Székely Zoltán: Arrabona - Múzeumi Közlemények 50/1. (Győr, 2012)
Tanulmányok - Horváth Ciprián: X-XI. századi, tausírozással díszített, trapéz alakú kengyel Mosonmagyaróvár határából
ARRABONA 2012. 50/1. TANULMÁNYOK AN INLAID TRAPEZOID STIRRUP OF THE 10-11TM CENTURY FROM MOSONMAGYARÓVÁR Through the publication of a metal-inlaid trapezoid stirrup of the 10-11* century from Mosonmagyaróvár this study contributes to shedding more light to this type of objects of which about 70 examples have been found in 36 sites in the Carpathian Basin to day. As for the technology of the metal inlay of this object type the plate inlay is less characteristic than the wire inlay. After making the groove on the surface of the base metal the decoration wire was hammered into this so that it rose above the level of the base metal and formed a wider surface than the width of the groove. Beside the inlaid-work made of separate wires placed in organised rows there is another type where the grooves are cut closely next to each other and the wires hammered into them create the impression of a homogenous surface. Such wider inlays could be made with the so called raster technology where a dominant groove was crossed by several smaller ones or where several intersecting grooves of the same depth and width were cut into the base metal. While the use of silver, bronze and copper wires are known, the bichromic technique is missing and the inlaid-work made of other kind of metal wires is also rare. This technology was almost exclusively used for creating geometric patterns which make up frieze motives. In view of the technical traits of the patterns and the characteristics of the stirrups there are several similar examples which allow the possibility of their relationship. Placing their sites on a map suggests that they can be found all over the Carpathian Basin with fewer occurrences in Transylvania. The western border of their occurrences seems to be the line of Mosonmagyaróvár-Ikervár-Zalaszentgrót sites. Such stirrups were found in men’s graves and from the known data of the age of the deceased it can be concluded that their users were adult or elderly men. Very often other weapons, i.e. bow and arrows, double-edged swords and war-axes were also found in these graves. On the other hand, there were very few pieces of jewellery or dress ornament in these graves and no inlaid harness has come to light together with such stirrups until now. Studying the grave-goods László Kovács has suggested that there must be a connection between the trapezoid stirrups and the weapons. In case of the double-edged swords and the trapezoid stirrups the only connection is not only their parallel occurrence in the graves, but also the similar technical features of their inlaid-work, since in the material of this time-period the so called raster technology appears only on the trapezoid stirrups beside the swords. This feature suggests that the swords provided the modes for using such decoration on the stirrups. However, while the origin of the swords must have been in Western Europe, the stirrups were surely made in the Carpathian Basin. Consequently, the trapezoid inlaid stirrups, which came to use in the second half of the 10th century, show the traces of the borrowing and reception of this technology. Ciprián Horváth 48
