2014. október 31., péntek

Kelermes Type Scythian Akinakes from Susleni (Moldova)


Egy jó barátom, Denis Topal cikkét ajánlom figyelmetekbe. A 2013. évi Marisia-ban megjelent "Akinakai of Kelermes Type: New Discoveries in Central and Northern Bessarabia" című tanulmányban a szerző a Moldovai Köztársaság területén napvilágra került ún. Kelermesz-típusú akinakészeket gyűjtötte csokorba. A fegyverek egyik legszebb darabja Susleni határából származik.

The article of my friend Denis Topal presents some new and previously unknown findings of akinakai from the territory of the Republic of Moldova (Vatici, Susleni, Lipnic). 

The first is from Susleni village. It is already the fourth akinakes reported from the Orhei district: the other three have been found in Vatici, Lukaševka (now Lucăşeuca) and Butuceni fortified settlement. 
It’s pommel is elongated, it’s handle is not triform, but has only two massive shafts on the edges. The form of hafting plate is heart-like, so the edges of plate are more rounded and facing down.

An original akinakes was found not far from the preservation of this exemplaris excellent (what is typical for the majority of Early Scythian akinakai).
The total length is 51 cm. The cross section of the blade is also rhomboid, the edges are parallel and the blade has also the median rib which occupies about two thirds ofthe length (25 cm). The length of the blade is 38cm, the width varies from 3,7 to 3,8 cm. The hilt’s length is 8 cm (from the pommel to the haftingplate), the width is 2,7 cm, the thickness of shaftsis about 1 cm. The dimensions of hafting plateare 6,5×3,9 cm and the pommel is 7×1,5 cm (thickness is 1,2 cm). Under the pommel an iron girdle with the bight is attached (diameter is 0,8 cm, the thickness is 0,5 cm).

A sort a Vatici és a Lipnic-i akinakész követi...

You can read the whole article here:

2014. október 30., csütörtök

Caspar Meyer: Greco-Scythian Art and the Birth of Eurasia: From Classical Antiquity to Russian Modernity

2013-ban jelent meg Caspar Meyer képekkel gazdagon illusztrált könyve a Gréko-Szkíta (Görög-Szkíta) művészetről és Eurázsia születéséről. S, hogy miről szól? Tessék: 

Since their discovery in nineteenth-century Russia, Greco-Scythian artefacts have been interpreted as masterpieces by Greek craftsmen working according to the tastes of the Scythian nomads and creating realistic depictions of their barbarian patrons.
Drawing on a broad array of evidence from archaeology, art history and epigraphy to contextualize Greco-Scythian metalwork in ancient society, this volume confronts the deep confusion between ancient representation and historical reality in contemporary engagements with classical culture.
It argues that the strikingly life-like figure scenes of Greco-Scythian art were integral to the strategies of a cosmopolitan elite who legitimated its economic dominance by asserting an intermediary cultural position between the steppe inland and the urban centres on the shores of the Black Sea. Investigating the reception of this 'Eurasian' self-image in tsarist Russia. Meyer unravels the complex relationship between ancient ideology and modern imperial visions, and its legacy in current conceptions of cultural interaction and identity. With a synthesis of material evidence never yet attempted, this volume breaks significant new ground in explaining the archaeology of Scythia and its ties to inner Asia and classical Greece, the intersection between modern museum display and visual knowledge, and the intellectual history of classics in Russia and the West.
Caspar Meyer, Lecturer in Classical Archaeology, Birkbeck, University of London
431 pages,
Oxford
University Press,
2013

Internet sources:

2014. október 27., hétfő

A newly discovered dagger-knife from Dumbrava (Romania).

Október a szkíta "akinakészek" hava a szkíta régészet blogon. Ezúttal egy újabb, 2012 nyarán napvilágra került emléket mutatok be, Erdélyből, a Maros mentéről. Az egyélű harci kés több szempontból is egyedülálló: ez a Kárpát-medence területén ma ismert legépebben fennmaradt darab, s a legkeletebbi képviselője a csoport névadó lelőhelye nyomán Tiszadob-típusnak keresztelt egyélű akinakészeknek. Gratulálok az "adományozó kedvű" felfedezőnek és a szerzőknek, akik a leletet példamutató gyorsasággal közzétették.

