Marta, Livius et al.: The Late Bronze Age Settlement of Nyíregyháza-Oros „Úr Csere” (Satu Mare, 2010)
VII. Ioan Bejinariu - Liviu Marta: Activities int he Settlement
VII. ACTIVITIES IN THE SETTLEMENT Considering the fertile area where the settlement of Oros is situated, in the high Nir Plain, agriculture is well-understood. The presence of chaffs in the fragments of burned walls and some fragments of walls that preserve the traces of some cereal chaff sustains this assertion. The large number of supplies pits and grinder fragments present in the inventory of most of the complexes in the settlement can be connected to the existence of grains in the settlement. The discovery of a pit containing two grinding stones in an area with ritual deposits (complex 19, Fig. 7), suggests the practicing of some rituals related to the cultivation or consumption of cereals283. The fact that the two grinders were discovered on the bottom of the pit, arranged (superposed), comes to support the idea that the pit was dug especially for this purpose. The bones preserved in the settlement offer clues about activities such as husbandry, respectively hunting. The large number of cattle bones (47% of all the bones identified), implies that the breeding of this species had an important role. The preponderance of the adult female bones can be correlated with the breeding of cows for dairy products. It seems that the inhabitants of the Late Bronze Age settlement of Oros gave a smaller importance to the breeding of pigs, sheep, goats and horses as their number was rather small. The few bones of wild animals discovered, originating from cervidae, rabbits or bisons are unlikely to prove intense hunting activities284. Many artifacts found in the settlement of the late age of Oros clearly prove the carrying out of activities of bronze pieces casting. This includes: a crucible, moulds, casting debris, perhaps even the river stones occurred in some complexes that could serve to finish the bronzes through polishing285. One such activity was primarily designed to meet the community needs, but we cannot exclude the idea that part of the bronze pieces were meant for trading. Those objects were not found in a complex, in a building which could be considered to be a metallurgical workshop286, but they occurred most often in a fragmentary state, in various complexes 283 A discussion on grinders within a ritual context, at Makkay 1978, p. 13-36. 284 The species share in the Nyíregyháza - Oros settlement is similar to the one from Suciu de Sus of Petea-Csengersima (analysis made by Elisabeta Berendi - in Marta 2009, p.181-186). 285 Mozsolics 1984, p. 19-72; Gogâltan 1999, p. 127-128; Péterdi 2004, p. 487. 286 As a matter of fact, only one of the numerous complexes assigned to the inhabitation of this time, with rectangular ground-plan (complex 281, sized 5 x 2,5 m), slightly deepened in the ground, can be considered to be a construction. 57
