An Eastern type bronze needle discovered at Șimleu Silvaniei, Sălaj County

Abstract

The author publishes a bronze needle with a globular head and four conical knobs placed 3 cm below the head of the piece. The needle stem is made of round section. Dimensions: length – 18.60 cm; globular head diameter – 1.12 cm; the diameter of the bar between the head and the protuberances – 0.60 cm. The needle was accidentally discovered on the high plateaus of “Măgurii Șimleului”, north of the “Observator” point, most likely in the area of the site found at this place. Long-term, systematic and preventive archaeological research has shown that the site has been inhabited for several periods of prehistory, including the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. V. Dergačev attributes these needles to the Văleni type, stating that they are found both in the composition of some deposits and in the archaeological inventory of some settlements east of the Carpathians area, including the Upper Dniester. In Transylvania, such needles appear in late Bronze Age contexts in areas where the presence of Noua culture communities is attested archaeologically. These contexts are attributed by Dergačev to the Bz D stage. As far as we are concerned, we relate this discovery to the Late Bronze Age settlement attributed to the cultural group Cehăluț – Hajdúbagos, well attested in this site after archaeological research. In this context, the author resumes and completes with new discoveries the list of “Eastern type” artifacts that appeared in the contexts of the Late Bronze Age in the Upper Tisza area and presents the theories issued about the meaning and relationships through which they penetrate. A recent discovery, from the summer of 2021 in Sutor (Sălaj County) brings new data, important for this discussion. Preventive archeological research has allowed the investigation of an archeological sitet inhabited during several periods of prehistory and ancient history. A series of complexes with an inventory characteristic to the Noua Late Bronze Age ceramic style were researched. Among the archeological complexes attributed to it, there is a structure (Cpx. 2) with an oval-elongated surface, of about 180 m2, consisting of overlapping, randomly arranged, red-burnt earth, strongly pigmented layers with coal and layers of clay soil, gray-purple color, often with crushed limestone, with a maximum deposit thickness of about 0.45 m. the “structural frame” of the vault made of stone slabs, placed vertically or slightly inclined. We believe that this structure is an “ashmound”. A very rich and varied archaeological inventory was collected from this ashmound: fragmentary pottery, animal bones, tools made of bones and horns, pieces of hearth splice, fragments of house walls, including pieces with embossed decoration. Quite a few pieces of metal have been discovered, all in the upper part of the deposition that make up the ashmound. The settlement from Sutor is so far the westernmost in Transylvania of a predominantly Noua culture community or formed on a predominantly Noua background, located in the immediate vicinity of the area inhabited by the communities of the Cehăluț – Hajdúbagos cultural group west of the Meseș massif. The close proximity of the two Late Bronze Age cultural events favored contacts between the two populations and obviously the dissemination of Eastern elements in the area inhabited by the communities of the Cehăluț – Hajdúbagos group and through them, further to the central area of the Upper Tisza region.