In the summer of 2012 Mr. Iuliu Cristinel Pop donated to the Mureş County Museum (Romania) an iron dagger, which was discovered in 22nd of July 2012, during a filed survey and investigation with a metal detector. On the exact find spot of the artefact a small field research has been carried out by the staf of the Museum. Unfortunately no other archaeological material could be identified.

The dagger-knife of akinakes type, is a well known example of the Scythian culture, and based on similar artefacts from Romania and from the Carpathian Basin it can be dated to the end of the 6th beginning of the 5th cent. BC. Thank to the very good state of preservation, and due to the very explicit formal characteristics the weapon from Dumbrava becomes the best and the most eastern representation of the dagger-knives with one cutting edge of the Tiszadob variant from the eastern edge of the Carpathian Basin.

Description of the artefact:

An iron akinakes-dagger with a slightly curved blade, which narrows gradually towards the tip; it has a single cutting edge and a triangular cross section. The guard is composed of two heart shaped iron plates, which were handmade separately and fitted through hammering on to the blade. The two lobes which make up the guard have equal dimensions and are uniform, having a slightly oval shape. The handle is lenticular in cross section, narrowing very slightly towards the upper end. It ends in a straight and perpendicular bar, which has a bipedal axe shaped form, having a lenticular cross section. The handle has on each of its sides a narrow and longitudinal groove, which slides under the guard and under the perpendicular bar as well. The horizontal ribbings are dispersed uniformly on the entire handle, having around 1–2 mm between each other. The blade and the handle were manufactured from a single piece of wrought iron, the guard and the bar being added at the end. The blade was sharpened in prehistory, having obvious traces of use and wear. 
It is made of wrought iron.

Dimensions:
total length: 42.3 cm;
handle length: 10.8 cm;
blade length: 27.1 cm;
guard max. width: 5 cm; guard min. width: 4.6 cm;
handle width inf: 1.1 cm; handle width sup: 1.6 cm;
bar length: 6.1 cm; bar width: 1.3 cm;
handle thickness: 0.8 cm;
guard thickness: 0.5 cm;
blade thickness: 0.6 cm.
weight: 289.5 g.

For further reading:
https://www.academia.edu/8852802/A_newly_discovered_dagger-knife_from_Dumbrava

http://salveazaistoria.wordpress.com/2012/09/06/mica-asezare-a-colonistilor-romani-din-limesul-nord-estic-al-daciei-romane/#jp-carousel-1917

2014. október 23., csütörtök

Scythian akinakes or medieval kidney-dagger?


 In 2013 Justina Baron and Beata Miazga published an interesting paper on an iron dagger from Legnica (south-western Poland).The dagger was discovered in 1966 as a stray find and after conservation previously identified as a medieval kidney-dagger and dated to the 13th century (Fig. 1). Due to interdisciplinary research, this unique find turned out to be instead a Scythian akinakes which belongs to a small collection of daggers of Scythian provenance discovered in Poland comprising only five specimens so far.



Double-edged iron dagger from Legnica 

The blade is 19.7 cm, straight, double-edged with a midrib. The dagger has a 12.5 cm long flanged hilt terminated by a bar-shaped pommel. Iron blade, hilt and pommel were forged as one piece while the c. 2mm thin heart-shaped guard was made separately. A small crack may be observed in the pommel but it probably appeared in the originally complete bar. It’s actual lenghts is 32.2 cm, however, due to the conservation work carried out in the 1970s its original size might have changed.

The microscopic observations of the nitched specimens revealed the simple soft ferrite structure of the item with cementite grain boundaries and small amounts of pearlite. The metallographic investigation proved also that in the dagger production no particular material processing techniques (e. g. quenching, tempering) were involved.


