Horváth Attila – H. Tóth Elvira szerk.: Cumania 1. Archeologia (Bács-Kiskun Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei, Kecskemét, 1972)

E. H. Tóth: Előzetes beszámoló a kunbábonyi avar fejedelmi leletről

Avarian period and that of the Hungarian conquest let me to the recognition that the basic working metods had been known by every goldsmith, but — although the ornamental motives had been by and large fixed — the techniques and materials had obviously varied according to the change of taste, and this process can be easily surveyed, Thus, some of the Avarian, press-forged fittings occur later on sold casts, then the casts become thinner, lamelliform, chiselled foliation and punched background appear on their surface, later again this punched almost chased foliation is applied on sheet, and finally, the background of fittings is gilded, and the pieces bear on themselves all the marks of the goldsmith's technique of the period of Hungarian conquest. I have realized therefore that a kind of chronological order can be established on the basis of goldsmith's techniques. Consequently, the foliation of these dagger-fittings cannot be dated to the period when cast foliated fittings appeared in this country, still less to an earlier period. Among the princely insignia, not belonging to any of the belts, the parts of the gold princely scourge should be mentioned in the first place. It is indicated by the large bird's head made of gold sheet. It was to all probability made by folding the sheet on a wooden, carved bird's head, and fastening to it with silver nails, without finishing. Thus, the uneven edges may have been covered and fastened on wood by leather plait or cover. The lower and upper parts of the beak are joined and accentuated by a deep scrapped line, and apart from perforations the eyes may have got extra accentuation, perhaps with ornamented nails. The frequent use of this piece is shown by its worn surface along the wrinkles of the sheet, and the small cleft — due to the same fact — on the top of the skull. At first glance it reminds of the bird's head representations. From the period of migrations, of the Regöly earthen vessel and of the sword — hilts of the Venetion emperors, group of statues in san Marco's. No paralell piece is known of from the Avarian princely finds'. Objects of similar function can be found among the scourge-endings with bird's head, made of ivory or bone, of the lateA varian graves and of those of the period of Hungarian conquest, like for instance the owl's head of Hajdudorog, and the bird with curved duck's beak of Szabadbattyán. Our piece is most similar, both in size and in proportions, to a bald-eagle, which was well known East of the Carpathian basin. The four gold sheets folded in globe-shape may have been on the end of the straps of this multi-branched princely scourge. The gold spoon, 20—22 centimeter long together with its handle, and of 4 centimeter diameter, mentioned by most of the finders but could not be acquired by us, should be taken into account, too. Its occurence is not surprising, because there is a gold spoon in the find of Malaia-Pereshcepina, too. Similar piece has been found near Ufa, and in several finds of Southern Russia as well as in this country. The nearest place to our site where such a piece has been found is an early Avarian grave of Peszéradacs— published byHampel — which contained a filtering spoon, made of silver. As compared to the richness of belts, the jewels and ormaments on the robe may seem fairly modest. The globe-shape ear-ring has close relation to those of the finds of Bocsa and Szentendre, this same type occurs in the late-Avarian cemeteries too. The ribbed ornamentation of the pair of bracelets may have followed the pattern of the quiver, drinking horn and knifefittings, and owing to the hammering and stretching of the sheet, the ornamentation became scratchy (fig. 7). Wide bracelets with similar hinges occur in the finds of the cemeteries of Keszthely. There are several rings in the find, two of them have stone setting framed by row of globes. Both of them had been used in lifetime, and were of small diameter in size, therefore one of them has been stretched by the finder. Similar pieces have been found at Ozora, and in the late-Avarian finds of HortobágyArkus. The next pair of rings with chiselled effect were made by a technique, typical for dentated fittings. They certainly had been decorated with some kind of colour inlays. Rings with dentated animal plaiting, elaborated with similar technique, have been found in the cemeteries of Keszthely. The diameter of the rings had been enlarged by additional hammering — not by the finders —because they would be too large even for an oversized human hand. This can be explained by the abnormal size of rings made especially for funerals. These rings, made of ribbed ribbon similar to the quiver-fittings, were dimensioned so that they could substitute the jewels, used in lifetime 153