The artefact of October, proposed by the Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography, is a trap (“bărbânță”) used to catch martens.
The trap is made of a piece of rotten fir trunk with a hole made in its inner wall, at a distance of about 10 cm from the mouth of the piece. A small, sharp stake at the top is placed inside the hole, into which the bait is inserted. At the end of the stake, near the trap’s wall, there is another hole into which a second, larger stake is placed, which supports the lid. The marten grabs the bait and causes the fall of the two stakes, and thus the lid entraps it. The boulder placed over the lid prevents the animal from coming out. By the marks left on the snow, the hunter realizes that the marten was caught inside, he removes the boulder, ties a sack over the trap and turns it over so that the marten enters the sack.
The trap in the image has inventory number A.9655 and was purchased from Moisei, Maramureș county, in 1969. Its height measures 73 cm and its diameter 36 cm.