A Bronze Handle from the Pongrácz Collection

Abstract

This paper brings to the attention of researchers a bronze handle, most likely from a larger vessel, a piece that was part of the famous Pongrácz collection, housed by the National Museum of Banat in Timișoara,now unfortunately lost, kept only in the form of a drawing. We cannot say with certainty the piece comes from the ancient Dierna, but we cannot exclude this possibility either. We will try in our approach to establish the functionality of the piece and, through analogies, to try a typological and chronological classification of it. Due to the quality of the execution, the attention to detail and the mastery of the decor, we do not exclude the hypothesis that we are in front of an imported piece, both a testimony of trade relations and the level of civilization reached in antiquity by the settlements in the Danube area.