The first such specimen, at the time difficult to define, was found in the second half of the nineteenth century at what was then the Hungarian site of Magyárad, now Mad’arovce in Slovakia. Since then, and into the present day, over three hundred of these mysterious small ceramic or, less frequently, stone artefacts have been collected. They are most often of oval-ellipsoidal or elongated flat rectangular form, and most often about nine centimetres long (Fig. 1). 

They are impressed with various simple geometric motifs, of diverse distribution, usually consisting of a transversely incised line with a centrally placed impression (Fig. 2). The same motifs are scratched and carved into the stone artefacts. On some artefacts the impression is made using the fruit of the mallow flower, with only one case of an impression made using a small double spiral (“spectacle”) pendant, one of the typical Bronze Age ornaments. Most have impressions on only one of the larger faces, but there are also frequent examples of impressions on the opposite large face of the artefact.

Over time they have been referred to by various names, with their oval-ellipsoidal and flattened form leading to names like pain oblong de terre cuite (oblong loaf of baked earthenware), gateâux en terre cuite (baked earthenware cake), Brotlaibidoli and loaf-of-bread idols, tavolette enigmatiche (enigmatic tablets), oggetti fittili enigmatici (enigmatic clay objects) and talismani a tavolette (talisman tablets).

There have been very diverse interpretations of their use: as a special code for the elite ruling caste; as some kind of calendar; as accounting records; as having cult significance; even as a form of proto-writing.

THE AREA OF THE FINDS AND THE DATING OF LOAF-OF-BREAD IDOLS

Almost all originate from Bronze Age settlements in which there was some significant level of craft activity, in the area from Corsica, across central and eastern Europe, to the Lower Danube. In some areas they have been found in large quantities. They are most numerous in northern Italy at pile-dwelling settlements to the south of Lake Garda, followed by significant groups collected in the area of present day Bavaria, Czechia, Moravia, Slovakia and in the area of the Lower Danube (Fig. 3). The same symbols impressed on these small loafof-bread idols are found at sites separated by great distances. They appear throughout the period of the Early to Middle Bronze Age, although with greater frequency from the late phase of the Early Bronze Age to into the Middle Bronze Age (1700–1500 BCE).

LOAF-OF-BREAD IDOLS – ENIGMATIC ARTEFACTS IN ISTRIA AND THE UPPER ADRIATIC

An important group of loaf-of-bread idols consists of six fragments collected at the Monkodonja Bronze Age hillfort near Rovinj (Fig. 4) discovered in the course of systematic excavations undertaken in the period from 1997 to 2008. Most were found in the northwest section of the acropolis (Figs. 4 and 5), where it is hypothesised that the ruling elite of this socially stratified settlement lived. Their location confirms the significance of Monkodonja and of its inhabitants as it shows them to be linked to and participating in a broad network of the exchange of goods, experience and knowledge. Monkodonja may have played the particular role of a supply station or one for the on-and-off loading of goods for the maritime route between the Mediterranean and central Europe, and from northern Italy towards the Carpathian Basin. We find parallels for the tablets from Monkodonja with small impressed concentric circles (nos. 2, 3 and 6) in northern Italy, while those with transverse incised lines and a centrally placed impression (nos. 1, 4 and 5) are similar to central European tablets, which confirms contacts over great distances. We can hypothesise that the tablets at Monkodonja were intentionally broken, which may represent confirmation of a completed/concluded transaction.

Along with the artefacts from Monkodonja we also have the chance find of one damaged tablet from Nesactium (no. 7), a hillfort better known for its significance to the Iron Age Histri population. It is entirely different from those at Monkodonja. It is rectangular and has a bundle of parallel incised lines on one face, terminated by one crosswise line. The only specimens with similar form and similar incised motifs are found at Radčice, a Bronze Age site in Czechia, although we do also see similar incised motifs on several tablets in northern Italy.

In Istria we also have a spatula shaped artefact (no. 8), found at the Vrčin hillfort and kept in the Battaglia Collection of the University of Padua’s Museum of Anthropology. Vrčin is located in the central part of southern Istria and is the first systematically excavated hillfort settlement in Istria. Although the artefact is of unusual form, we do see circles impressed on it with an inscribed cross, a symbol quite frequent precisely on loaf-of-bread idols at northern Italian pile-dwellings and in terramara type settlements.

These same symbols are impressed on a loaf-of-bread idol from the Sveti Bartolomej hillfort above the town of Cres (no. 9) that has been lost.

Also from the Bronze Age hillfort (cro. gradine, ital. castellieri) culture of Istria, the Kvarner Bay islands and the Karst region in the hinterland of Trieste (Kras, Carso) is an idol from Briška jama/Grotta Gigante above Trieste. This loaf-of-bread idol has an elongated rectangular shape similar to that of the central European artefacts and bears three semi-circular dimples (no. 10).

HAVE AN IDEA?

A special programme has been created for the documentation of loaf-ofbread idols / enigmatic artefacts with the purpose of providing a more detailed treatment via the analysis of shapes and combinations of impressed symbols. There is an Internet site that offers viewing of all the loaf-of-bread idols / tablets collected to date (www.tavoletteenigmatiche.it). An international congress and exhibition were staged in 2010 at the Museo Archeologico dell’Alto Mantovano in Cavriana (a municipality in the Province of Mantua) under the title “ENIGMA. Un antico processo di interazione  europea: le Tavolette Enigmatiche / An Ancient European Interaction: the Enigmatic Tablets”. The exhibition was also staged at the kelten römer museum in Manching in 2011. It was an opportunity for an exhaustive discussion on the nature of the loaf-of-bread idols, these mysterious tablets that remain an ENIGMA.

Do You Have an Idea What It Is?

You can contact:

arheoloski-muzej-istre@pu.t-com.hr

Subject: BLI

 BIBLIOGRAPHY: