Decoration Technology of the Bronze Axe-hammer from Petrova Ves1

BUFM 74, Furmánek, Mišík, Tóth, „Bronze Axe-hammer from Petrova Ves“, xx–xx
                                                                                                             161

Václav Furmánek, Peter Mišík, Peter Tóth

  Decoration Technology of the Bronze Axe-hammer from Petrova Ves1

Petrova Ves, district Skalica, has so far archae-           socket 34 mm; max. width of the blade 43 mm;
ologically been an almost unknown site. The                 weight 420,1 grams. A qualitative analysis of
village is located in the Záhorie region and lies           the alloy was realized already in 2000 by doc.
therefore outside the Carpathian Arch and the               J. Krištín from the Faculty of Natural Sciences of
Carpathian Basin. It is situated near to Unín,              the Comenius University in Bratislava, whom
where a fortified settlement of the Věteřov cul-            we would like to thank this way. The analysis
ture was excavated at Zámčisko (Studeníková                 revealed that it is tin bronze with a relatively low
1983). The Věteřov culture was, according to Slo-           tin content (4,01–6,6 %), decimal values of silver
vak Bronze Age experts and according to the con-            (from 0,35 to 0,46 %) and zinc (0,11 to 1,43 %).
cept of the historical development of the Bronze                A particularity of the artefact is primarily
Age in Slovakia and Central Europe, a part of               in the fact that the territory of its origin and
the Maďarovce-Věteřov-Böheimkirchen cultural                the area of the largest find concentration are
complex (Furmánek/Veliačik/Vladár 1991, 61,                 located hundreds of kilometres away from the
79; Furmánek/Veliačik/Vladár 1999, 47), and                 Slovak-Moravian border region, where it was
not an independent group as it is understood by             undoubtedly found (Fig. 2). According to the
some, otherwise, excellent Moravian archaeolo-              generally accepted typological classification
gists (Stuchlík 2006, 228; Stuchlíková 1990).               of those bronze artefacts it belongs, as already
    The anonymity and almost insignificance of              stated, to the type Aa after A. Mozsolics (1967,
the village Petrova Ves changed after the acci-             35). Axe-hammers of this type are characteris-
dental finding of a unique bronze disc-butted               tic representatives of the bronze inventory of
axe-hammer, which was richly decorated with                 the Hajdúsamson phase (Mozsolics 1967). They
a typical ornament of bronzes (Fig. 3–4) of the             were typical for the north-eastern part of the
Hajdúsamson horizon in the Carpathian Basin                 Carpathian Basin in the Early Bronze Age, phase
(Mozsolics 1967).                                           BA2 (Fig. 2). Some other parallels scatter further
    This unique artifact was found quite ran-               north and west (Novotná 1970. 55). However,
domly by Mr. Ladislav Morávek from Bratis-                  the site in Petrová Ves in the Záhorie region rep-
lava in the summer of 1989, during agricultural             resents so far one of the most distant intrusions
works in the cadastre of the village Petrova                of this unique bronze artifact type outside the
Ves. The bronze disc-butted axe-hammer defi-                area of its main occurrence.
nitely belongs to the type Aa after A. Mozsolics                Axe-hammers and especially disc-butted
(1967, 35). It lay in the surface soil southwest            axe-hammers represent an attractive bronze
of the village on a gentle slope in the location            artifact, whose function was not only practical,
of Záhumenice (Fig. 1). The axe-hammer is                   but certainly also symbolic. Therefore, deserved
extraordinarily richly decorated with a typical             and special attention was paid to them and to
curved-linear ornament (Fig. 3–4). Parameters: L.           their rich decoration not only in the area of their
191 mm; max. diameter of the disc-butt 63 mm;               origin and main occurrence, but also in neigh-
diameter of the socket 21 mm; max. width of the             bouring and other European countries (Kroeger-
                                                            Michel, 1983; Vulpe/Lazǎ  r 1997 – ibid. further
                                                            literature).
1 The paper was supported by the project APVV No.               Since the aforementioned axe-hammer repre-
0736-11.                                                    sents neither as to typological, nor cultural and

BUFM 74, Furmánek, Mišík, Tóth, „Bronze Axe-hammer from Petrova Ves“, xx–xx
162

Fig. 1. Petrova Ves. Location of the find at Záhumenice.

