Szőllősy Csilla - Pokrovenszki Krisztián (szerk.): Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis - Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei. C. sorozat 45. (Székesfehérvár, 2017)
Tanulmányok/közlemények - Régészet - Keszi Tamás: A nagyrévi kultúra szimbolikus ábrázolásokkal díszített urnái Kiapostag - Dunai-dűlő lelőhelyről. Alternatív javaslat a Budapest - Pannonhalmi úti edény ábrázolásának értelmezésére
Tamás Kes%i: Cinerary urns from the Nagyrév Culture ornamented with symbolic representations found at the Kisapostag - Dunai-dűlő site Several people could work simultaneously and carry out the same workflow on vertical looms, which were wide-spread in Europe at this time.37 However, the absence of certain details makes this interpretation unlikely. As a matter of fact, none of the significant structural elements of looms (wooden frame, shafts, warps, weights, wefts) is clearly recognisable in these representations.38 An another difficulty is that weaving is typically female work,39 the figures, however, totally lack any sex or distinct gender characteristics, although in other periods and places these are usually quite clearly recognisable.40 Finally, one arm of the human figures is depicted in a passive position next to the body.41 b) A hand placed on an object or a building may express the act of taking possession or consecrating a given thing.42 c) The hand and feet posture43 of characters leaves room for the interpretation that the image captures a scene of a special dance or some sort of dance involving an instrument.44 This would explain why the fabric-like thing between the two figures is different on each vessel: it is important only to indicate that it is a fabric, its pattern is beside the point. It is difficult to give an explanation because of the significant shift of proportions at the expense of human figures on the Kisapostag vessel. 37 BARBER 1991, Fig. 2.38, 3.13. Tünde Horváth and Erzsébet Marton presumed the use of a horizontal loom, which should be supported by the fact that no loom weights have been unearthed at the sites related to the Nagyrév Culture in the area of the Tisza River: HORVÁTH - MARTON 1998, 249—250. This hypothesis is not supported by positive data: BARBER 1991, 249—251, Fig. 11.1., 11.2. Actually, loom weights have been found at the settlements associated with the Nagyrév Culture in the area of the Tisza River, in Nagyrév, by Ferenc Tompa: SCHREIBER - KALICZ 1984, 158. Shards of clay cones are known from the Tószeg site. MOZSOL1CS 1952, 48. These were also common finds at the excavations led by Lajos Márton in Tószeg, although it is difficult to link the individual artefacts to the Nagyrév Culture due to the excavation and documentation methods. Nevertheless, it is likely that the loom weights shown in a photo showing the finds of the bottom stratum together with potteryware from the Nagyrév Culture also belong to this culture: BANNER — BÓNA - MÁRTON 1959, Table IX. The spread of horizontal looms in the Carpathian Basin is unlikely also due to climatic reasons: BARBER 1991, 253-254; GRÖMER 2010, 112. 38 For counterexamples, see BARBER 1991 and GRÖMER 2010, Fig. 50. A particularly good example is the vessel unearthed in Sopron - Várhely/Burgstall (BARBER 1991, Fig. 2.15), where certain characteristic parts of a loom can be clearly identified, despite the schematic representation. The looms depicted on the Daunian steles, where weights are missing, seem to contradict the above (NORMAN 2011, Fig. 3.5). Camilla Norman mentions the representations of the Sopron — Várhely vessel and of the Tintinnabulum of Bologna as parallels (NORMAN 2011, 38, Fig. 2.5, 3.8), i.e. defines the Daunian looms — similarly to others — as warp-weighted looms. However, this is contradicted by several circumstances, besides the absence of weights. The object, which is represented from a lateral view, is vertical and axially symmetric: on both sides of the vertical beams there is a stretched fabric that is independent of the one on the other side, and the women on the two sides perform a different kind of workflow. This use of warp-weighted looms is hard to imagine. The tintinnabulum of Bologna, which was mentioned as a parallel, does not represent the loom from a side view, and the woman who is raising a vessel in the air clearly has no direct connection with the workflow. I find the situation less difficult if the working tools depicted on the Daunian and Verucchio representations are defined as two-beam looms. This explains the absence of loom weights and why women are weaving in a sitting position: on two-beam looms — contrary to warp-weighted ones — textiles are woven from bottom to top. Refer to: BARBER 1991, 113-116. For information on the spread of this loom type in Central Europe, see: GRÖMER 2010, 140-142, 225, Fig. 69. We are aware of Medieval representations where two persons simultaneously perform different workflows on such looms: PÁSZTÓKAI-SZEŐKE 2012, Fig. 9. Their body postures are also similar to those of the figures on the Daunian steles: one of them is weaving in a kneeling position at the front side, while the other is working standing on the other side of the loom, with a pair of scissors in her hand. In the case of any loom type, it is unlikely that two independent fabrics are stretched on the two sides of a single loom. This scene can be interpreted considering archaic compositional principles: the essential parts of the things represented must be depicted even when they are covered - even if this means depicting them more than once. From a lateral view, the single fabric stretched out on the Daunian looms would be covered by the frame, i.e. it could not be seen. This is unacceptable, and therefore, in order to represent the weaving process, which is performed in a sitting position, the fabric is placed in front of the plane of the frame. (For representations of details that otherwise would be covered in the case of horse-drawn chariots, see: HUTH 2010, Fig. 5.) In order to display the workflow performed in the back, the same fabric is also depicted on the other side of the frame, which makes it seem as if there were two fabrics. (Ass}'rian Lamassu sculptures have five legs for similar reasons. Refer to: HUTH 2010, 136—137) 39 BARBER 1991 (with a detailed analysis of when, where and under what circumstances men were involved in work), NORMAN 2011; GRÖMER 2010, 245-252. 40 See the previous footnote. Even in Carpathian Basin of the the Bronze Age, skirts quite clearly indicated the gender (KOVÁCS 1972; KOVÁCS 1977, Fig. 24a; SCHUMACHER - MATTHÄUS 1985, Tables 1-16; HOLENWEGER 2011; GRÖMER 2010, 402-404). 41 In prehistoric scenes depicting weaving, hands are always active, doing some activity, regardless of whether one or two hands are depicted. A hand passively held next to the body during weaving is in contrast with the nature of this activity. See BARBER 1991 and GRÖMER 2010. 42 As a parallel of the latter, see the Roman ceremony of consecratio, during which the placing hands on the door frame played an important role (RE 2358). 43 GARFINKEL 2003, 28-34. 44 GARFINKEL 2003, 38-39, Fig. 2.9. 18
