Kaján Imre (szerk.): Zalai Múzeum 21. Emlékkötet Mindszenty József tiszteletére. Muzeológiai tanulmányok Zala megyéről (Zalaegerszeg, 2013)
Muzeológiai tanulmányok - Hováth László: Római bronzserpenyő a Murából, Tótszerdahelyen (Zala megye)
Római bronzserpenyö a Murából, Tótszerdahelyen (Zala megye) 125 Roman bronze saucepan from the Mura River in Tótszerdahely (Zala county) During dredging a Roman bronze saucepan was found in Tótszerdahely in a gravel pit beside the recent Mura River, and it was acquired by György Thúry Museum in Nagykanizsa in 1995. The bronze saucepan (trulla) with a discoid handle is casted in one piece with its handle, which has a circular cut-out on the disk. It belongs to the steep-walled, deeper type (Radnóti 14, Eggers 140, Tassinari G 3100, Petrovszky V, 1 type), it has no separate base, but the pan ends uninterruptedly and steeply (fig. 1-3.). The pan is carefully crafted, and its handle is decorated with a thyrsos stick. There is a two-rowed wreath of laurel leaves on its disk, and also a beaded rib along its circular cut-out, while outside a cord-pattern rib runs around. The pan was once repaired by riveting and soldering a bronze strip at the bottom of the pan (fig. 3, lc-d). The publication of the bronze saucepan is justified not only by its rare occurrence in Pannónia, but also by its unique decoration. Most of the analogies of our pan are collected schematically in a row as shown in figure 4, which clearly indicates that not only the form of the saucepans was varied in the first century Roman bronze industry, but rich and colourful decorations were also used parallel to each other at the time. The pan from Tótszerdahely shows an extremely close relationship with the pieces 1—4 seen in figure 4. In summary - based on the above details — the saucepan crafted carefully from Tótszerdahely was most likely made in South-Italy in Campania between A.D. 0/10 and 35/40. The pans decorated with a two- rowed wreath of laurel leaves and a thyrsos stick were mentioned as analogy and might be the products of the same workshop and they were mainly crescent cutout types. P. Cipius Princeps could be the name of the manufacturer. Our pans might have been used for a long time, which is also proved by the repair on it, but even so, there are no traces of any place wearing off on its surface. In my opinion, several decades had to pass after its production date before it got into the Mura River. In general, the duration of the usage of a bronze saucepan is long, often serving one or two generations (HORVÁTH 1981,78). There could be two reasons to get the pan into the river: intentional or accidental. In the former case it might be a votive sacrifice, while in the second case the pan might have been dropped into the water during the use of the Mura River as a fluvial road. Unfortunately, this cannot be decided without knowing the exact circumstances of the find. Nevertheless, in any case, this beautifully decorated saucepan, which rarely occurs in Hungary, gives us important data concerning the early commercial relations. Translated by Lívia Simmer
