Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 27. (Budapest, 2009)

Katalin E. NAGY - Ádám BÍRÓ - Ádám BOLLÓK - László KÖLTŐ Péter LANGÓ - Attila Antal TÜRK: Byzantine Silk Fragments from a Tenth-century Grave at Fonyód

KATALIN E. NAGY - ÁDÁM BÍRÓ - ÁDÁM BOLLÓK - LÁSZLÓ KÖLTŐ PÉTER LANGÓ - ATTILA ANTAL TÜRK BYZANTINE SILK FRAGMENTS FROM A TENTH-CENTURY GRAVE AT FONYÓD NEW DATA ON A GARMENT IN THE TENTH-CENTURY CARPATHIAN BASIN* Our work is dedicated to Emőke László, who researched and taught textile history for four decades. In addition to her outstanding professional competence, she also set an example to the next generations with her personal qualities. We are particularly indebted to herfor passing on to us her broad knowledge oj the history and techniques of artistic textile. We therefore dedicate to her the description of the most valuable tenth-century silkfragmentsfound so far in the Carpathian Basin. Two years ago our team sought the answer to the question what kind of female and male garments worn at the time of the Magyar conquest of the Carpathian Basin could be reconstructed from textiles found in tenth and eleventh-century graves published earlier, as well as those found more recently and unpublished so far, with special emphasis on parts of garments that can rarely be examined by archaeological means, due to the climatic conditions of the Carpathian Basin. The first study summing up our work was written for the Festschrift in honour of Csanád Bálint who initiated the research into the textile remains of the Carpathian Basin and whose case for the importance of archaeological textiles as conveyors of economic and social historical information is still valid.

1 The above-mentioned study of the team's work has recently appeared in print; the database published in it contains the examination results of the materials and manufacturing techniques of 92 textile fragments.

2 Among the studied textiles several silk cloths, so-called samites characteristic of the given period, could also be differentiated in addition to linen fabrics.

3 Although under the climatic conditions of the Carpathian Basin no textiles and garments are likely to be found in a similarly outstanding state of preservation as those, for example, from Moscevaá Balka in the Northern Caucasus, we continued the research in the hope that through the careful observation of excavations we could significantly expand the published database. When the first database was closed and the preliminary results were published, we hoped we will be able to enrich our knowledge of the garments, burial customs, social establishment, cultural relations of the tenth and eleventhcentury Hungarians through the future enlargement of the data stock - that is, through lucky discovery and thorough minute documentation of further finds. We were surprised, however, how soon new discoveries followed. Since the closing of the database for the above-mentioned study, there have been two important textile finds. One had been rescued by András Jósa in 1915 from grave 14 in Cemetery I at Kenéz* The study was prepared as part of the research project "Byzantium in Central and Eastern Europe

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