S. Perémi Ágota (szerk.): A Laczkó Dezső Múzeum Közleményei 28. (Veszprém, 2014)

Ilon Gábor: „Preszkíta” lovas temetkezések Bakonyszentkirály határából

‘PRE-SCYTHIAN’ HORSE BURIALS FOUND AT THE BOUNDARY OF BAKON YSZENTKIRÁLY

The assemblage to be publicized is incorporated in Ernő Wolfs collection (address: Zirc, Liszt F. u. 5.). According to the above owner, these artifacts (many kilograms of ceramics, fragments of bronze and iron objects) were collected by him in the second half of the 1990s at the boundary of Bakonyszent- király on the surface of two disturbed barrows lying south-southwest of Zörög-hegy.

This locus is identical with the salvage site of Zörög-hegy III. recorded in Vol. 4. of ‘Magyarország Régészeti Topográfiája (The Archaeological Topography of Hungary)(see Fig. 1). As many as 10 to 13 barrows were observed in the course of topographical field reconnaissance completed in the 1960s. The height of these barrows was 2 to 3 meters, while their diameter ranged between 15 and 20 meters. Many of them were ‘excavated’ at the end of the 19th century. The artifacts uncovered in that period have never been placed into any public collection. Relying upon their location, the barrows were considered to be connected to the barrow of the Urnfield Age lying nearby (Zörög- hegy II.), where archaeologist Gyula Nováki carried out a minor archaeological research in 1968. The traces of neither wooden nor stone structures were unearthed during the cutting of the bank. The area of 120 m2 excavated in the inner zone yielded a high quantity of artifacts, such as ceramics, andirons, moulds, bones including carved ones as well, which were delivered to the museum of Veszprém.

Ernő Wolf collected five bronze strap crossings/ horse trappings (Fig. 2, 1-5; Fig. 3) and vessel fragments on the surface of the soil of the petit barrow field disturbed with digging and lying farthest to the south. Of the vessel fragments, particular ones with impressed lying ‘S’ pattern decoration (Fig. 4 and 8) are the most remarkable. This pattern is considered to be the typical pattern of the Basarabi-Babadag-Bosut Cultural Complex in the 10th to 8th centuries expanding from the Dnieper River through Bulgaria to Transylvania of current Romania; in other words, in the transitional period of the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. The varnished ware with perpendicularly

placed furrowing found there (Fig. 4 and 9) was a preferred solution for a long time (Ha B-C) in an enormous territory (e.g.: the Babadag and Mező- csát Groups, Central and South Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Northern Italy Este II.), and so was the turban rimmed bowl (Fig. 4, 12: Ha A — Ha Cl).

In addition to iron horse bits come across in the excavated earth of the northwestern barrow (Fig. 6, 1-2; Fig. 7, 1-2), only few vessel fragments (e. g.: perpendicularly channeled urn, beaker, vessel with polished and inverted rim) can be highlighted, amongst which many were graphite slipped. The grooved and bossed vessels (Fig. 7, 3) and the fragments of polished bowls with inverted rims (Fig. 6, 13-14) represented a very popular solution in the centuries of the Late Urnfield Culture and the Early Iron Age, but these are inapt for the purpose of a more precise dating under these find-circumstances.

Contingent upon the collected horse trappings, it cannot be decided whether the buried warrior(s) used (a) riding horse(s) or (a) chariot(s). Concurrendy, it is undoubted that the origins of the bronze mounting types of the southern barrow can be traced back to the Pontic-Caspian region of the steppe culture and can be dated to the VI treasure and IIIA pottery horizon (frühe Hallstattzeit) according to Carola Metzner- Nebelsick’s categorization, but these were also popular subsequently (IIIB pottery horizon: ältere Hallstattzeit - Ha Cl). The iron horse bit (Fig. 4, 1; Fig. 5, 3) serves as a good analogy to that found on Somló Hill (1907) which was dated to the 8th century in the Eastern Carpathian Basin and to the Ha C period in the Central European Hallstatt range. A similar horse bit was uncovered in the barrow in Cipáu (Maroscsapó, Románia), but such an object, which was unearthed on the salvage site of Erdut-Veliki Varad (Erdőd- Varadberg), has been preserved at the museum of Berlin, and furthermore such an artifact was also found in Grave No. 400 of Salzburg-Maxglan and was dated to the 8th century (Ha C). The iron bead (Fig. 4, 2; Fig. 5, 4) might represent half of an iron object that was part of a horse trapping. Such an intact artifact was unearthed in the Kleinklein—Tschoneggerfranzl 2. tumulus dated to a later period (Ha C2/D1).

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