Casting Moulds of the Urnfield Culture Recovered from Sármellék in Western Hungary

Abstract

The paper presents a description and the findings of the petrographic analysis of four casing moulds discovered on the outskirts of Sármellék. Preliminary findings indicate that the raw material of the moulds was most likely quarried somewhere in the Tihany Member of the Újfalu Formation (Fig. 9.6/1). In the current state of research, the presented moulds for casting tools (flanged axe, socketed axe, and hammer)and jewellery (pendant and bracelet) could be assigned to the early Urnfield Culture dating to the Ha A1–B1 periods. The single casting mould from roughly the same period – one for producing oxhide ingots, found in Ha B2 context at Gór-Kápolnadomb (Vas County) – was made from rhyolite quarried at Sárszentmiklós (Fejér County). Two more moulds were discovered in the study area in autumn 2022; their increasing number indicates a micro-regional bronzeworking centre. Based on their relative geographic position, this centre may have played a role in supplementing the Urnfield Period communities of settlements at Esztergályhorváti and Vörs with metal items. The nearest findspots of Tumulus Culture and Urnfield Period casting moulds are the settlements at Balatonmagyaród-Hídvégpuszta, Gelsesziget-Újudvari-Határ-dűlő, the outskirts of Keszthely, Várvölgy-Nagyláz-hegy, and Zalaszentiván-Kisfaludi-hegy.