The Detachable Barbed Bronze Harpoon Heads with a Loop
János Gábor Tarbay
Department of Archaeology, Scientific Directorate, National Institute of Archaeology, Hungarian National Museum; 14–16 Múzeum Krt., Budapest, 1088 Hungary; E-mail: tarbay.gabor@mnm.hu, ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2363-7034
Cite as: Tarbay, J. G. (2023). The Detachable Barbed Bronze Harpoon Heads with a Loop. In A. Király (Ed.), From tea leaves to leaf-shaped tools. Studies in honour of Zsolt Mester on his sixtieth birthday (pp. 335–347). Lithic Research Roundtable & Institute of Archaeological Sciences, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary. https://doi.org/10.23898/litikumsi02a16
Abstract: The paper presents two variants of detachable harpoon heads with a loop (Variant 1: with a spur, Variant 2: without a spur) made of bronze, called by the author Mikulovice-type. Based on the finds from Špičák Mountain in Mikulovice and Gór-Kápolnadomb, these tools can be dated to the Ha B1 period. They are essentially West-Central European forms, appearing in the Czech Republic, Germany, and Austria. Based on casting moulds, of which the Celldömölk-Ság-hegy is presented here again after Jenő Lázár, these objects were also made in the territory of the Transdanubian Urnfield culture. The advantage of the Mikulovice type is that it can be associated with several casting moulds, which helps us see more clearly the details of its casting techniques, particularly the design of the negatives. These objects were cast with two-piece casing moulds with two negatives and one casting core. The surviving finds show similarities, but mostly unique and varied solutions were used by metalworkers in different areas. The placement of the pouring cup, the gating system, the multiple casting, and the placement of the risers are all examples of unique solutions.
Keywords: Late Bronze Age (Ha B1), Detachable bronze harpoon heads with loop, Casting moulds, Production technology
Data availability statement: The author confirms that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.
Disclosure statement: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Funding statement: The study has been supported by Project No. 134910 of the PD-OTKA Research Fund. Project No. 134910 has been implemented with the support provided by the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund of Hungary financed under the PD_20 funding scheme.
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike International Public License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). You are free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and transform the material, under the following terms: You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
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