Közlemények Zala megye közgyűjteményeinek kutatásaiból - Zalai Gyűjtemény 12. (Zalaegerszeg, 1979)
Valter Ilona: Árpád-kori kovácsműhely Csatáron
Árpád period forge at Csatár (Summary) In 1960 the local cooperative farm built stables on the west side of the low row of hills running from the Roman period church at Csatár towards the north. In the course of the construction work fire-places were found built out of ceramy, dated from the 11th —12th centuries. Methodical research work of the finding place was done in 1964—65. On that part of the hill which is neadest to the bank of the Válicka brook we have excavated an ensemble of pits which — drawing the conclusion from the iron dross in the pits and the here found forged iron objects — must have been an iron processing place. We have not found any traces of houses or pile-holes pointing to protecting roofs in the surroundings of the work-pits. In order to facilitate the evaluation of the excavated phenomena, Jerzy Piaskowski (Cracow, Poland) has made upon four pieces of the forged iron objects found at the excavation, quantitative and qualitative chemical analyses and metallographical examination. The phosphorus contents of the objects may be considered low, only that of one of the objects reaches the 0,1 per cent. It is an interesting phenomenon that the examined objects contain nickel as well. There is no nickel in the ore-presence in Hungary, thus the ore aut of which the instruments containing nickel have been made, had to be brought from some distant place. From among the objects the knife (Regnr. 66. 1. 20) was froged, in order to make it hard they treated it with coal and after a treatment by heat, they chilled it in water. In the iron object (Reg. Nr. 66. 1. 22) various parts containing coal could be observed and also the phosphorus contents of the layers were different. Between several layers there were dross imbeddings — this part was welded together out of several pieces. The fragment of the spurs (Reg. Nr. 66. 1. 23) was made aut of roughly charred iron, the nail (Reg. Nr. 66. 1. 24) showed a ferrite structure. On basis of the tests it could not be decided unanimously whether there existed also an iron-melting froundry at Csatár or only a forge. It is, however, probable that also the smelting of the turf iron ore was done on the spot. Form among the opened up pits the ne marked by ,,H" could have been the fireplace serving for the re-heating of the raw iron previous to forging, jointly with the pit indicated by „J". The one marked by „B" was a typical smith fireplace, the pit marked by ,,F" and the one marked by ,,E" linked to it, could have been cementing ovens. Robert Müller opened up at Csonkahegyhát a similar complex to that at Csatár, with findings from the 10th —11th century, and Zalaszabar, at the island „Borjúállás" with findings from the 9th —10th century. The name ,,Csatár" means shield-maker, armourer. Armourers lived in the village Csatár, who may have served the castellany of Zala (Kolon). Around 1140 Marton Comes, de génère Gutkeled, founded here a Benedictine abbey. The letter of donation enumerates in detail the servants who have the obligation for various services. No armourers or smithes are mentioned. Presumably the smith settlement has by that that time not existed any more.
