Folia archeologica 52.

Vörös István: Ló az Árpád-kori Magyarországon

212 VÖRÖS ISTV ÁN 19

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1 centuries; whereas this opinion has 110 proofs and was simply cast back to Mediaeval times in quest for a 'mediaeval legacy'. The chartered evidence is just telling the opposite: a lot of attention was paid on the nutrition and keeping of the horses. In the autumn, hay collected with carts (currus feni), as well as oats 'sapones auene adp(re)benda equo(rum)' served for llie winter supply of the horses (1086. Gy. AO. 29., 115.). It was preserved in the Ansbertus-Chronicle that for the crusaders, crossing Hungary in 1189, King Béla III offered ships and carts loaded with fodder 'pabulum equorum

' (naves [...] et plaustra, Gy. II. 276.). One of the earliest evidence concerning stable for horses is known from 1113, Marót (Bars county) mentioning 'stabulo equorum silva

' (Gy.I. 461.). Horses were offered in most of the wills and donations of the 12-13

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h centuries in Hungary to ecclesial institutions. Partly, with reasoning that the named monastery or church was selected as place of burial; more seldom, horses were offered 'for salvation' (1206-1218), 'for salvation of the soul and the Holy Cross' (1220.) by the owners. The donation of the horse could be substituted by offering money from selling them. Horses in the funerary process are mentioned 'in front of the body of the deceased' only from the 14th century in Hungary (1332.). Offering the horse for the church can be considered as an unusually large aim for the soul of the deceased, according to Christian customs. Catholic church maintained that the offerings, prayers and alms of the living will promote the salvation of the deceased, with God's mercy. Wealthy families, including rulers tried to intervene for the deceased relatives or their own souls requesting prayers and masses from the monks. Horse husbandry in general was free from paying decimal tax. Churches and monasteries would receive from the royal founders horses or studs, some receiving the 10% of the progeny, the so-called 'colt tithes'. The biased opinion of some historians, i.e., that the horse was not used for work, simply it was „ridden and milked" (VACZY 1958. 275.) is not founded. From the decretum of King Stephen I (1000-1038.) we know, that the supply of a parish had to be supplied from two tenements with a family of serves each, with stallion, carriage (vehicle-cart?), 6 oxen, 2 cows and 30 small livestock (Corp.Jur. St. 11.34., = ZÁVODSZKY 1904. St.II.l.). The general translation of'iumento' is mare, colt, draught-ox, traction animal etc.. The interpretation as cart was raised first by László Erdélyi (1907, 42, 93; VÖRÖS 2000a, 98.). Traction was realised in Mediaeval times partly by oxen, but also horses. This seems to be supported, among others, by the legislation of King Stephen I (St. István), saying: 'whoever works with a horse on God's day, the horse should be taken from him - that he can reclaim for an ox'. (St. II.

7. 2 § ). Probably, this does not mean a riding horse. The animal driven vehicles of the Hungarians in the 1 1

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h century were first mentioned in the legend of bishop St. Gellert. Here, the cart is mentioned as 'currus'; a 'non-beast/oxen driven vehicle' (vehicle = cart ?) — 'non quolibet iumento'; a small vehicle (= wagon ?) — 'modico utebatur vehiculo' (SRH II. 474, 497.); a coach - 'plaustrum'; and a two-wlieel barrow (cart / trap) - 'biga' are listed. All the vehicles enumerated had one pole and used a team of beasts in pairs. The Hungarian charters mentioned several versions and various adjectives for carts: e.g. in 1233, light 'levis', and heavy 'gravis' carts were separated (Gy.II. 638.); in the 1255 toll list of Buda, large 'magnus', and quintal 'masa' carts were mentioned. In the Middle Ages, the ancient Latin names were used for the various types of carts for animal drawn vehicles that could change by type, application, age and the beast used for traction. The Kumanian horse 'equum Cumanicum' was mentioned in the Hungarian charters first in a testament from Csákvár, 1220 (Gy.II. 355.), later on 3 different colour and sign Kumanian horses were mentioned from 1270, Bárca (Gy. I. 67.).