Mária T. Biró: The Bone Objects of the Roman Collection. (Catalogi Musei Nationalis Hungarici. Seria Archeologica 2; Budapest, 1994)
I. BONE CARVINGS DECORATING WEAPONS AND MILITARY EQUIPMENT - 6. Ferrules - 7. Bow stiffeners and plates
have resemblances with those consisting of two parts only they were carved from one piece. The types of scabbard chapes with pelta motives were generally made of bronze. (No. 23.) They were used at the beginning of the 3rd century alongside the limes. 44 The sword the accessory of which it was, must have been more robust than that belonging to the scabbard chapes consisting of two parts. The size of the pelta shaped scabbard chapes is nearly twice as big as the former ones. The number of scabbard chapes made of bronze respectively bone is also different in the case of the two types. While the majority of scabbard chapes consisting of two parts were made of bone, those with pelta motives are almost all made of bronze. Only one bone piece was known to Oldenstein unearthed in the last century in connection with the reconstruction of the city hall in Worms. 45 The pelta-shaped bone scabbard chape in the Tussla collection of the Hungarian National Museum comes from Almásfüzitő. There is a dot-circle incised into the two upper arcs of the pelta respectively; the shield-shaped central protruding point of the pelta is broken, while the vertical ribs of its decoration are still discernible. 6. Ferrules In the course of excavations there are often several bone rings of specific form found. The shape of the rings, their thickness and the definitely protruding rib of the outer side suggest that they were not jewels. These types of rings just like in the Collection of the Hungarian National Museum were unearthed in the area of military objects. 46 In many cases several rings were found together in a grave. We have no exact knowledge as to their destination. Literature refers to them as ferrules; they may have also served as belt-distributors. Their first appearance was in Late-Roman cemeteries. 47 In Szőny it was in the skeleton grave of the Gerhát cemetery where such rings came to light (Nos. 24-25.), while the exact sites of the rings found in the area of the Dunapentele and Szentendre are not known. (Nos. 26-32.) Ferrules have two types. One has a polygonal cross-section and the band itself is narrower. There is a picot-edge pattern running on the outer side of the ring from Dunapentele. (No. 26.) The cross section of the other group is square and its outer side decorated with deeply incised horizontal circles. (Nos. 27-31.) While the decoration of the sides of the rings in the first group protrudes (on the inner side, too), rings of the latter group have a flat side both outside and inside. This second type of the rings is made of thicker and widener bone circles. However, the diameter of the ferrules agree in both groups. Under the general classification of ferrules we may mention the circular case made of bone which, on the basis of its shaping, must have been used as belt distributor. (No. 33.) The case is perforated in the middle with a circular bore while on its side there are three rectangular-shaped holes for distributing belt. 7. Bow stiffeners and plates It was K. Sebestyén who first recognized that the narrow, bent bone plates bearing a semi-circular groove on their concave sides are the fragments of the bow stiffener made of bone used by Nomadic peoples for their asymmetric reflex-bow. 48 (Nos. 34-43.) A. Alföldi considered them as one of the most characteristic artifact types of the Huns arriving in the Carpathian Basin. 49 In the Roman period reflex-bow was the weapon of the Syrian archer corps and later of the Hunnic-Alanic federation. Recently, A. Salamon dealt with the question of these bone plates in connection with the bone carving workshop of Dunapentele. If we adopt the bow stiffener categories established on the basis of Avar-period parallels — the bow covering of Szőny and Dunapentele belong to the group of so-called narrow bow plates. 50 (No. 43.) A proof of their local production is the unfinished specimen found at the Intercisa excavations in 1909. 51