Fig. 2. The distribution of axe-hammers of Type A (Updated and edited after Kroeger-Michel 1983, fig. 36b;
Mozoslics 1967, Abb. 11; Vulpe/Lazǎ     r 1997, Abb. 2).

chronological aspects any difficult and compli-              of its production, and particularly, the technol-
cated issues, we decided to clarify the technology           ogy of the typical it can be said canonized deco-

BUFM 74, Furmánek, Mišík, Tóth, „Bronze Axe-hammer from Petrova Ves“, xx–xx
                                                                                                           163

Fig. 3. Petrova Ves. The axe-hammer of type Aa (Drawing by J. Marettová).

ration. It is usually assumed that the ornament                 The first author of the paper, who has more
was engraved and embossed into an already cast              than 50 years’ experience in studying the metal
and hand-tooled shape (Boroffka 1999, 59). On               inventory of the Bronze Age (Furmánek 1973,
the other hand, A. Vulpe and V. Lazǎr (1997, 303)          1977), has turned to leading Slovak metal found-
have argued that the decoration was created                 ers with the request to analyse this artifact, for
with the wax model and the bronze artifact was              expertise and consultations according to spe-
therefore cast in the lost-wax technology. How-             cific requirements and comments. An analy-
ever, their suggestion was explicitly refused by            sis was carried out more than ten years ago by
N. G. O. Boroffka (1999). Also P. Mišík accepted            Mr. Peter Mišík, who is an experienced jeweller,
the lost-wax technology with certain technologi-            engraver and lecturer at the School of Applied
cal reservations more than a decade ago. At that            Arts in Kremnica. The co-author of this paper,
time, he held the axe-hammer in his hands for               Mr. P. Mišík, has outlined some own views on
the first time. He was not quite sure, because              the decoration method of the axe-hammer, how-
some traces on the axe-hammer did not explic-               ever, he was, gently said, restrained. His previ-
itly confirm the use of this type of decoration             ous findings and suggestions were indeed pre-
method.                                                     sented at international conferences on the Early

BUFM 74, Furmánek, Mišík, Tóth, „Bronze Axe-hammer from Petrova Ves“, xx–xx
164

Fig. 4. Petrova Ves. 3D model of the axe-hammer (Prepared by: A. Arpáš).

Bronze Age in Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and                I.     A metal prototype was cast into a mould of
Romania, which took place in Modrová, (2000),                      stone or a different material.
Roztoky u Prahy (2001), Baia Mare (2001), but               II.    It was perfectly polished; had a flat surface
has not been published yet. Up to now, on the                      without elevated side ribbons.
occasion of the notable anniversary of our col-             III.   The axe-hammer was decorated with
league and friend Václav Moucha, we decided                        engraved and embossed ornaments.
to publish, at least partially and preliminarily,           IV.    From the prototype wax duplicates were
some technologically interesting results of an                     produced.
especially large (23 standard pages + schematic             V.     These were further shaped and used to
drawings) expertise report of engraving and                        produce axe-hammers with the “lost-wax
casting. According to the first expertise in 2000,                 method”
the production method of the disc-butted axe-
hammer from Petrova Ves was expected to have                We were not fully satisfied with this expertise
been as follows:                                            and have further investigated the axe-hammer.

BUFM 74, Furmánek, Mišík, Tóth, „Bronze Axe-hammer from Petrova Ves“, xx–xx
                                                                                                           165

Fig. 5. Petrova Ves. Marks of individual punches (represented by arrows) on the surface of a spiral decorated
axe-hammer (Photo by J. Mihályiová).

