ON THE BORDER OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOGRAPHY: FIRE STRIKERS IN HUNGARY

Abstract

The aim of my study is to present the types of fire-strikers that were once used in the Hungary and Carpathian Basins, their general forms and dating problems. Most of the types were in continuous use from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 20th century, but Hungarian archaeology and ethnography know little about each other's results in this case, moreover, archaeological literature is not uniformised in terminology either. It is worth taking the names of object types and their parts from common ethnographic practice and applying them to the material recovered from excavations. The typology follows a fairly simple and logical structure, but the chronology is complicated by the lack of material communication. In connection with Biedermeier animal-shaped chirpers, earlier research has suggested medieval or even Roman dating, but this is clearly refuted by the research. In addition to their functionality, these objects are sometimes very ornate, even with scratched the year of production. In addition to everyday life in Hungary, fire-strikers also play a significant role in folk tradition, as an accessory to wedding ceremonies, folk medicine (analogical magic) or religiosity of certain groups. Although we know the European parallels relatively well, the results of the Asian research did not have a great impact on the examination of this topic in Hungary, so our further goal is to get acquainted with the material here.

Materials and methods of research. The research materials were chairs from the archaeological and ethnographic collections of museums in Hungary.

The research methodology is based on scientific approaches and principles; the following were applied: logical, systematic, comprehensive, comparative historical and archaeological-ethnographic approaches using interdisciplinary research.

The work is based on an integrated approach to the object of study. During the study, a typological and chronological analysis of artifacts was carried out. Using the comparative typological method, an analysis of archaeological and ethnographic types of armchairs was carried out, and common and distinctive features were identified. For a systematic description of the artifacts, a formal typological method of studying the iconography of forms and images, supplemented by stylistic analysis, was used. To identify historical, archaeological and ethnographic connections, the historical-comparative method was used. Chronological attribution of artifacts was carried out using relative and absolute dating.