Garam Éva szerk.: Between East and West - History of the peoples living in hungarian lands (Guide to the Archaeological Exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum; Budapest, 2005)

HALL 5 - The Iron Age: The Scythians and the Hallstatt culture (800-450 B.C.) (Tibor Kemenczei)

Nagytarcsa, Somhíd, Szurdokpüspöki), some of which functioned as wagon ornaments fixed to the draught pole, while others were used in rituals. 5. JEWELLERY The find assemblages from the Great Hungarian Plain reveal that the jewellery worn by the population was made up of ornaments of different ancestry. The spiral hair-rings covered with electrum and sheet gold from Piliny and Tiszavasvári, and the bracelets and golden dress ornaments from Szentes-Vekerzug were local copies of eastern pieces, while other jewellery articles, such as ribbed and grooved bronze bracelets and fibulae, as well as glass and amber beads (Szentes-Vekerzug) were adopted from the Eastern Alpine and Central European Hallstatt culture and the Northern Balkans. A part of this jewellery recalls the animal style. The bronze bracelets found in one of the burials of the Szentes-Vekerzug cemetery have snake headed terminals, as do some of the hair-rings covered with electrum, sheet gold and sheet bronze (Piliny, Tiszavasvári). 6. POTTERY The pottery placed into the burials includes both unique pieces and mass-produced wares. The former stand out by their form and decoration, while the latter reflect the advances made in the potter's craft. The hand-thrown vessels include pots and small mugs decorated with incised designs of horsemen, swastikas, wavy lines and lozenges (Tiszalök-Vásárhalom, Tiszaeszlár-Szelőhalom, Tápiószele) and vessels used during various rituals. The Scythian communities of the Great Hungarian Plain can be credited with the dissemination of a major technical innovation in the Carpathian Basin, namely the use of the potter's wheel, enabling the production of pottery wares which were superior to hand-thrown ones. The use of the potter's wheel was adopted from the Greek colonies in the Pontic (and especially from the pottery workshops in Olbia) during the later 7th century B.C. by the Scythian groups settling in the Middle Dniester Basin. The use of the potter's wheel was transmitted to the Great Hungarian Plain from this region, where it was soon adopted. The most common wheel-thrown wares were amphorae, jugs, bowls and urns (Szentes-Vekerzug, Tiszavasvári). 8. GOLDWORK The most outstanding relics of goldwork in the Scythian animal style from the Great Hungarian Plain are the golden stags of embossed sheet gold found at MezőkeresztesZöldhalompuszta and Tápiószentmárton (Fig. 48) under a kurgan burial. The counterparts of these two golden stags are known from the Scythian princely burials of the steppe. These animal figures had originally been shield decorations and they also signalled the rank and power of their owners. The gold chain with lion figures from Mezőkeresztes-Zöldhalompuszta was made by a Greek goldsmith. One interesting piece from the late Scythian Age is the fish figure from sheet gold found at Békéscsaba, adorned with a row of conical knobs on its back and a pattern of oblique hatching on its head. THE HALLSTATT CULTURE (Late 8th century-earlier 5th century B.C.) The pottery and metalwork of the communities living in the extensive territory between eastem France and the Carpathian Basin shared many similar features, as did their burial practices, their beliefs and their art. The archaeological heritage of this period has been named Hallstatt culture after the large cemetery