Mária T. Biró: The Bone Objects of the Roman Collection. (Catalogi Musei Nationalis Hungarici. Seria Archeologica 2; Budapest, 1994)

IV. HAIR-STYLES THE USE OF BONE HAIR-PINS, AND COMB USE OF THE ROMANS - 4. Combs

ornament of the band like a row of patterns closes the curve. (Nos. 425-426.) On one of the carvings from Szőny the curve and the semicircle is covered by a composition arranged in one unit. (No. 427.) A next step of this trend is when the curve is not separated from the band, but similarly to humpbacked combs they are linked to one another with a bend. This type of comb is known from Dunapentele. (Nos. 427428.) Moreover, the general effect of this type reminds one rather of humpbacked combs than of semicircular ones although they are carved from two parts. It seems as if classic "curvum Crinale" were developing in two different lines in our province. With one type the form has altered and humpbacked comb carved from one piece appears while dot-circle pattern remains unchanged. The other line preserved the form carved from two parts, from the semi-circular plate respectively from the band but in the way of decoration they have completely left traditional Roman ornaments and a punched (animal) figurai decoration reminiscent of metal technique has appeared instead. Both late comb types have their organic precedents in Roman provincial handicraft. IV. Humpbacked combs. (Nos. 429-431.) Humpbacked combs appeared in the course of the 4th century. They are the typical finds of Late Roman cemeteries and fortified settlements. The name of the comb types refers to the specific shape of the handle. The lamellae covering and flaking the teethed bone plate of humpbacked combs were carved from one piece. While with the other types a triangular or semicircular plate was cut for holding the comb, here the bone plate was given the form of a hump. The decoration of humpbacked combs is also different from those of the other types. Dot-circle motifs occur much more seldom. In the Collection of the Hungarian National Museum there was not any humpbacked combs with dot-circle decoration. Although literature has knowledge of some combs from Pannónia with this way of decoration (Tokod). The humpbacked combs to be found in the Collection are either undecorated (Szőny, Petronell, Nos. 430., 431.) or the bronze or iron rivets serving for fitting together were arranged in a decorative way. (No. 429.) The bone processing workshop of Dunapentele have made combs where the rivets were tiny bored bronze pipes and the combs were decorated with these arranged densely into pattern.

81 V. Marosszentanna-type. (Nos. 432-441.) In the second half of the 4th century a new comb type came into fashion in our province, Its completion agrees with that of semicircular combs although their decoration is essentially different from bone carvings used so far. Since this comb type was first registered in the Transylvanian village (Marosszentanna) to be associated with Eastern Goths, archaeologists considered it to be the legacy of Germans. The combs are bordered along the edges by jagged double lines similar to punching. These jagged lines are substituted by undulating lines composed of tiny reversely placed semi-circles. There are combs where both border ornaments can be observed, and semi-circle is bordered by a jagged line while the bone band below is bordered by an undulating line. Into the semicircular plate, within the border line, stylized animal figures or other symbols were carved with tiny chisels. In most cases these representations can not be interpreted. The animal figures that can be recognized recall the geometric Steppe style of animal representations. The construction of the combs is the same as that of semi-circular Roman combs. The spread of finds is quite independent from the settling of German population. Moreover, although this comb type was first observed in the Barbaricum it was in fact in the provinces where masses of this comb type survived. Still, their representations cannot be traced back to local Roman bone processing industry, because both the subject and the style of these representations are entirely alien to it. Representations hint in their contents at Steppe or German art and in their technical accomplishment characteristics to metal work are preferred. From the patterns it can be concluded that the tools of the carvers were also quite different from those used so far for processing Roman bone objects. (Nos. 432-434.) Classic dot-circle compasses were only used for constructing the undulating line of the border. This typical undulating line appearing first on the double-sided comb of Nagytétény (No. 409.), then becomes the most characteristic feature of Marosszentanna-type combs, will be again the decorative motif of double-sided combs with the settling Germans in the 5-6th centuries. V. Lipp has found in the course of his excavations in Fenékpuszta a double-sided dense comb decorated with this motif.

82 Combs of the Marosszentanna-type represent all the same a transitional form — with a number of unsolved questions and relations — in the handicraft of the peoples of the Roman Age respectively the Migration Age.