Bronze Age embodied 3.2. Jelena’s outfit
In our previous entry we discussed the Early Bronze Age burials discovered at the site of Balatonkeresztúr-Réti-dűlő in 2003–2004 (Honti et al. 2007, 26–29; Fábián–Serlegi 2009). Here, a pit containing the remains of eight individuals was also unearthed, dating to the Middle Bronze Age (Fábián 2007; Köhler 2007; Kiss et al. 2015; Kiss 2019). Archaeogenetic analyses have shown that the bodies of two little girls, as well as little boys and young men, were placed in the mass grave. The examinations carried out on the altogether 20 individuals who were laid to rest during the Early and Middle Bronze Age (11 burials, a pit grave, and the above mentioned mass grave) held many surprises, which will be discussed in details later.
In this section, we would like to ‘re-imagine’ the appearance of a 35-45 year old woman, known to archaeologists as ‘Jelena’, based on contemporary evidence of garments, hair ornaments and jewellery. The only piece of jewellery associated with her burial was a cylindrical bead, bent from a metal sheet. The bead was found on the left side of her skull, leaving a green corrosion mark on the bone due to being under ground for thousands of years.
Pieces of a copper bead found under Jelena’s head and a green spot on the skull caused by metal corrosion of the bead (photo: Viktória Kiss, Dániel Gerber)
Similar metal beads were identified as elements of a headdress or a type of cap during this period. Such items were found in the vicinity of Biatorbány and Solt, and also at the nearby Ordacsehi-Csereföld site from grave no. 400, excavated from the burial of a woman who died at the age of 48-57 (Somogyi 2004, 2007; Mali 2014; Somogyvári 2015). Examinations carried out on the metal tube beads showed that they were not made of tin bronze but of copper, with some arsenic, silver and antimony impurities (93-95% copper, 1-2% arsenic, 1.5-2% silver, 3-3.5% antimony, 0.3% lead; Költő 2004). In the case of the burial of Ordacsehi, a reconstruction drawing demonstrates the possible ways the beads could have been worn.
Ordacsehi-Csereföld, grave no. 400 (photo: Krisztina Somogyi, reconstruction drawing: Csaba Peterdi)
Tube beads twisted from metal sheet or wire were also worn strung into a necklace or sewn onto a garment, as it can be seen at the Bonyhád Biogas Factory site in grave no. 242, in the burial of a 30-35 year old woman. Metal analyses carried out on beads from grave no. 151 at Bonyhád (from the later, Bonyhád phase III of the cemetery) have shown that similar beads were still made of copper in the first part of the Middle Bronze Age after 1900 BC, despite the fact that bronze tools and weapons made of tin bronze had already appeared at that time (e.g. in the burial of the Balatonakali chief; Kiss 2020b). The copper raw material which contained a small amount of arsenic, antimony, and silver, could have been mined from today’s Gömör-Szepes ore mountains in Slovakia, was certainly more suitable for the production of these beads (Kovács et al. 2019).
Bonyhád-Biogas Factory, burial Nr. 242 (Kovács et al. 2019, 2. ábra)
In the second part of the Middle Bronze Age, similar ornaments decorating garments were made of tin bronze. At this time they occur less frequently in graves, but can mainly be found as components of hoards, associated with the Tolnanémedi hoard horizon, containing predominantly jewellery. Similar tube beads known from the hoard of Zalaszabar were cast from bronze with a tin content of 6.7% (Kiss et al. 2013).
Bronze ornaments and tools from the Zalaszabar hoard (photo: Csaba Tétényi)
Clay figurines known from the period suggest the wear of similar bronze ornaments as necklaces, or as decoration on the front of a garment, or as accessories worn on the head or plaited into the hair. Small copper or bronze artifacts occur in the 10-20% of the Early and Middle Bronze Age burials, while gold hair rings were present only in the graves of the elite (Somogyi 2004; Kiss 2020).
Middle Bronze Age statuette from the Lower Danube region, depicting bronze ornaments and embroidered textiles (V. Szabó 2015, III. 84)
Based on these details, it can be assumed that Jelena might have been a higher status individual within the community. She was placed in the grave most likely in a garment woven of plant-based (flax or hemp) materials, as wool textiles could have only been afforded by the highest of the elite of the era. Her attire was complemented by a simple headdress or hair ornament consisting of one or two copper beads, which is simpler than the one shown below in the reconstruction (Neugebauer 1994; Grömer 2016).
Bronze Age costume reconstruction at an event of the Iron Age Danube project
(Source: http://celefindel.blogspot.hu/2017/03/iron-age-danube-model.html)
Viktória Kiss
References
Fábián, Sz.: Őskori tömegsír Balatonkeresztúr-Réti-dűlő lelőhelyről / A Prehistoric Mass Grave at Balatonkeresztúr-Réti-dűlő. Somogyi Múzeumok Közleményei 17(A) (2007) 79–88.
Fábián, Sz., Serlegi, G.: Settlement and environment in the Late Copper Age along the southern shore of Lake Balaton in Hungary. In: T. Thurston / R. B. Salisbury (eds.), Regional Analyses of Spatial and Social Dynamics. Cambridge 2009, 199–231.
Grömer, K.: The Art of Prehistoric Textile Making. The development of craft traditions and clothing in Central Europe. Wien 2016.
Hajdu, T., György-Toronyi, A., Pap, I., Rosendahl, W. and Szabó, G. (2016) The chronology and meaning of the Transdanubian encrusted pottery decoration. Prähistorische Zeitschrift 91(2), 353–368.
