Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 34-35. (2014-2015)
Articles
118 Z. Győrfi Fig. 1. The location of the site (Map by M. Szabó) Fig. 2. The find spots of the weapons. rests on Roman foundations (‘das alte Schloss Déda welches auf römischen Substructionen ruhen soll’).2 His data and most of all their Roman relation was later taken over by many,3 К. Goos was the only one expressing any doubts.4 The description does not really fit the presently discussed Bistra fortress. The question arises whether the author published his own field research or a piece of second-hand information. Following Neigebaur, it was István Paulovics who later attempted the field identification of Deda fortress. His survey was unsuccessful; he therefore took the existence of a Roman fortress for erroneous information. However, his field research resulted in some useful information for us. Although he could not find the ancient fortress’s place in Deda’s surroundings, he learned from locals about the existence in the Bistra valley of the Cetate rock bearing a hole and mistakenly took it for a prehistoric cave.5 This is without a doubt the place of our weapons’ origin. Kővári does not mention a fortress in Deda; his statement is in line with that of Paulovics.6 Although its name denotes a one-time fortification, we only have knowledge of sparse Bronze Age finds, but no remains of walls or any defences at the Kisvár site in the northern part of the village.7 2 Neigebaur 1851. 251-252. ’Ipolyi 1861,243; Vass 1863, 119. 4 Goos 1876, 70. 5 'It lies high in a hillside and a hole is mentioned in connection with it. It is evidently some kind if prehistoric cave! Paulovics 1944. 26. 6 Kővári 1892. 7 Roska 1942, 66, 31. sz.; RepertoriuMS 1998,119 punct B. In the light of the above it is not groundless to presume that the medieval fortress resting on Roman foundations mentioned by Neigebaur is identical with our site in Bistra Mure^ului. The find The larger part of the Bistra find consists of objects that fall into the category of weaponry, however, there are some artefacts with different functions. We will concentrate below on the presentation of the weapons, but will refer to some of the other remaining relics when dating the find. Only those weapons are the object of our analysis that have assuredly turned up from the fortress’s environment. Weapons and objects of horse equipment will be discussed separately, as we cannot ascertain a direct relationship between the two at all times. I. Weapons Before describing them in detail, it is important to note that almost each item was recovered from the embanked, currently bushy-grassy area below the fortress, and some of them were found immediately in the steep north-eastern side of the rock. We have so far no knowledge of any weapons found on the plateau. Our map shows the finding spots indicated by the locators. Unfortunately, we could not always match the object to the point where it was found, but we stifi consider it important to mark these spots in order to illustrate the site’s dimensions. Assault
