Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 17. 1976 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1978)

Közlemények – Mitteilungen - Müller Róbert: The Iron Implement Find in Nagyvenyim. p. 245–249.

3. Garden hoe (Fig. 1.5.). Small-sized combined hoe. Full length: 16,1 cm. On one side it ends in a straight blade of 3,6 cm. length, on the other it is bifurcated. The hole for the shaft is oval (02,2— 2,9 cm.). Similar garden hoes were found in Pannónia in Nemes vámos — Balácapuszta and Nagybodolya(

e

). On account of their size they could serve only for surface cultivation of minor gardens; these implements (ascia/rastrum) were actually known in most part of the Roman Empire (WHITE 1967, 66 — 69). The blade of small garden hoes used in the modern age were always pointed, a shape which occurred but seldom in the Roman period (

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). The pieces with straight blade, including the Nagyvenyim find, can be dated with certainty from the Roman period. 4. Spade (Fig. 2.1.). Like all the other implements, this one is also strongly corroded and slightly damaged. At least 9,1 cm. in length, the open hose becomes narrower downwards. As shown by the nail-hole next to the upper edge, the shaft was fixed by means of a nail. The blade with sloping shoulder is almost square and is also tapering downwards. L. : min. 23 cm.; shoulder w. : 18,0 cm.; blade 1.: 12,2 cm.; hose 0 : ca. 4 cm. Spades made of iron are known only from the Roman period and the late Middle Age; the Roman types can be clearly distinguished from those of the late Middle Age. The former are always made with open-hose shaft fixation. The blade is generally trapezoidal and tapering downwards. The late mediaeval types have always a closed shovel, the blade is is either rounded off or pointed, the shoulder is usually recurved(

8

). An analogy equal in size of the Nagyvenyim Roman find is known from Keszthely — Fenékpuszta (Fig. 2.2.) (KuzsiNSZKY 1920, fig. 83). 5. Fragments of hose scythe (Fig. 2.3.). The hose (min. length 9 cm., 0 ca. 3,2 cm.) was originally also open. Strongly tapering upwards, it continues in an almost rectangularly recurved neck 1,0x1,7 cm. in diameter. This becomes gradually a blade after 7 cm. The blade was originally curved forward in a semicircle, but only five minor fragments could be found of it. On account of the thick hose the implement was certainly a scythe and no sickle. The shaft fixation with open hose is typical of Roman implements, scythes of this type are known in Hungary only from the Roman period(

9

). The neck without edge is usually much longer, only the upper curved part is edged. A find of Parndorf is identical with that of Nagyvenyim (Fig. 2.4.) (Burgenländisches Landesmuseum). (6) Bakony Museum, Veszprém: 55.275.520. The find of Baláca has been published already several times (RHÉ 1912, fig. 12); THOMAS 1964, LXXXV. t.; MRT, II, 19. t.), recently as one of unknown provenance (Kecskés—Pető 1974, fig. 3. e) Dunaújváros Museum: 68.129.1 (Dunaújváros). Naturhist. Museum, Wien: 40948 (Nagybodolya). (7) Such garden hoe with pointed blade is known from Aquincum (Kecskés—Pető 1974, fig. 3. f.) and from Britain (Manning 1970, 18 fig. 1/m.). Pieces with straight edge: Jacobi 1897, 445, fig. 69.19, 20, 24; Champion 1916, VII. t. 15896; REINHARDT 1924, 5. t.; Jacobi 1913,11. t. 1; WHITE 1967, figs. 42—45; WHITE 1970 fig. 41. (8) P. К e с s к é s and M.Pető have dealt recently with Pannonian spades (1974, 143). However, we cannot agree with some of their statements. They see a striking formal similarity between these implements and the ploughs-hares with hose handle. It is true that the hose of the former are also open, but always of angular section, while those of the spades are always round. On the other 6. Cart body pin (Fig. 1.6.). 33,2 cm. length iron rod with circular section. On the upper end a slightly bulging head 3,0 — 3,2 cm. in diameter. Due to strong wear the diameter narrows down to 1,4 — 1,5 cm, then becomes 1,9 cm. and does not change much any more (at the bottom 0 1,6 cm.). Although there is no sign of fracture at the bottom and the cart pin of Somodor is more than 50 cm. long (Gaul 1889, I.t. la.), the definition of the object is beyond any doubt. It actually permits the four-wheeled cart to be steered ; it passed through the centre of the front-axle, through the cushion and so the front-axle could turn away. A cart pin smaller than that of Nagyvenyim (L. : 29,3 cm.) is known from the late Middle Age (Ikvai 1972, 143, fig. 13.1.). The wear under the head is due to an iron plate covering the beam. Analogies of some of the Nagyvenyim iron finds are known from several ages including the Roman period (ploughshare, cart pin). However, the majority of the objects can be safely dated from the Roman period (plough chain, combined garden hoe, spade, hose-scythe) and thus the entire complex must be dated from that period. The relation between the pit with the iron implements and the grave from the late Migration period was thus incorrectly observed by the workers. There must have been more than 1 m. difference of level between the bottom of the shallow pit and that of the grave and it is therefore comprehensible that the iron objects were subsequently supposed to have been located above the grave. The find is incomplete and it is therefore conceivable that the gravediggers have deranged the depot lying there for about five centuries. This might have the time when the missing part of the plough chain disappeared. In several finds of the Roman period the ploughshare, the coulter and the plough-chain were found together (Darnay 1904, 194; Barb 1937, 74-76, fig. 1; Gabrovec 1955, I.t. 1 — 3), and so it is possible that the Nagyvenyim find also included originally a coulter. It should be noted, however, that several shovel-shaped ploughshares with ploughchains have been already excavated in Gorsium, but no coulter, it is therefore conceivable that ploughs with fore-carriage and without coulter have also been used in Roman Pannónia. Since the exact date of the different implements can be hardly determined as yet, we cannot but assume that a farmer might have hidden his valuable equipment under the chaotic circumstances of the late Roman period. R. Müller hand, their blade is mostly pointed, seldom rounded off, while that of the spade is generally angular (e. g. Balaton Museum, Keszthely: 59.8.1, 77.100.14; 77.101.1 from Keszthely—Fenékpuszta and Kiskőszeg). The recurved shoulder appears only in the late Middle Age. Of all objects they mentioned this can be observed on the Eisenstadt find only (KUBITSCHEK 1926, 117), but the circumstances of its discovery are uncertain and its analogies permit to date it safely on the late Middle Age. Spades with counter-sunk hose are known only from the Roman period. (9) L. Takács hypothetically dated the object in András Jósa Museum on the late Iron Age (1969, 46, fig. 4). In our opinion, however, this implement is from the Roman period, just like the one published by V. P â r v a n (Getica. Bucuresti, 1926. 493. fig. 337). Only some misinterpreted representations led L. T а к á с s to the conclusion that hose scythes were used in Central Europe in the Middle Age too. No such implement is known os far. 246