Mária T. Biró: The Bone Objects of the Roman Collection. (Catalogi Musei Nationalis Hungarici. Seria Archeologica 2; Budapest, 1994)
II. CARVED BONE ORNAMENTS OF THE PROVINCIAL WEAR
II. CARVED BONE ORNAMENTS OF THE PROVINCIAL WEAR 1. Buttons. 2. Buckles. 3. Dress pins (fibulae). Early in the course of history the fastening and fitting of pieces of dress was secured with pins made of bone. Moreover, since the pointed bone pin used by the primitive man for fastening the pieces of leather being his clothing until the ornamental pin made of ivory carving preferred by Greeks and Romans — no technical development had taken place, only an aesthetic change. Pins were decorated from the time of the Paleolithic Age on. Later the decoration of the pins became more and more intricate and besides geometric forms figurai representations also appear. Decoration means in this case not only a fine shape; the decorative motif is carved on the pins not for its own sake and they are not worn because they are fine. Decorations are symbols, symbols embody, beliefs modelled into bone which could be fastened as pins on the body with an apotropiac task. This meaning set deeply in ancient Mediterranean beliefs explains their lasting form from the 8-7th centuries B. G. up to the 4-5th centuries A. D. (Prom Perachora, the Artemis sanctuary at Orthia until Late Byzantine bone carvers. 52 ) With common people the use of bone pins continued even after the appearance of fibulas in the Early Bronze Age. We can find them in Graeco-Roman wear, moreover, in that of the Migration Period as well. It is due to the ancient fashion and technique as well as to the superstitions connected with it that the carvings of the bones preserved far more from the folk beliefs of Late Imperial Period than any other objects of everyday use. Still, the majority of bone carvings preserves the schematic features of the urbanized Roman welfare society. The carvings of the bone pins mediate at the same time a forgotten system of symbols. However, we have no knowledge how far the one-time owner of these knew them. Just like we do not know whether they protected their soul from malign spells when pinning them up or simply wanted to decorate their clothing with these carvings. It is not my aim to deal with the religious historical explanations of these symbols; it is in the last chapter of the catalogue where the cultic representations of the Collection will be dealt with. Hereby I should only like to stress that — on the basis of my research so far — pins have a similar cultic meaning with Mediterranean peoples as the belt symbolism of the Steppe peoples. Prom our other finds suitable for fixing clothes belts and buckles — contrary to Eastern customs — are both from the point of view of religious history and scheme of career indifferent. Buttons, similarly, bear no significance. However, in the case of fibulas the existence of apotropaic symbolism can be assumed; while with later T-fibulas their part in marking insignia of rank can be proved.
