Folia archeologica 22.

Zsuzsa S. Lovag: Byzantine Type Reliquary Pectoral Crosses in the Hungarian National Museum

I 44 ZS. S. LOVAG use as reliquaries seem to support this latter opinion. It would explain the phenomena as well that almost identical copies are known from very distant sites.

9 Fourteen of the reliquary pectoral crosses of the Hungarian National Museum belong to this „Holy Land type". Reliquary pectoral cross, (Fig. i.no. 1), Székesfehérvár. (Inv. no. 1875. 162.4.) In the form of a Latin cross, the arms having parallel edges, the vertical arms ending in flaring feet, the corners of the horizontal arms decorated with pearshaped globules. Its obverse and reverse are hinged together, a cylinder-shaped suspension loop is edged with ribs. Both of the sides are plain, unadorned. H. : 7,3 cm (together with suspension loop 9,2 cm), W. : 4,3 cm. The cross was unearthed in 1874 during the excavation of the Cathedral of Székesfehérvár, in the female grave ,,E".

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0 This form of the cross occurs together with cloisonné decoration as well as with engraved figures.

1

1 The nearest parallels are a cross almost identical as for its form and measures but decorated with dotted circles scattered over the surface, from Gradiste-Yakimovo, (Bulgaria), coming to light with other finds dating from the turn of the tenth and eleventh centuries

12 and another, unearthed in a late eleventh and early twelfth centuries site at Bisericuta-Garvän, (Rumania). This latter is decorated with punched dots in the horizontal and vertical axes of the arms.

1

3 The sites of the nearest parallels known so far seem to support the hypothesis of J. Deér, who assigns our cross to the twelfth century, fixing its production to a provincial area of the Byzantine art, probably to the Balkans.

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4 Judging by the above mentioned, the dating of Deér seems to ber rather late, especially when considering the possibility of their having been in use for a long time before being buried. The question cannot be solved yet whether the parallels of the Székesfehérvár cross from Bulgaria and Rumania are examples of the common Holy Land type, coming to light accidentally there, or, perhaps, they represent a local variant of these developed on the Balkans. Reliquary pectoral cross (Fig. 1. nos. 2a~b), Vésztő-Mágori Hill. (Inv. no.: 1939.96.) In the form of a Latin cross, with arms flaring somewhat towards their ends. Its obverse and reverse are hinged together, the loop for suspension is missing. 9 A very close parallel of the richly ornamented cross preserved in the Hungarian National Aluseum is known from a site in the neighbourhood of Rome: Muno%, A., L'art byzantin à l'exposition de Grottaferrata. (Roma 1906) 162., Fig. 126.; Examples similar to the Orosháza cross came to light in Smyrna, Bulgaria etc. (v. note 21). 1

0 Förster, Gj., III. Béla király emlékezete. (Budapest 1900) 14., Fig. on p. 10. 1

1 Bárón

y-Oberschall, M., op. cit. z2.2..-,Schnütgen,A., Sieben ornamentierte Kreuze des frühen Mittelalters. ZfChK 21 (1908) 130., Pl. VI. no. 4.; Miiatev

, K. R., op. cit. 80., Fig. 67.; Wulff, O., Altchristliche ... Pl. XLV. no. 931. 1

2 Miltchev, A., Rannosrcdnovekovii bulgarski nakiti i krstove enkolpioni ot Severozapadna Bulgariia. Arkheologiia 5 (1963) 29., Fig. 8. 1

3 Barnea, I., Obiecte de cult. Dinogetia I. Biblioteca de Arheologie 13. (Bucuresti 1967) 360., Fig. 192. no. 10. 1

4 Deér, J., Die heilige Krone Ungarns. (Wien 1966) 110.