Kecskemét - Two unique vessels from the settlement

A large wooden bucket with bronze hoops and a spherical vessel of similar size with three handles were found in Feature 2843, a smoking pit. Wooden buckets with hoops are known from graves on several Avar Period sites; however, these are usually smaller, and their hoops are made of iron. The bucket found at Kecskemét was discovered on a settlement. It is much larger than usual, and its hoops are made of bronze, indicating that it was a prestige item obtained via trade or as a diplomatic gift rather than common equipment of daily life.
Neither the bronze-hooped bucket nor the large wheel-thrown three-handle pottery vessel found next to it has known analogies in the Carpathian Basin. Based on its design, firing technique, and material composition, the vessel was likely made in Rhineland, where, in the area of Mayen, the first pottery workshops relying on local materials were established back in the mid-1st century AD, and pottery production has continued (with a small break during World War Two) until today. The products of these workshops are easy to distinguish from other coeval pottery because Roman and Merovingian Period vessels were tempered with feldspar, while the clay of those of the Carolingian era was mixed with quartz sand. An almost waterproof, hard ceramic ware, the so-called Mayener Ware ME appeared at the end of the 8th century AD; the related types, a spherical vessel and a spouted pitcher variant, were transported from the estuary of the Mosel and traded throughout Europe in the 9th century AD.