Achaeometrical Research in Hungary II., 1988

ANCIENT TECHNOLOGY - Tünde HORVÁTH - Erzsébet MARTON: Prehistoric spinning and weaving objects from the Carpathian basin (Hungary)

Are they simple animal bones or not? The solution was a dissertation, received from Ms. A. Choyke.

21 These metacarpus bones were used like bobbins at the Late Iron Age settlement. Other finds from the house at Százhalombatta were also connected to spinning and weaving (bronze pins, spindle whorls). The entire animal bone material has not yet been analysed. Hopefully, our collections will grow after the faunal analysis. Site: Velem - Szent Vid Pit No. 11/1988. (fig. 14:9) The above mentioned pit contained a bone implement, supposedly a bobbin. Other finds from the pit can also be connected to the spinning-weaving process (see above the spindle whorls and loom weights from Stratigraphie Unit 11/1988). Combs (bone implement) Site: Öcsöd - Kováshalom There is only one published find from Öcsöd - Kováshalom, a Neolithic tellsettlement.

22 Until the Roman period, no other published comb is known from prehistoric sites in Hungary. A bone comb was published from the Pannonian archaeological bone collections of the Hungarian National Museum (Budapest). It is unlikely that these finds are so rare, but simply more attention must be paid to these implements during future excavations. Pins A./ Small pins (bronze and bone implements) Site: Százhalombatta, debris from а На С period house (fig. 15.fig. 16) 1 piece of a bronze pin 1 piece of a bone pin The identification of their function is yet another endless task for experimental archaeology. В./ Large pins (bronze implements) Large, long bronze pins from the Villanovian and Etruscan bronze depots have been known for over a century. For many years we have also known figurai representations of the spinning and weaving process from the tintinnabulum found in Bologna.

24 Here the sitting women combing the threads or wool hold big pins in their hands. But what are they doing? Who knows? Who knows, how they used those thousands of long bronze pins found in Bronze Age depots? The answer is again very simple. This is one more formidable task for archaeometry and experimental archaeology. Conclusions One of the authors has already published some finds from her own material excavated between 1988-1996.

25 The main interest ofthat article was the investigation Late Bronze and Early Iron Age fortifications in Hungary. But the tasks are more complex than that. We must collect and identify weaving implements from the Early and Middle Bronze Ages, as well as reconstruct loom types from these periods in the Carpathian Basin. 27 Déroche, n. d. 28

Raczky, 1987. pp. 61-85. 29 T. Biró, 1994. p. 51 no. 541. 30 Museo Archaeologico in Bologna. Catalogue. Bologna. 1988. 31 Marton, 1996. pp. 25-33; Marton 1995, 267-273; In: Acta Musei Papensis 6 (1996), Table X. p. 260. Pottery and clay objects from Velem St. Vid. 254