Apostag - A fine metalsmith’s toolkit from the Danube

A fine metalsmith’s toolkit from the Danube
Museum-friendly metal detectorists discovered a bunch of cemented metal lumps when, taking advantage of the low levels of the Danube, surveyed the western side of Ördög Island at Apostag in the autumn of 2018. The lumps encased objects made of bronze, wood, and iron – the tools of a fine metalsmith. A team from the Koszta József Museum surveyed the shore and opened an excavation trench there, discovering a rectangular patch of charred wooden planks and remains at a depth of 10–20 cm. Although no other finds or features were found, it is possible that once a metal workshop operated there on the shore of the Danube; it must be remembered, though, that the area in question was riverbed both before and after the water regulation works. In light of that, it is also possible that the toolkit was part of an offering thrown into the water.
The kit includes an iron hammer, an anvil, a measuring rod, a modelling tool made of antler, several pressing and casting moulds in bronze and one in tin, a couple of decorative bronze mounts for belts, some semi-finished products and pieces of raw material, and a fragmentary iron casting ladle. The pressing moulds were for crafting ornate strap ends and mounts for belts, earrings, as well as headdress and horse harness ornaments. The assemblage also comprises the remains of a wooden frame, perhaps that of the box in which the tools were stored or a casting frame, and the equipment of bronze casting, including tools for sand casting. The well-preserved and exceptionally varied toolkit reflects a connection network widespread in both time and space. The items could be dated between the turn of the 6th and 7th centuries and the end of the 8th century AD, which means they were accumulated and used for generations; they can be linked to generations of a metalsmith family or a workshop rather than a single person.
Several metalsmith’s graves (craftsmen buried with their tools) are known from the Avar Period, especially the 7th century AD. The most famous ones were discovered along the Körös and Maros rivers at Kunszentmárton and Fönlak (Fenlac, Romania). A twelve-piece set of tools was found at Adony along the Danube, but there is no exact information on its findspot or the circumstances of discovery. The finds of the metalsmith’s grave unearthed at Gátér in the Danube–Tisza Interfluve were destroyed in World War 2; the assemblage is only known from drawings. Besides, several stray finds of pressing and casting moulds and rejects have been obtained from the territory of Bács-Kiskun County; some of these are also on display in the exhibition.