Folia archeologica 45.
Beszédes József: Dioscuros ábrázolású sarokkő Alsóhetényből
THE LOVAS CASKE T 177 lieg)' grave were decorated with red enamel, 8 3 the technique being similar to that applied on the Gundestrup cauldron and related finds. 8 4 Like on the Lovas casket, a female deity is at present on the Gundestrup cauldron too, beside the scene representing the fight of Heracles with the Nemean Lion. 8 5 Due partly to the lack of special interest, only a few runic insriptions were published so far from the Eastern European region. 8 6 The collecting, publishing and evaluation of such inscriptions in the provinces remain the task of future researches. Summarizing our observations on the Lovas casket, we can state, that it was manufactured most likely under the reign of emperor Julian or shortly after, under Valentinian I. From the end of the reign of Constantine the Great, burials with foreign, mixed Eastern Germanic/Iranian ritual elements appear in the cemeteries of Eastern Pannónia. Some artefacts related with Germanic culture were also found in this region. These phenomena could be attributed to groups of barbarian origin, settled down in the province. The syncretism of classical pagan and Germanic mythology is the most outstanding feature of the scenes represented on the Lovas casket. It was made by a local craftsman, supplying the local market with his products in a period, when central workshops could not fulfil the demands of the market. The ideological changes under emperor Julian could have served as an historical background to the syncretism observed on the Lovas casket, and the increased importance of the high imperial officers of Pannonian origin in the court of Valentinian, moreover the tolerant religious policy of the latter emperor, could have promoted the manifestations of the above mentioned pagan syncretism in provincial art. 8 3Párducz 1935, 68, Pl. V:8-10. 8 4 Drexel 1915, 26. The latest monograph on this cauldron is: Kaul 1991, the eyes of the masks: 30, Fig. 24; 31, Fig. 25.; 33, Fig. 27. b sKaul 1991, 34, Fig. 28. There are other similarities to the Gundestrup cauldron, e.g. similar masks and the accentecfrole of the long hair of female figures, like on the mounts from Dunapentele (see note 15 above); Pegasus on the Lovas casket and on the cauldron etc. 8 6 Krause 1966; Blo^iu 1969, 167-180. According to Altheim 1959, 294-297 there is an evidence for the applications of runic signs during the imperial period on the Great Hungarian Plain. For Germanic inscriptions (both with runes and Latin letters) in Pannónia during the second half of the 4th century A.D. see: Nagy 1996.
