A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyve 44. (Nyíregyháza, 2002)

Régészet - Igor Gavritukhin: On the study of double-plate fibulas of the first subgroup

On the study of double-plate fibulas of the first subgroup North Pontic region.That they played different role in the culture of the Danube region and elsewhere in Europe, during the Hun Age and later, is obvious. Speaking of the correlation of the "Pannonian" and North Pontic series, we see that the "Pannonian" series is quite original; the prototypes and analogies to its major features can be found in the North Pontic region, but not the specimens "reproduced" in the Danube region. At the same time, the main characteristics of many variants of the North Pontic regional context are not found among fibulas from Hungarian sites (for example, the non-sharp transition from foot to bow and the decorative border) (fig. 9: 1, 4-18, 10: 18-23, 27-28, 31-32, 11: 8-9, 15-17). In the Danube region, only the fibula from Harkány, which is unique among the Danubian finds, has these charachteristic features (Kiss 1974.). On the whole, objects from Hungary are larger and stylistically more harmonic than the North Pontic analogies. The tendency to move the area of maximal extension of the foot closer to the bow can already be found on fibulas from the beginning of the Hun Age (fig. 4: 4-6, 14: 25 etc.). The nearest stylistic parallel to the "Pannonian" series (the difference is only in size and in the fastening of the axis of the spring) is presented by the fibulas of Kerch-Villafontana type (fig. 15: 13-21, 8: 14-15, 19). We believe that the "Pannonian" series was formed slightly later than the North Pontic ones but is fundamentally synchronous to them. The "Pannonian" series is a local line of evolution, based in one of the North Pontic "stylistic loops". An original series of double-plate fibulas of this subgroup comes from the northeast of the modern territory of France and surrounding areas (fig. 3: 1, 2, 4, map 6: 2). This series (Marne) is characterized by a head-plate without a knob; a widened foot, having an area of maximal extension at the edges opposite to the bow; a head-plate made from unclenched metallic plates; and ornamental border decorations on head and foot. On the specimens from Saőne Valley, which I was able to examine personally, we can see some type of "slits" at the area of transition from bow to plates, inserted to lighten the sharp bend of the plate in this place. We find fibulas both of small sizes (hardly more than 5 cm - fig. 3: 8, 11) and of larger sizes (about 7-8 cm); the latter are distinguished by a foot of widened proportions (fig. 3: 1, 6, 9, 10). This typological line ends with the objects of extremely large sizes (more than 9 cm - fig. 3: 2, 4, 7) with a short bow. The nearest analogies to the formal details of these objects (especially with regard to "archaic" specimens of this typological line) can be found among the fibulas of Gródek series and in the find from Nagornoe (fig. 3: 18-19, 27,13: 21). The objects of Marosszentanna/Sintana de Mures, series (fig. 2: 6, 8-9, 17, 18) are distinguished by clearly visible ledges at the area of transition from bow to foot, and the Crimean objects (fig. 3: 24-26) are distinguished by the absence of ornament. The first to write about Marne series, considering it to be not an individual phenomenon of the continuation of Cherniakhov traditional fibulas in the West, was G. Koenig (KOENIG 1980. 229-231). Kazanski, studying systematically the elements of barbarian culture in the western provinces of the Empire, agreed with these observations and also noted the affinity of French finds to the specimens of Brück and other types, developing into traditions of Luboszyce group (KAZANSKI 1991. 116). But the objects he describes have a squat triangular foot and an angular bow structure, designed for a superimposed disk; these fibulas are frequently decorated with straps on the plates. All this points to fibulas known on the Lower Elbe and on the Rhine (SCHULZE 1977. Gr. 129, 131, 134-135, 141 etc.), but the Marne series has no similar fibulas. Even the finds from the north of Europe closest to the ones from present-day