A Herman Ottó Múzeum évkönyve 53. (2014)
Régészet - Tóth Krisztián: Noteworthy Findings of the Roman Age and Early Migration Period from Borsodszirák, Northestern Hungary. First Investigations
170 Tóth Krisztián material a spare amount of rounded, mixed-sized sand and a rare amount of rounded, small pebbles can be found, which could be originally part of it, and it is rich in mica. Its outer and inner surface is black, so it is burnt in an oxygen-reduced atmosphere (Fig. 6. 4). On the inner and the section surface thick calcite crust can be observed, while on its outer surface marks of wheel-throwing are visible. The thickness of its wall is 7 mm, while the outer diameter of the rim is 22 cm. 6. It is a handmade biconical deep bowl with slightly hunched-up, slightly swelling, rounded, straight rim. In its poorly prepared basic material a rare amount of mixed-sized sand and a subrounded, small pebbles can be found, which could be parts of the material originally. It is rich in mica. Its outer and inner surface is grey, so it is burnt in an oxygen-reduced atmosphere (Fig. 6. 5). The outer and the inner surfaces are polished with gravel. The thickness of its wall is 6 mm and the diameter of the rim is 18 cm. 7. It is a wheel-made plate with hunched-up, tapered rim. In its well prepared basic material an abundant amount of rounded, well-sorted, mixed-sized sand can be found, and it is rich in mica, which are partly small quartz crystals. The sand probably was added by the potter as temper. Its outer and inner surface is dark grey (blue shade), grey at the section, so it is burnt in an oxygen-reduced atmosphere (Fig. 6. 6). The thickness of its wall is 7 mm and the diameter of the rim is 25 cm but it is uncertain. 8. It is a wheel or postwheel-made bowl decorated with stabbed-in rows made by a double, pointy tool. The potter made this stubbing from the right to the left. It has a moderately prepared basic material, which is poor in mica. The inner and the section surface is covered with clay and calcite. Its outer and inner surface is brown, it is probably burnt in an oxygen- reduced atmosphere (Fig. 7. 8). The thickness of its wall is 8 mm. 9. It is a hand-made bowl decorated with plastic ribs running beneath an incised line. In its moderately prepared basic material a spare amount of rounded, mixed-sized sand and a rare amount of subrounded, small pebbles can be found, which could be originally part of it. It is poor in mica. Its outer and inner surface is black, so it is burnt in an oxygen-reduced atmosphere (Fig. 7. 9). The inner surface is polished. The thickness of its wall is 1 cm. The terra sigillata fragment broken at the inner side is a Drag. 37 or 30 type of Westerndorf, which is dated to the first half of the 3rd century (Fig. 6. I).1 Until 1992, 60 pieces of sigillatae have been processed from a total of 33 archaeological sites located in the territory of Northern Hungary (Gabler-Vaday 1992, 89). Among the sigillatae from the Germanic and Sarmatian sites of Northern Hungary the form Drag. 37 represents the largest amount (Gabler—Vaday 1992,91). From this area the products of the workshop of Westerndorf are represented in the largest number, however, from type Drag. 30. only three are known from the same region (Gabler—Vaday 1992,91). This type and products of the workshop of Westerndorf also dominated at Germanic settlement excavated near the village of Garadna in the Hernád Valley, dating to the Roman period (Gyalai 2009, 358-359). The other piece of sigillata, a plate belongs to type Drag. 18/31, which is a product of the Rheinzabern workshop (Fig. 6. 2). Based on a similar piece from Garadna, the Borsodszirák sherd can be dated from the middle of the second century A. D. until the end of the first third of the third century A.D. (Gyalai 2009, 364). The products of this workshop were represented in a small number in Northern Hungary. From this area only one piece can be listed certainly to type 18 from this area, as well as another one that is unspecified (Gabler—Vaday 1992, 91). Presumably the bowl with ring on its base (Fig. 6. 7) belongs to the eastern Pannonian stamped pottery, a parallel to which has been published from Biatorbágy (Bia) by Éva Maróti (Marőti 1985,1. tábla 4). Ceramics with provincial origin are not strange among the Roman Age material of South-Eastern Slovakia. Not too far from the site of Borsodszirák, Mária Lamiová- Schmiedlová presented such kind of ceramics from Peder, Sena, Sebastovce-Barca, Turnianske Podhradie and Zdaria, which she dated to the second - third century A.D. (Lamiová-Schmiedlová 1969, 479). The one from the Egres-dűlő is most similar to the one excavated at Peder (Lamiová-Schmiedlová 1969, Abb. 13,7). I do not know any parallels of the bowl decorated with a double row of incised motifs (Fig. 7. 8). Perhaps similar ones could be discovered among the Quadic settlement materials of Western Slovakia, as the bowl from Object 185 of the site at Branc (Kölnik— Varsik—Vladár 2007, Tab 150, 2). It is also possible 1 I owe warm thanks to Dénes Gabler for defining and dating the terra sigillatae.
