TAMÁSI
County of Tolna, Hungary.
Conquering Romans of the Early Empire settled in this area,
originally inhabited by Pannonian tribes. The lack of
finds from later than the 2d c. A.D, shows that the tribal
and villa settlements were destroyed during invasions in
the reign of Marcus Aurelius. Roman finds, consisting of
bronze statues, have been discovered in the vicinity of
the village and appear to have been a hoard of objects
from a house shrine. The most outstanding piece is a
seated goddess, 35 cm high, hollow-cast in bronze. The
statue probably represents the empress Domitilla in the
form of Concordia Augusta, for there is a strong resemblance between the features in the statue and on the
Domitilla coins. The quality of the statue exceeds the
usual workmanship of small bronzes. It appears to be a
provincial copy of a good model, made at the end of the
1st c. either in N Italy or Raetia. The other statue from
the hoard, a bronze Jupiter 26.5 cm high, evokes the
school of Skopas; a statue of Zeus must have served as
model. A bronze pitcher 19.5 cm high was also found.
Its body is smooth, its handle is cast separately, ending
in a female mask decoration. The pitcher shows Alexandrian influence, and belongs among the Italian products of the 1st and 2d c. The hoard comes from the early years of the Roman occupation.
The second find at Tamási, a statuette 15 cm high of
the goddess Minerva, was discovered in 1952. In this
area traces of Roman buildings indicate the row of former villas. The small statue is a fortunate mixture of
archaic and Late Hellenistic style. Modeled on the
Athena of the Temple of Aphaia, the statue must have
been made during the period from Antoninus Pius to
Marcus Aurelius, in the middle third of the 2d c. The
finds are in the museum at Szekszárd.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. Csalog, “Römische Kleinbronzen aus
Tamási,”
Arch. Ért. (1944-45) 193-97; E. Thomas,
Rómaikor-Römerzeit. Vezetö a szekszárdi Balogh Ádám Muzeum kiállitásaiban (1965) 30-47; id., “A tamási Athena szobor,”
Antik Tanulmányok (1956) 167-74; id.,
Römische Villen (1964) 418 pp.; id.,
Römerzeitliche
Hausheiligtümer aus Tamási (1963) 24 pp.; id., “Athene-Statuette aus Tamási,”
Arch. Funde (1956) 234-35.
E. B. THOMAS