The dagger can be seen at the Copper Museum of Legnica

With the kind permit of the authors.

The article can be found here:


2014. október 14., kedd

Szkíta konferencia Kassán

Hölgyeim és Uraim, Barátok és Kollégák!

A 2014. december 10-12. között Kassán megrendezésre kerülő "Das nördliche Karpatenbecken in der Hallstattzeit" konferencián az alábbi előadásokat hallgathatjuk meg:

VORTRÄGE (vorläufiges Programm, Stand 6.10.2014)

10.12. – 12.12.2014

Mittwoch 10.12.2014, 9 – 13 Uhr 

ERÖFFNUNG

(Universität Košice, Archäologisches Institut der SAW Nitra, Slowakische archäologische 

Gesellschaft, Universität Mainz) 

Gerhard Tomedi

Zu Sozialstrukturen der Hallstattzeit im Ostalpenraum.

Elena Miroššayová 

Die Ostslowakei in der Hallstattzeit.

Lucia Benedikova 

Kulturkontakte des slowakischen Teils der Westkarpaten während der Hallstattzeit.

Susanne Stegmann-Rajtár 

 Zur Abfolge der Osthallstatt- und Vekerzug-Kultur in der Südwestslowakei.

Mittwoch 10.12.2014, 15 – 18 Uhr

Christoph Huth 

Sopron – Nové Košariska – Frög. Überlegungen zum Quellenwert früheisenzeitlicher

Grabbeigaben.

Sabine Pabst 

Italische Einflüsse im hallstattzeitlichen Spiral- und Scheibenfibelhandwerk des

Ostalpenraumes.

Petra Kmeťová 

Horse Burials in the East-Alpine Hallstatt Region.

Biba Teržan

Zum Beginn der frühen Eisenzeit imSüdostalpenraum – neue Radiocarbon-Daten.

Mittwoch 10.12.2014, 19,30 Uhr - Abendvortrag

Christopher Pare – Florian Miketta

Neue Fragen zu den ältesten Eisenfunden in Mittel- und Südeuropa.

Donnerstag 11.12.2014, 9 – 13 Uhr

Louis Daniel Nebelsick 

Die Bestattungsgemeinschaft von Loretto „Ochsenstand“ als Spiegel sozialer und

ideologischer Umbrüche.

Daniel Schäfer 

Neue Forschungen zu den hallstattzeitlichen Gräbern der Kleßheimer Allee aus Salzburg-
Maxglan.

Katalin Groma 

Skeletal graves in the Early Iron Age cremational cemetery of Süttö.

Mária Fekete – Géza Szabó

Ein orientalisches Bronzegefäßtyp aus der Hallstattkultur: Die Ziste. Gedanken während der

Bearbeitung des Tumulus von Regöly (Komitat Tolna, Südungarn).

Florian Miketta 

Der Beginn der Eisenmetallurgie in Mitteleuropa unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des

nördlichen Karpatenbeckens.

Donnerstag 11.12.2014, 15 – 20 Uhr

Peter Barta – Petra Kmeťová – Susanne Stegmann-Rajtár – Etela Studeníková

Chronometric dates from Early Iron Age settlements in Smolenice-Molpír and Ivanka pri

Dunaji.

Ursula Brosseder – Susanne Stegmann-Rajtár 

Studien zur hallstattzeitlichen Keramik von Smolenice-Molpír.

Miloš Gregor 

Early Iron Age potery from Molpír (Western Slovakia): mineralogical and petrographical

study.

Anja Hellmuth 

Die Beziehungen des frühskythischen Kulturkreises im Nordpontischen Raum zu der

befestigten Siedlung von Smolenice-Molpír im Osthallstattkreis

Radoslav Čambal 

Hallstattzeitliche Hortfunde von Smolenice-Molpír.

Sebastian Müller 

Überlegungen zur hallstattzeitlichen Besiedlung und Sozialstruktur in der Südwestslowakei.


Freitag 12.12.2014, 9 – 13 Uhr

Martin Trefný 

Eastern elements of the Hallstatt culture at Bohemia.

