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
- based on the mounts and leather remnants belonging to a belt unearthed in the Tiszaeszlár-Bashalom, Cemetery I and the Perbete site - such "belt-mount shaped'"'' metal pieces were automatically subsumed among the ornaments of belts whenever this mount type specimens were found close to the body of the deceased during excavations. The first to point out the errors of this somewhat simplifying procedure was László Révész who could prove that the so-called "belt-mount shaped" objects were often fastened to the horse harness. 2 7 That also means that in every case in which no unambiguous proof is available from a grave, the definition of the examined mount type as belonging to a belt must be doubtful. After the Fonyód find, a mounted belt can only be hypothesized when leather remnants are also found in the given grave in addition to the mounts. 2 8 The one-time presence of a mounted belt is presumably proved by finds that are unearthed not only in the section around the waist but also positioned as if on a long hanging piece of leather. Of course, it cannot be excluded that the mounts were in this case, too, fastened directly onto the cloth. Further help may come from cases when a buckle and belt end are also found in addition to the mounts. However, these objects do not provide conclusive evidence. As is seen in the Fonyód grave, using some of the mounts as garment mounts does not preclude that a belt, even a mounted belt, be buried with the deceased. It was well documented in the Fonyód grave that the wide mounts were positioned around the waist of the dead man, and these, or some of them, were possibly fastened to the garment. The narrow mounts of the same set, however, together with the buckle and strap end were probably fixed to the leather belt surrounding the waist (fig. 12.1). 4) The place of the Fonyód silk among the silk finds of the Carpathian Basin As mentioned in the description of the silk fragments, the density of the fragments ranges them with the tightly-woven Byzantine silks. This is not surprising on the basis of the silk finds collected so far. As noted in our previous article, progressing from the East towards the Carpathian Basin, one finds an ever growing share of Byzantine silks in the archaeological finds. The finds we presented in it proved that the proportions of the specimens were close to the products of Byzantine workshops. 2 9 Historical research has shed some light on the channels along which products of Byzantine workshops were made available to inhabitants of the Carpathian Basin. The Fonyód silk fragments provide concrete data in support of the possible hypothesis formulated earlier: silks that reached the Carpathian Basin also came in the form of garments tailored in the Mediterranean, and not only as plain cloth, as the written and pictorial data of the early medieval diplomatic and commercial traffic (fig. 13) also confirm. However, this new find is still insufficient to answer the question along which of the channels described in our previous paper the upper garment buried with him came into the possession of the Fonyód youth. Both peaceful commercial acquisition and the less elegant seizure as booty are possible options. As was mentioned earlier, Hungarians had many opportunities to get hold of such goods during their military ventures in West and South-western Europe in the first half of the tenth century and in South-eastern Europe in the middle third of the century. 3" Among the silks acquired as booty or as ransom 3 1 for the prisoners of 30
