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
duced objects of organic materials, owing to the climatic conditions of the region. In addition to buttons and loops, caftans could be fastened with various ribbons or strings mainly of textile, most of them silk. Some are known from around the Altay which tally with the North Caucasian specimens perfectly in both material and pattern 24 (figs 11.4-5). As opposed to buttons that had a fixed space, these could hold together the garment better adjusted to body shape. If, however, our caftan is not of this - archaeologicallv unverifiable - type, then the Fonyód young man's garment is not related to the so-called "Sogdian caftans" either. Perhaps it was a dress that was not open all along at the front, but was open at the top for the head. Since, however, the find is small, the possibility of it being the caftan type fastened with a few buttons and open at the front cannot be precluded - after all, a few metal or glass buttons sufficed for fastening the garment. Unfortunately, the dimensions of our find do not permit a more accurate definition. 2) Garment made entirely of a silk fabric In connection with the subject-matter of our previous paper, another unsettled problem is the existence and differentiation of silk stripes sewn to linen clothes from garments made of pure silk fabric. Though it was already possible to propose on the basis of the silk fragments of Szabadkígyós, rescued by Csanád Bálint, that there might have been pieces of clothing in the tenth century Carpathian Basin that were made entirely of silk fabric, similarly to other parts of early medieval Eastern Europe (e.g. Moscevaá Balka), the Fonyód grave textiles are the first Carpathian Basin finds that can be interpreted with great certainty as remnants of a silk upper garment. It is naturally not 100 per cent sure that the whole garment was made of silk cloth; all we can say is that the four silk fragments sewn together with a silk yarn may suggest that. Inferred from the place of the insert the other two silk fragments found under the vertebrae must have belonged to the front and back of the garment. It would be hard to explain why a silk insert would have been added to a linen garment and sewn, to the boot, with silk thread to the front and back, for the insert was certainly at a less exposed place compared to the parts of dress on the chest and back. In the find under the vertebrae no indication of however tiny a scrap of cotton or flaxen cloth can be found, although the grave circumstances were not much more disadvantageous for linen than for silk. Thus, the four - once coherent - silk pieces suggest a garment once composed wholly or largely of silk fabric. The presence of the silk yarn once holding the parts together raises a further question. We do not seem to have enough information to decide on the basis of so-far examined fragments (and the elaboration of all the fragments will not presumably provide sufficient information to the contrary) whether the pattern of the garment was an exact specimen of a Byzantine or West European pattern, or it was tailored in the Carpathian Basin from silk fabric acquired in some way. The silk thread, however, - at least at the insert and the respective parts of the front and back - supports the first option. Silk thread was normally produced and used in areas where silk fabrics were also produced. It is hard to presume that the tenth century inhabitants of the Carpathian Basin were intent on acquiring silk yarn for the making of such garments. On the basis of so-far cleaned finds we cannot of course preclude that the insert and the attached parts of the front and back were cut 28
