Arrabona - Múzeumi közlemények 8. (Győr, 1966)

Pusztai R.: The grave of a Germanic prince at Lébény

Classification given by (Siegried Thomas in his monograph on combs, our specimen belongs to type II. The basic features of this type (a triangular handle and the pattern of a -dotted circle) are frequent mainly along the limes between Carnuntum and Arrabona. (The sites are: Csákvár, Győr, Koroncó, Oroszvár (Rusovce.) In view of this fact its appearance in the Lébény grave cannot be mere chance. Regarding their age, these combs are derived from the end of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth century. k Beside the glass, a Roman product without doubt, also the comb may be rather a Roman than a Germanic ware in our judgment. The best analogies of the golden clasps are known from grave 2 at Laa an der Thaya,. from Fertőmedgyes/Morbisch (Austria) and from the princely find of Jakuszowice. These types of buckle occur also in Hungary, in the Hunnic prince!}'' find at Nagyszéksós. They are fairly universal, they cannot be attached to a certain ethnical element nor to exact chronological limits; they may be dated between the end of the fourth and the middle of the fifth century. In the grave of the Germanic princess unearthed at Untersiebenbrunn (Austria) there are several objects identical with the Lébény specimens. Thus the clasp without a drift, the W-shaped dress ornament in a fluted variety (the antecedents are known in the area of Southern Russia) and the two equally silver lozenge-headed rivets are all found at the mentioned site. The W-shaped dress ornament is also known from Airan (France) and from the Germanic female grave at Papkeszi (Hungary). The sword, belonging to the type of the double-edged long swords, alludes to Oriental connections equally. These swords with magical suspended ornamental pommels are occurring in several finds of the Hun period (Jakuszowice, Táska, Szirmabesenyő, Pécsüszög etc.). They are dated between 400 and 450 by Werner. The only Hungarian analogy of the end of the scabbard is known from Szentes. Though somewhat roughly wrought, the Altlussheim specimen is an almost exact parallel of the Lébény one. Our pitcher is an individual piece of an artistic value; as to form and its ornament of ai flattened trellis, however, it belongs to the circle which is named the pottery of „the Hunnic age" generally. An even closer analogy is represented by the jar found in grave 2 at Laa an der Thaya. Among the material yielded by Hungarian sites the pottery of the burgus at Leányfalu shows the most analogous features. Also the pottery of the fourth century Gothic cemetery of Tcherniachov presents several similarities. The pitchers of identically shaped handles ought to be adduced in the first place; their shoulders have the same trellised ornament, flattened into the (material, nay their necks have the plastic rings too. An important datum regarding the chronological situation of our pitcher is furnished by Jan Dekán in connection with his excavations at Oroszvár/Rusovee (Tchecoslovakia). He found the trellised grey pottery together with late Roman glazed ware here, both were topped toy a burnt layer. On the top of this layer he observed dark grey, almost black pottery of a finer material, with flattened ornaments equally. Our pitcher is a relative of the material found below the burnt layer, i. e. the pottery derived from the (period preceding the devastation of the camp. Summing up the analogies of the objects unearthed in the Germanic grave at Lébény, we come to the result that chronologically they may be placed between the end of the fourth and the middle of the fifth century, However, metal objects are less suitable for an exact chronological definition, since they have been used by the most diverse barbarians for a relatively long period of about 60 to 80 years. Therefore the dating of the grave is based an the objects which are ruined the soonest, as the glass, the comb and the pitcher; we regard the proof furnished by them as conclusive. All the three objects are related to the last decades of the fourth and the first decades of the fifth century. Accordingly, we have to date the grave to this period and before 433 in any case, since it was in this year that the province Pannónia Prima was subjected to the rule of the Huns too. In our judgment, we have found a grave of a Germanic tribal chief at Lébénv. Probably fleeing before the onslaught of the Huns, he and his people settled in Northern Pannónia in the last decades of the fourth century, performing military duty as the allies of the Romans in this stretch of the Danubian limes, in all probability. We are inclined to embrace the princely finds of Csorna, Fertőmedgyes, Laa an der Thaya and Untersiebenbrunn into the same circle; they mark the territory of the settlement of this tribe at the same time. R. Pusztai 116