Honti, Sz., Fábián, Sz., Gallina, Zs., Hajdu, Á. D., Hornok, P., Koós, I., Mersdorf, Zs., Molnár, I., Németh, P. G., Polgár, P., Pásztókai-Szeőke, J., Serlegi, G., Siklósi, Zs., Sipos, C. and Somogyi, K.: Régészeti kutatások az M7-es autópálya Somogy megyei szakaszán és a 67-es úton (2004-2005). Előzetes jelentés IV. / Archaeological research on the Somogy county section of the M7 highway and on the Route No. 67. Preliminary report IV. Somogyi Múzeumok Közleményei 17(A) (2007) 26–29.
Kiss V.: Middle Bronze Age Encrusted Pottery in western Hungary. Varia Archaeologica Hungarica 27. Budapest 2012.
Kiss V.: Megtestesült bronzkor. In: Ilon G. (szerk.): Régészeti nyomozások 2.0. Budapest 2019, 111–120.
Kiss, V.: The Bronze Age burial from Balatonakali revisited. In: Maran, J., Băjenaru, R., Ailincăi, S.-C., Popescu, A.-D., Hansen, S. (eds.): Objects, Ideas and Travelers. Contacts between the Balkans, the Aegean and Western Anatolia during the Bronze and Early Iron Age, Volume to the Memory of Alexandru Vulpe. Proceedings of the Conference in Tulcea, 10–13 November 2017. UPA 350, Bonn 2020, 529–544.
Kiss V., Barkóczy P., Vízer Zs.: A zalaszabari bronzkincs archeometallurgiai vizsgálatának előzetes eredményei. Gesta 12 (2013) 72-82.
Kiss, V., Fábián, Sz., Hajdu, T., Köhler, K., Kulcsár, G., Major, I. and Szabó, G.: Contributions to the relative and absolute chronology of the Early and Middle Bronze Age in western Hungary based on the radiocarbon dating of human bone. In R. E. Németh and B. Rezi (eds.) Bronze Age Chronology in the Carpathian Basin. Proceedings of the International Colloquium from Târgu Mureş, 2-4 October 2014. Bibliotheca Musei Marisiensis, Seria Archaeologica 8, 23–36. Târgu Mureş, Mega 2015.
Kovács R. L., Gyöngyösi Sz., Barkóczy P., Juhász L., Szabó G., Kiss V.: Technológiai megfigyelések kora és középső bronzkori fém tárgyakról (Technological observations of Early and Middle Bronze Age metal objects). In: Vicze, M., Kovács, G. (szerk.): MOMOSZ X, Őskoros Kutatók X. Összejövetelének konferenciakötete, Őskori technikák, őskori technológiák.. Százhalombatta 2019, 187–197.
Köhler K.: Őskori tömegsír embertani leletei Balatonkeresztúrról – The Physical Anthropological Analysis of the Prehistoric Mass Grave at Balatonkeresztúr. Somogyi Múzeumok Közleményei 17/A (2007) 87–96.
Költő L.: Megjegyzések az Ordacsehi-Csereföld lelőhely fémvizsgálati eredményeihet / Beiträge zur Ergebnissen der Metallanalyse aus dem Fundort Ordacsehi-Csereföld. In: Ilon, G. (szerk.): MΩΜΟΣ III. Az Őskoros Kutatók III. Összejövetelének konferenciakötete. Halottkultusz és temetkezés. Szombathely 2004, 391–392.
Mali P.: Biatorbágy–Szarvasugrás középső bronzkori temetője. In: Rajna A. (szerk.): Múltunk a föld alatt: Újabb régészeti kutatások Pest megyében / Our Past under the Earth: Recent Archaeologcal Investigations in Pest County. Szentendre 2014, 23–49.
Neugebauer, J.-W.: Die Bronzezeit in Ostösterreich. Sankt Pölten/Wien 1994.
Somogyi K.: A kisapostagi kultúra birituális temetője Ordacsehi-Csereföldön – Die birituelle Gräberfeld der Kisapostag-Kultur in Ordacsehi-Csereföld (Fundort M7 S 27) (Südwestungarn). In: Ilon G. (szerk.): MΩΜΟΣ III. Az Őskoros Kutatók III. Összejövetelének konferenciakötete. Halottkultusz és temetkezés. Szombathely 2004, 349–381.
Somogyi K.: Fejdíszes női sír a kora bronzkorból. In: Belényesy K., Honti Sz., Kiss V. (szerk.): Gördülő idő. Régészeti feltárások az M7-es autópálya Somogy megyei szakaszán Zamárdi és Ordacsehi között – Excavations on the M7 Motorway in County Somogy between Zamárdi and Ordacsehi. Kaposvár–Budapest 2007, 209–208.
Somogyvári Á.: Kalandozások Solt őskori lelőhelyei körül. Solti aranykulcsos füzetek 4. Kecskemét 2015.
Szabó G.: A Dunántúli mészbetétes edények népe kultúrájának kialakulása és belső időrendje a Bonyhádon feltárt temetőrészlet tükrében – Ausgestaltung der Kultur und innere Zeitordnung des Volkes der inkrustierten Gefässe vom Transdanubien–im Spiegel des in Bonhyád freigelegten Friedhofteiles). Wosinsky Mór Múzeum Évkönyve 32 (2010) 101–128.
