Horváth Attila – H. Tóth Elvira szerk.: Cumania 1. Archeologia (Bács-Kiskun Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei, Kecskemét, 1972)

E. H. Tóth: Előzetes beszámoló a kunbábonyi avar fejedelmi leletről

and put on the body which had been covered from top to toe into heavy textile material. On the large rings pressed settings were applied, which followed the pattern of the first pair of rings. Similar pieces have been found abundantly in the graves of Kiskőrös Butchery for instance. The palm-sized, T shape gold sheet and V shape ornamentations sewn on a cloth were not noticed by the finders. They, as well as two ear-rings occured in quick succession, when we were sieving the sand. Concluding from their position in the grave, the larger gold sheet may have been fastened on the textile material covering the face as a masque, the smaller ones might have represented the tail of hair. The span long, lunifrom sheet cut out of more solid gold was among the first pieces found after the skull had been taken out of the grave. We suppose that it may have been sewn on the breast of the grave-clothes. Similar tucks can be traced on the cap-shaped pieces folded of double gold sheet. Their function is explained by two similar but smaller pieces. These latter bear on themselves the print of the nail, thus they must have been fastened on the dead's fingers, which were covered by a textile material, so similar but larger pieces were sewn on the top. This assumption is supported by the fact that the finder who presented these pieces had found the rings too. The diamond-shape and flaring, guttiform gold sheets, as well as the oblong, wide pieces of gold ribbon and rigid gold sheets, torn into strips so that the fragments cannot be fitted together, and their function cannot be recognized, were presented by the finders who had been the last to go to the grave, on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. So these pieces must have been fastened on the lower edge of the robe, or some of them on the footwear. Finally, let me turn to the description of the funeral ceremony. The find contains a large amount of gilded silver fragments, some of them covering strong iron-hoops. The finders who were on the spot on Sunday saw that the sheets at the eastern end of the grave had been folded into 10 X 10 centimeter large box-from, and two such objects had been placed one meter apart, before the collapsing sand-wall crushed them. The sheets had been fastened on a large wooden structure by means of crampiron-shaped silver nails. In Summer, 1970, when the lateA varian cemetery at Kunszállás was excavated, owing to favourable soil conditions, I could at last observe the structure of the bier-like handcart which I had traced in the corners of the graves or further and deeper stretching patches, at several places of the cemetery. I could document this observation with photos and cross-sections of the grave No. 41. This, as well as the iron-hoops and abundant fragments of metal coats allow to presume that in the princely grave of Kunbábony there was a handcart of similar structure, or at least a coach covered by goldsheets on its edges and feet, on which the body had been carried to the grave. The considerable number of coffin-clamps point to the fact that the body was covered by a wooden coffin-lid. Such a device was found in the late-A

varian cemetery of Kunadacs. Here, remains of wood and coffin-clamps were not found at the bottom of the grave: we found in a thick layer organic material, probably the remains of felt, instead. The amphora and the young sheep had certainly been placed outside the coffin. The foregoing description allows to conclude that, inspite of its scantiness, the find can be evaluated. We cannot hope to find any further objects, unknown of so far, but the lacking pieces can be, by and large, reconstructed on the basis of analogies. Furthermore, the observations, which could have been made in the course of the excavation, can be fairly well substituted by the reports of the finders, and by the conclusions drawn on the basis of the find itself. This permits us to regard the princely find, with occasional, inevitable reservations, as one of the Avarian princely finds most suitable for evaluation. Consequently, the grave can be regarded neither as a collection of treasures — as many of the Avarian princely finds have been considered — nor as a family grave. Because each piece of the find, apart from the stately robe of the dead, had been made for use, and marks of wear can be traced on them — although the extent of wear varies — we can only think that the sets of belts point partly to the origin of the dead, partly to the office he held in his lifetime. Let us look again at the belts and their accessories, in order to see clearly who had been their owner buried in the grave. To tell the truth, we do not know for sure if the granulated or the lamelliform belt was the earliest. Classification is made difficult by the fact that the individual sets are related to each other by the recurrence of different types of gold 155