A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyve 48. (Nyíregyháza, 2006)

Régészet - Jakab Attila: Bronze crucifixes in the collection of the Jósa András Museum (Nyíregyháza)

Jakab Attila Bronze crucifixes in the collection of the Jósa András Museum (Nyíregyháza) In the Jósa András Museum of Nyíregyháza three Mediaeval bronze crucifixes are kept from different sites: Petneháza, Napkor, Peceszentmárton. The latter comes from the territory of the former Bihar county situated in present Romania, close to Oradea. Crucifixes for processions and altars got into the museum a century ago, almost at the same time. Their detailed publication has not been done yet. In the course of later inventory, sites of the pieces from Petneháza and Napkor were mixed, that is why their drawings and photos were published later with wrong site names. In the present study these objects could be well identified and old mistakes could be cleared. We do not know much about the finding circumstances of the crucifixes. The exact sites are unknown. Dating and accompanying finds did not get into the museum. The crucifixes were moulded of bronze. Their facial surface was gilded (today only the traces of it can be observed). The first literary mentioning of the three settlements (sites) - with the exception of Napkor - is rather late, they come from the 14

th century. The mentionings of Mediaeval villages absorbed by the settlements in question and later deteriorated, are also of the same age. For this reason, it is difficult to harmonise this with the dating of these objects made on the basis of archaeological and art historian methods. The latter is earlier than the first mentioning in diplomas. It can be explained with the late spread of literacy. Among the objects in question, the one from Petneháza is the easiest case. It can be classified as the most spread Hungarian type, that of the so called Kalocsa crucifix group. Zsuzsa Lovag dated this type to the second half of the 12

th century and considered it to be a characteristic Hungarian work. The other two crucifixes had not got a really good analogy, but we suggest that they were also of Hungarian origin, made in the 12

th century. Attila JAKAB Jósa András Museum Nyíregyháza H^401 Pf. 57 e-mail: teglaegeto@freemail.hu 280