Folia archeologica 40.

H. Kolba Judit: A losonci ékszerlelet

THE JEWEL FIND FROM LOSONC In the August of 1849 the Cossacks marching through Losonc (Lucenec, Slovakia) took vengeance for the death of their comrades in arms and ransacked and burnt down the city. In the main square stood the magnificent gothic church which had belonged to the Reformed Church since 1590. In the fire the church also fell into ruins, the restauration work has begun in 1851. At the beginning of the work, according to the contemporary records, in the vaults under the church bones and funeral jewels were found: six gold rings, the fragments of five chains with dress jewels, the remnants of three necklaces, buckles, pieces of four belts two bracelets, pearls, silver stars, wide bands of gold lace and coffin nails. It is supposed that 160 coins were also found, but these were actually not part of this find. The find finally got into the possession of the Hungarian National Museum, where it was further spreaded about. Only on the evidence of old inventories and photos was it possible to put together the original pieces. Most of the pieces of the find are jewels from the beginning of the 19th century. The rings — with the exception of one — are characteristic renaissance pieces. One of the is set with turqoise, three are set with point-cut diamonds and the fifth is set with emereld. The sides of the settings are decorated with enamelled enamelled rerolling desing. Two of them must have been rings for children. The remnants of manificent necklaces had belonged to the persons buried in the vault: one of them consisted of ten rectangular enamelled rosettes decorated with small circles and foliated flower pattern, with rubies in the middle — it was a characteristic piece of jewels from the end of the 16th century above all in Transylvanian workshops. The eleven pieces of S-shaped gold dress jewels decorated with rubi es and pearls were favourite pieces of Hungarian goldsmiths' craft and costume. Smaller enamelled rosettes, decorated with stars, rubies, pearls are the fragments of two other necklaces. Part of these must have been worn stitched to the dress. The technique of these rosettes determines the age of the Losonc find: into the material of the coloured enamels small circles and stars were soldered to make the enamel look more gleaming. This technique was used in the goldsmiths' workshops of Hungary in Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca, Klausenburg) and its environs, several parallels are known from the finds of Csenger, Küküllővár, Kassa and Szolnok. On the rear side of certain pieces of the Csenger find the initials of goldsmiths of Kolozsvár are to be seen. The ornamented belts of the Losonc find — one undamaged and a fragment — must have belonged to a girl. They are ornamented with cast shells and heads of flowers, one of them has a belst's end with snake decoration attached to it. They also have parallels from the Csenger find's child's belts. Eleven black jet stone were also brought into the Museum together with the find, as an evidence of the relics of the period they must have belonged to a rosary which often had been worn suspended from the belt. 13 Fol is