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
lő," 1 while the other was unearthed by László Költő at Fonyód in 1988 during his rescue excavation conducted as a result of the enlargement of the Magyar Bálint Primary School.' This paper is devoted to the presentation of a relatively large fragment from the textile remnants of the Fonyód grave (fig. 6). The four silk remnants to be presented below - once constituting parts of a single garment - alone provide considerable information about tenth-century costumes, even though the entire textile trove of 16 pieces, found in the Fonyód grave is far from being fully processed. A conquest-period grave at Fonyód A conquest-period grave was found during the enlargement of the Magyar Bálint Primary School in Fonyód in 1988 (during the installation of rainwater drainage). The workers came across horse bones first, above a human skeleton. Earthwork was interrupted immediately and László Költő was able to unearth the human skeleton undisturbed. Because of the layout of the existing building of the school, he could not extend the excavated area, but he believed the grave to be a solitary one on the grounds that no find had been unearthed previously, during the preliminary work for the construction of the school earlier. 6 Excepting the textile, the finds were briefly published by László Költő in 1996. A detailed account of the objects and the grave will be included in the forthcoming catalogue of Carpathian Basin graves, dated by tenth-century coins. 8 The Fonyód grave held, according to the anthropological analysis of the skeletal remains, the body of an approximately 20-yearold man. 9 The skull and shin-bones of the man's horse were also buried with him. The horse-harness found in the grave includes a pair of iron stirrups, an iron bit and a wrought-iron breast-strap buckle. Költő believed that the thin silver strips found near the horse bones probably adorned parts of the horse harness. Beside the silk fragments, to be discussed below, other parts of the garment put on the deceased for the burial and recovered in the grave included cast silver-gilt (belt) mounts of two different shapes and two silver coins applied between the mounts, 1 0 as well as narrow silver bands found around the deceased person's wrists and ankles. The latter were probably sewn to the sleeves of the upper garment and the edges of the trouser legs. Similarly to these silver bands, the small gold sheet found near the vertebrae must also have adorned the upper garment (how they were fastened to the textile is yet unclear). Also, part of the attire in the broad sense must have been the two open wire rings unearthed on the two sides of the skull and the sabretache whose existence is suggested by the decorating mounts of a closing strap. In a somewhat unusual place, above the ribs, the remains of an iron knife were found. Of the objects placed into the grave, only the seven iron arrow-heads - indicative of the one-time presence of a quiver made wholly of organic materials - can be considered to be grave-goods. 1 1 The objects found in the grave are not much different front other tenth-century graves of relatively rich persons. The real interest of the grave-goods is the lucky survival of silk fragments, because the geological conditions of the Carpathian Basin make textile remains few and far between. Besides, only few can be securely connected to different elements of the under- or over-wear. 1 2 The pieces of silk found in the Fonyód grave are among the largest textile relics found in the Carpathian Basin (fig. 5.2) and they are un22
