our province. Certain distinctions of wear and burial rites could also be identified. At the burials it could be well observed that bronze, or sometimes iron bracelets were worn on the right arm while those made of bone were on the left.

66 This custom may have had a ritual cause or a practical explanation, namely, that the fragile bone bracelet worn on the left arm was less exposed to damage, and as they were worn this way in life, they were also put on this way when burying the person. This is contradicted however, by the circumstance, that with tentwelve bracelets on one arm one could hardly do housework. It must have been a decorative part of the festive attire, where religious customs and prescriptions were more dominating than practical considerations. The distinguishing of these two materials on right respectively left hand could be explained possibly by LateRoman folk belief and the knowledge of their superstitions. Several bracelets were worn on one arm. Moreover, both the burial drawing of cemetery maps and the diameter of carvings of unknown site prove that they were equally worn on the upper and lower arm. The decoration of bracelets is by far not so homogeneous than we should think at first sight, Each unit — cemetery — has its local characteristics. The technique of decorations is also suitable for distinguishing the workshops. Dot-circle motifs were incised with a firm, double-pointed tool (as opposed to today's compasses, both legs of these tools are constant). With an appropriate row of measurements the tools employed by a certain workshop could be reconstructed. The technical conditions for such measurements were, unfortunately, not given to me. Still, from the employment and arrangement of motifs one could deduce stylistic features as well as characteristics hinting at certain workshops. In the Collection of the Hungarian National Museum it is only in the Dunapentele find material where the number of bracelets allows to distinguish stylistic features of workshops. These bracelets were unearthed by E. Mahler in the 1910s. (Nos. 7476.) Beside the several, smooth surfaced thin bracelets the majority is characterized by the system of double dot-circles employed in different grouping. (Nos. 77-82.) Two, three, moreover, five circles are incised near one another and these are at a certain distance repeated continuously on the superficies of the bracelet. These bracelets are characterized by 0.7-0.8 cm wide superficies (being a medium size among bone bracelets). Double circles are placed possibly between border lines resembling a row of patterns. My observations suggest that circles were made first, then the border lines. It two cases (Nos. 72-73.) the dot-circle motif is crossed by the line. The other type of bracelets from Dunaújváros is wider than our former group. (Nos. 8384.) Small sized dot-circles without break (No. 64.) make up the outer surface of the bracelets, in either straight or picot edge pattern. I am inclined to range the wide, richly decorated bracelet of unknown site (Nos. 85., 64.) among Intercisa carvings where four smaller circles were incised into the larger circles and the empty spaces were also filled with tiny circles while the field itself is cut to stripes by vertical lines. Of the workshop represented in our Collection this technique is a characteristic feature of the Intercisa bone carvers. (No. 84.) In our Collection there are two respectively three bracelets from Ságvár and Pilismarót. The bracelets of Ságvár (Nos. 65-66.) were unearthed in the Late Roman graves of the Tömlöchegy cemetery. One of the bracelets is decorated with double dot-circles and the circles are incised in group of three circles. The other was made up of single, small-sized dot-circles.