Folia archeologica 1-2.

Leszih Andor: Borsodmegyei szkíta leletek

85 LESZIH: SCYTHIAN FINDS FROM THE COUNTY OF BORSOD on its belly in vertical, and not as was usual in horizontal direction, two elongated narrow warts. The other urn (height 24 cm, diam. at the mouth 14 cm) with four warts on the upper part of its body and below the rim two holes for suspension. A mug (height 8 cm, diam. 105 cm) with high broad handle and primitively incised line on its neck. About the middle of the Kocsmadomb came to light as a stray find probably in 1931 or 1932 a very beautiful and entirely complete Scythian bronze mirror (Fig. 7, no. 1—la) of which we were informed during the excavation in 1932. Béla Keményffy, veterinary surgeon at Ónod, who is an ardent explorer of the antiquities of the district, came across the mirror at Ónod and procured it for the Museum. The mirror is identical with those deriving from the grave-groups of Pókfalva and Oláhzsákodi.

6 Thus its detailed description would be a mere repetition. The measurement is also approximately the same (34-1 cm long of which 181 cm is taken by the disc and 16 cm bv the handle). The rim of the disc is 1 cm high. At the upper end of the handle is a stag with antlers thrown back, and flexed legs. At the bottom of the handle is an animal with long legs and twining tail, which is determined in descriptions up to the present as wolf or horse. There are no traces of burning whatever on the mirror, neither can the traces of polishing be determined. Though we made inquiries concerning the circumstances of the find, we could not obtain a satisfactory and certain answer from the person who found it. He had dug out the mirror from about thé same depth as we found urngraves on that part of the Kocsmadomb, which is towards the village, and which area had already been dug up. As he said there were also potsherds in the vicinity of the mirror. It may be> supposed that it had been the deposit of an urngrave, as the site of the mirror was on the area of an urnfield. We carefully excavated the indicated spot, but we did not find anything except disturbed layers of earth and insignificant potsherds. From the fact that on the wolf of this mirror as on those of the finds of Dudujka, described below — and also on those of Pókfalva, a deep and clearly observable incision is on the nose part of the face above the mouth, encircling also the- head of the animal, we must drop the presumption that here it is the question of a natural animal chase of the wolf after the stag. The incision for the tether points to a trained hunting animal. The tether is also emphasised by Gábor Téglás, who conceives of the animal rather as a steppe horse than a wolf.

7 Béla Keményffy called my attention to the fact that not only the tether, but in general the figure of the animal indicates rather a hunting leopard than wolf. The unusual length of the legs, the drooping ears, the snub snout, and the twining tail, which is the nature of the feline race, are all characteristics of the leopard. The wolf has not such a broad head, the ears are erect, the tail is shaggy and not twined, and on both sides of the end of the mirrior's handle the twined nature of the tail is illustrated (Especially on the specimen found at Oláhzsákod). The leopard is being led on a leash to the hunt and its head is bound. Taking into consideration that in Asia in ancient times it was the habit to hunt with leopards and also taking into consideration the aforementioned characteristics, it is more presumable that the two animal figures on the ends of the mirror's handle represent a hunting scene; a leopard chasing a stag. From the area of the County of Borsod the following Scythian finds came to light as well

: As stray find we obtained in 1934 a bronze handle of a mirror found in the Temetősor diilő at Hejőszalonta (Fig. 5, no. 3). The handle decorated with four grooves, has a ram's head 'at the one end and the other end is plain with a curve on the top, on which was a crouched stag, but that is missing. This is identical with the handle of the mirror of Fejérd (Arch. Ért. il893, p. 397, fig. 15). Our specimen is several times involuted, and on one side is stuck a largish shapeless bronze lump. Obviously the mirror was deformed in the fire and a part of it melted and stuck to the ahndle. It is 13-2 cm long in its present shape. Hejőszalonta is scarcely 5 km distant from Muhi. According to the donor, human bones as well were found in the neighbourhood of the mirror's handle. Concerning the famous gold stag, ahain and buttons found at Zöldhalompuszta, in the surroundings of Mezőkeresztes, see work of Nándor Fettich.

8 Two buttons from these finds are preserved in our Museum. In 1937 at Tiszakeszi in the Fáy's garden beside an urn (PI. IV, fig. 3, height 15 cm, diam. at the mouth 10 cm) were found an iron axe-adze