Folia archeologica 22.

R. Pető Mária: Szarmata kori ásólelet Orosról

SARMATIAN PERIOD SPADES FROM OROS At Oros, county Szabolcs-Szatmár, belonging to the Nyíregyháza Museum's area of collecting, seven fan-shaped iron objects with hoses came ti light and they are recorded in the inventory as spades (H: 36 cm, W: 18 cm). Near to the find a coin of Antoninus Pius was unearthed, suggesting to all probability a dating to the middle of the 2nd century. There are no parallels to these objects in the archeological material of the Hungarian museums. In the area of the Great Flungarian Piain working implements of this period are extremely rare, so that their identification is very problematical too. The objects, having the same measures, are clumsy, heavy, coarsely made. With shafts to be fixed in their hoses they are suitable for heavy earthwork. As for their form and finish our spades show strong marks of Celtic tradition. The Roman spade of the period is with its quite different - triangular - shape a predecessor of the spade of to-day. The Oros spades are closely related to the paring spades found in the ethnographical material. Data regarding the agriculture of the Sarmatian period are extremely sparse, we have almost no implements, though grains of barley, spelt, millet, rye and oat, found in graves of the period, point to an intensive agricultural activity of the Sarmatian population. The spades were hidden in the earth by their one-time owner, who might have tried to bring them thus into safety from the Dacian raids during the reign of Antoninus Pius.