It has been shown, that the decoration of the                II. Afterwards tracing needles and punches
axe-hammer was not engraved, but punched,                         were made of bronze.
what was also suggested by Swedish scholar                   III. Reference points for decoration were placed
Elizabeth Herner (1987, fig. 6, 13). Unfortunately,               by tracing needle on the surface of axe-ham-
due to the complexity of the decoration and an                    mer.
associated time-consuming expertise, we are                  IV. A spiral was winded up on a thin branch and
currently not able to substantiate these precon-                  could be shaped as necessary (formed into
ditions exactly. According to the new expertise                   an oval or small curves could be cut off and
(2012–2013) the procedure of the decoration of                    so on).
the axe-hammer is following:                                 V. After that spiral (or curves) was placed to
                                                                  prepared reference points needed for deco-
I.   A thin metal wire was produced through                       ration.
     casting, working and pulling.

BUFM 74, Furmánek, Mišík, Tóth, „Bronze Axe-hammer from Petrova Ves“, xx–xx
166

VI. Between the threads of the spiral were by               Furmánek/Veliačik/Vladár 1999 – V. Furmá-
     tracing needles drawn curves, which were                  nek/L. Veliačik/J. Vladár, Die Bronzezeit im
     subsequently punched with hammer and a                    slowakischen Raum (Rahden/Westf. 1999).
     punch.                                                 Herner 1987 – E. Herner: Profession med Tradi-
VII. Analogically, the decoration made of straight             tion. Teknisk-kvalitativ Analys av den äldre
     lines was punched the same way.                           Bronsålderns Spiralornamentik, dess Cen-
                                                               tral-och Lokalproduktion (Lund 1987).
The examination of questions of prehistoric                 Kroeger-Michel 1983 – E. Kroeger-Michel, Les
technology is a particularly challenging task. To              haches à disque du Bassin des Carpathes
solve this issue, we generally approach it from                (Paris 1983).
the present knowledge. And besides that, we                 Mozsolics 1967 – A. Mozsolics, Bronzefunde des
do not realise that some of the experiences and                Karpatenbecken. Depotfundhorizonte von
skills gained with hundreds of years of empirism               Hajdúsámson und Kosziderpadlás (Buda-
have completely disappeared. This handicap is                  pest 1967).
being tried to get eliminated by using methods              Studeníková 1983 – E. Studeníková, Tretia
of experimental archaeology.                                   výskumná sezóna na Zámčisku v Uníne.
                                                               Archeologické výskumy a nálezy na Sloven-
                                                               sku v roku 1982 (1983) 233–234.
Literature                                                  Stuchlík 2006 – S. Stuchlík, Borotice. Mohylové
Boroffka 1999 – N. G. O. Boroffka, Zu einem                    pohřebiště z doby bronzové (Brno 2006).
  Axtfragment aus „Ungarn“. Transsilvanica.                 Stuchlíková 1990 – J. Stuchlíková, Otázky
   Gedenkschrift für Kurt Horedt (Rahden/                      pohřebního ritu moravské věteřovské
   Westf. 1999) 59–69.                                         skupiny. In: Pravěké a slovanské osídlení
Furmánek 1973 – V. Furmánek, Bronzová indu-                    Moravy. Sborník Josefa Poulíka (Brno 1990)
   strie středodunajské mohylové kultury na                    146–157.
   Moravě. Slovenská archeológia 21, 1973,                  Vulpe/Lazǎ  r 1997 – A. Vulpe/V. Lazǎ    r, Die
   25–145.                                                     Nacken­scheibenaxt von Bogata in Mittelsie-
Furmánek 1977 – V. Furmánek, Pilinyer Kultur.                  benbürgen (Rumänien). In: Chrónos. Fest-
   Slovenská archeológia 25, 1977, 251–370.                    schrift für Bernhard Hänsel (Espelkamp
Furmánek/Veliačik/Vladár 1991 – V. Furmá-                      1997) 303–311.
   nek/L. Veliačik/J. Vladár, Slovensko v dobe
   bronzovej (Bratislava 1991).