The two lives of a small hook

Pásztókai – Szeőke Judit

Hadak útján. A népvándorláskor fiatal kutatóinak XXIV. konferenciája. Esztergom, 2014. november 4–6. Conference of young scholars on the Migration Period. November 4–6, 2014, Esztergom

MŐT Kiadványok 3.1 (2015) 87–95

DOI 10.55722/Arpad.Kiad.2015.3.1_06

Jelen tanulmány középpontjában azok a huzalból készült, apró római kori kampók állnak, melyeket a Római Birodalom tartományainak anyagi kultúráját kutatók orsókampónak, míg a birodalom határain túl élőkét faggatók elsősorban ruhatűnek tartanak. A dolgozatban a Dunántúlról ismert példányokat és leletkontextusukat, valamint eredetük és funkciójuk kérdéseit vizsgáljuk.

Kulcsszavak: Római Birodalom, Savaria, orsókampó, szarmata, ruhajavító és tisztító műhely

This paper focuses on the tiny Roman hooks made of copper alloy (occasionally of iron) that are described as spindle hooks by those studying the material culture of the Roman Empire and considered as safety pins by others interested in the artifacts of peoples that had lived beyond the borders of the empire.

Following earlier traditions, in her summary article published in 2013 Gabriella Vörös not only defined the hooked pins made of copper alloy and unearthed from the women’s graves of Sarmatian cemeteries as safety pins but published several drawings based on their location in the burials (at the right and left shoulders, on the chest, at the hips and next to the hands), recon-structing their use as dress pins.

The aim of this paper is to present the above group of Transdanubian finds (primarily from a 12th-century workshop refurbishing used garments) and their excavation context as well as to answer questions raised in relation to their use as spindle hooks. Such a question is whether their appearance in the Roman context indicates indeed a change in the technology of spinning or not.