Horváth Attila – H. Tóth Elvira szerk.: Cumania 4. Archeologia (Bács-Kiskun Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei, Kecskemét, 1976)

H. Tóth E.: Az Izsák-balázspusztai honfoglaláskori lovassír

Fig. 26/aThe ornamentation of the under curvature of the rear pommel (reconstruction) 26/b kép. Hátsó kápa alsó ívének díszítése (rekonstrukció) the bone plates in the grave, a placement of the front pommel plates were done on the pattern of the Soltszentimre find. In this case, placing the right and left plates close to each other, only the narrow, double bone rim separates them (which makes no sense at all) the saddle is still of a huge size, the pommel width would be 32 cm. The unusual broken line of the upper part of the pommel contradicts this reconstruction. More grounded argument against this reconstruction is, that the nails fastening the narrow plates between the right and left bone plates could not have been hammered in. These ran in the plane of the pommel and their attaching without breakage is unimaginable. We must think of a distance of at least 2—3 cm between these rim plates. Taking the separation between the right and left pommel for certain the width of the pommel must be estimated at least 34 cm. As a further check we attempted this double reconstruction with the bone plates of the front pommel of the Soltszentimre find and projected their drawn-to-scale contours onto the drawing of the similarly reconstructed Balázspuszta saddle. The result was a surprisingly small saddle with a pommel width of 24—25 cm. If we consider the wooden base, suggested by Gyula László, where the bone plates were originally embedded, and increase that distance by 1—1.5 cm we still get only 26 cm

29 (Plate 27). It has become clear that related ornamental technique was applied on both saddles, whereas, nothwithstanding, the roughly similar positon of holes for the attachement of the pommel, we have two different saddle types here. Thus the reconstruction of the Soltszentimre saddle does not give any help in the reconstruction of the Balázspuszta saddle, so we have no reason to leave the observed in situ situation out of consideration in course of the reconstruction. Another argument supports this also, namely the sudden narrowing of the rear pommel plates, measured in the center to be 5.5 cm. This almost equals the distance observed between the plate pair of the front pommel. The correlation between the two phenomena is evident, to explain and to find a reason for their function is much more difficult. It is hardly possible that the usual Tiszafüred pommel-head was applied, starting from the center of the front pommel. In this case this would have been and excellent subject for decoration, but there are no signs for its bone plate 29 Gy. LÁSZLÓ : A koroncói lelet és a Honfoglaló magyarok nyerge. (The Koroncó find and the saddle of the conquesting Magyars.) Arch. Hung. XXVII. 35. 166