Perémi Ágota (szerk.): Hadak útján. Népvándorlás Kor Fiatal Kutatóinak XXIII. konferenciakötete (Veszprém, 2016)

Prohászka Péter: Karl Ludwig Moser és egy népvándorlás kori fülbevalópár a szlovéniai Tomajból

Zbigniew Robak - Karol Pieta

THE NEW FINDS FROM KLÁTOVA NOVÁ VES

In April 2011 the Institute of Archaeology of SAV in Nitra received a collection of surface findings coming from the area of the Sance hillfort near Klátova Nová Ves, district Partizánske (Fig. 1.).' The main aim of the research was to verify the reports about discoveries of early medieval metal items in the area of fortifications and to prepare photographic documentation of the ramparts. As a part of the research, the field prospection of the area, with a metal detector and GPS station, has been carried out. The preliminary information about the research has already been published.1 2

In the cadastre of the village there are at least five early medieval sites, identified duringfield prospection,3 among them the most important is the hillfort Sance, situated on the hill, south of the village, next to the Hradsky stream. The Sance site (546 m) is located at Tribec mountains, between the Sivy Kamen (418 m) and Javorovy Vrch (730 m) hills on a hill spanning between Hradsky stream and its right tributary. Its ramparts have a triangular shape and the acreage of about 9,3 ha. At least two gates led to the interior (the third one was artificially breached much later). An old gorge leads to one of them located in the northeastern side. The fortifications were probably founded in the Late Bronze Age but in the inward space as well as inside of the ramparts we have discovered also the fragments of prehistoric pottery, including the Late Bronze Age pottery, bronze hatchet as well as some early medieval pottery fragments, dated generally at the 9th-10th centuries.4 The inner part of the hillfort was explored at the surface only, without using metal detectors.

1 The research carried out within frameworks of VEGA project 2/0117/12: Between the Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Ethnic- Cultural Relations in the Middle Danubian Region from the Celtic Occupation till the Beginning of the Middle Ages as well as Project APW-0553-10: Early medieval centres of power (central Danubian region). Acknowledgements to Mgr. A. Csuthy, PhD. and PhDr. J. Zábojnik, CSc. for help with referential literature.

2 Pieta-Robak in print.

3 BialekovA 1989,331-333.

4 BialekovA 1988,37-46; Veliaük-Romsauer 1994,77-79.

In the course of prospection of the outer part of the fortifications using a metal detector a number of metal objects, most of which are monuments associated with weapons and equipment of an equestrian warrior as well as two deposits, have been excavated. These items were found close to each other, outside the rampart, on the north-eastern headland. Deposit no. 1 is the blacksmith's tools collection, but deposit no. 2 consists of 9 arrowheads, probably deposited in a bundle (Fig. 2. 1-9.). All of them are socketed arrowheads. Unfortunately, precise dating of those deposits, other than generally to Early Middle Ages, is impossible.5 The agricultural activities in the area of Sance are confirmed by a find of two ploughshares, but in a significant distance to north from hillfort, in the creek valley (Fig. 2.13-14.).

There are three spearheads, coming from that site, two of which are small leaf-shaped spearheads (Fig. 3. 1 -3.). On one of them we can still see the ring and the retaining plate preserved. As the most interesting finding we should, however, indicate a big spear. Its leaf is 33,5 cm long and eight-sided cage converted into a rib-skewer. The leaf tip is rhomboid and very narrow (up to 3 cm), its widest part is decorated with openwork cutouts of the shape of two triangles and a circle. The base of the leaf is undercut.

A similar kind of spearheads can be found, so far, only in the Avar environment, at the graveyards in Teiu$ (Tövis) and Gímba$ (Marosgombás)6 in the Romanian Alba district (Fig. 4.1-2.; Fig. 5. 2-3.). These graves can be dated, based on other finds, at the Late Avar Period (Csiky 2009,92). However, the closest analogy in that case is a spearhead from the Albanian site Kalaja e Dalmacés (Castle Dalmaces), which dimensions and shape are similar to the find from Klátova Nová Ves7 (Fig. 5.1.). The

5 Ruttkay 1976,327-328; Ginalski-Kotowicz 2004,204-209.

6 HoREDTl958,Fig. 14:13,17:13.

7 Nopcsa 1912,198-199.

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