Abstract
THE HUNGARIAN BRONZE AGE.—In Man for August, Dr. Lajos Zoltai describes two bronze hoards from Hajdusamson, near Debreczen. The finest examples of the Hungarian bronze industry come from the region known as the Nyirség in the north-east bend of the Tisza, which would appear to have been densely populated and a centre of culture in the Bronze Age. The hoards here described are now in the City Museum of Debreczen. The first consists of a sword and twelve axes found in an orderly grouping which suggests a votive deposit. The leaf-shaped sword is only 53.2 cm. long and has a pommel of which the button consists of closely fitting superimposed rhombs, diminishing in area from the base, the smallest being pointed. Such a pommel is unique in Hungary but is met in Scandinavian swords. Analogous forms of sword are figured by Montelius from north Germany and north Italy. The scroll decoration of the blade is peculiar to Hungary. Three of the axes are similarly decorated. Hajdusamson lies near the centre of the region in which axes ornamented with this scroll pattern are found. It may be described as the centre of the area of fabrication. The second hoard consisted of a number of bronze vessels of which the peculiarity lay in the double handles and their mode of attachment. Mr. Gordon Childe, in an appended note discussing the chronology of the finds, points out that they illustrate two periods of the Hungarian Bronze Age. The leaf-shaped sword belongs to the earliest variety and, being stamped clearly with marks of local manufacture, supplies a link missing in Peake's argument for the Hungarian origin of the type.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Research Items. Nature 118, 281–283 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/118281a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/118281a0