Carola Metzner-Nebelsick 

Prunkgeschirr und Tierprotomen – Neues zur Hallstattzeit Südostpannoniens.

Attila Molnár 

Neue Ergebnisse der Hallstattforschung in Westungarn – Die Späthallstattzeit im Raab-
Marcal-Becken.

Anita Kozubová 

Kopfschmuck der Vekerzug-Kultur.

Robert Gergely Scholtz 

"Amazons beyond the Danube“ – Forgotten Women Warriors of the Vekerzug Culture.

Farkas Márton Tóth 

A Cemetery of the Early Scythian Age in Dédestapolcsány – Verebce-tető.


Freitag 12.12.2014, 15 – 17 Uhr - Stadtbesichtigung mit Führung 

 Lucia Benedikova - Elena Miroššayová 

Hallstattzeitliche eiserne Tüllenbeile in der Slowakei. (POSTER)

Éva Durkovičová 

Györ-Ménföcsanak, a lowland settlement in the Early Iron Age. (POSTER)

Martin Golec - Pavel Fojtík - Eva Čermáková 

The Vekerzug Culture in Moravia. (POSTER)

Katarína Hladíková 

Perception of Children in Early Iron Age in Southern Etruria. (POSTER)

Vladimír Mitáš 

Der slowakische Bereich des Ipeľ-Flusses während der Hallstattzeit. (POSTER)

2014. október 9., csütörtök

Hallstatt Period Meeting in Košice

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Colleagues and Friends,

In attachments you can see the 1st circular letter with information on the Hallstatt Period Meeting that will take place from December 9/10 till December 12 2014 in the historical building of the Pavol Jozef ŠafárikUniversity in KošiceSlovakia (attachment).


DAS NÖRDLICHE KARPATENBECKEN IN DER HALLSTATTZEIT

Pavol Jozef Šafárik-Universität Košice

9./10. – 12. Dezember 2014

VEGA-Projekt 2/0051/12

„Podiel východoeurópskych nomádskych spoločenstiev na profilácii kultúrno-historického

vývoja Slovenska v dobe halštatskej“ (2012-2014)“

„Contribution of East European nomadic groups to shaping of cultural-historical development

of Slovakia in the Hallstatt period“ (2012-2014)“

Das Archäologische Institut der Slowakischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Nitra/Košice,

die Slowakische Archäologische Gesellschaft und die Pavol Jozef Šafárik-Universität

Košice, Bereich für Geschichtswissenschaften, veranstalten in Kooperation mit der

Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz vom 9./10. – 12. Dezember 2014 eine internationale

wissenschaftliche Tagung aus Anlaß des Abschlusses des VEGA-Forschungsprogrammes

(Slowakischer Förderungsprogramm für die wissenschaftlichen Forschung) mit dem

Thema „Das nördliche Karpatenbecken in der Hallstattzeit“. Zur Tagung möchten wir

gerne Wissenschaftler einladen, die sich in ihren Forschungen schwerpunktmäßig mit der

Problematik der Hallstattzeit und Hallstattkultur beschäftigen. Ein wichtiger Ansatz für unsere

Tagung ist der Verbreitungsraum der Osthallstattkultur und die weitreichenden Kulturontakte

im Raum des Karpatenbeckens, wobei es auch um die Auswirkungen des skythisch geprägten

Kulturkreises auf die hallstattzeitlichen Kulturgruppen in diesem Gebiet gehen soll.

PhDr. Elena Miroššayová, CSc., Archäologisches Institut SAW Nitra/Košice

mirossa@saske.sk

PhDr. Susanne Stegmann-Rajtár, CSc., Archäologisches Institut SAW Nitra

zuzana.rajtarova@savba.sk

Doc. PaedDr. Martin Pekár, PhD., Pavol Jozef-Šafárik-Universität Košice

martin.pekar@upjs.sk

Prof. Dr. Christopher Pare, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

pare@uni-mainz.de