A Late Bronze Age ‘Hoard’ and Metal Stray Finds from Tiszalök-Rázompuszta (Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County, Hungary)

Abstract

The paper presents an uncertain Late Bronze Age (Ha B1) hoard and metal stray finds from Tiszalök (Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County) that were discovered more than half a century ago, around 1952, and remained hidden for research in the private collection of László Teleki, the chief engineer of the Tiszalök hydroelectric power plant’s construction. Based on an escrow contract between the granddaughter of the late collector, Zsófia Farkasné Teleki and the Hungarian National Museum, the objects are temporarily kept in the Prehistoric Collection of the Department of Archaeology. The assemblage and stray finds were discovered at the construction site of a hydroelectric power plant on the north-eastern edge of the so-called Rázompuszta. Information on the hoard’s composition is contradictory, and it can be best reconstructed from the lists of Emília Risztics, who documented the collection on the construction site in 1952. Most of the objects—a sword, a socketed axe, a spearhead, two plano-convex ingots, and several bracelets and annular rings—that arrived at the Hungarian National Museum through the escrow contract appear in her lists and are identifiable by their dimensions and her sketches. This selection of objects suggests that the uncertain hoard in question belongs to the common category of “hoards with mixed composition”. The typo-chronological analysis of the finds dates this assemblage to the Ha B1, assigning it to the so-called Hajdúböszörmény horizon. The study provides a basic typological and technological overview of the uncertain hoard and the stray finds, with particular emphasis on ornament types not subjected to in-depth analysis. Metal finds from Tiszalök-Újtelep and Tiszalök-Vásártér are also presented in the text to add to our understanding of the local Late Bronze Age sites near Tiszalök.

Keywords

• Tiszalök
• Late Bronze Age
• hoard
• technological analysis
• Hajdúböszörmény horizon