Vadas Ferenc (szerk.): A Wosinszky Mór Múzeum Évkönyve 15. (Szekszárd, 1990)

Handelsbeziehungen - Johann Callmer: The beginning of the Easteuropean trade connections of Scandinavia and the Baltic Region in the eighth and ninth centuries A. D.

diplomatic giftexchange rather than by trade. When silk and goldworked textiles turn up in less exclusive graves there is a stronger probability for an eastern traderoute. The remaining Oriental objects found in the Baltic region dating to our period of interest have so far as I know no parallells in Westeuropean finds. The occasional travelling of single Oriental objects along a route via Western Europe cannot however be excluded as a possibbility in these cases. Beads represent a very interesting and highly relevant material for our investigation. Beads represent a massmaterial which could with a high degree of probability indicate trade and not other mechanisms of material transfer like exchange, gifts, tributes. This is especially true when the relevant beads occur in chronologically distinct, homogenous assemblages or over large areas. Already in the work of Dinklage (1941), Poulik (1948) and Gurevic (1950) it was possible to point at a distinct group of millefiori beads which could be dated above all to the eighth and ninth centuries. The most comprehensive discussion of these beads is to be found in a long article by Andrae (1975). Finds in the Middle East including Egypt, Syria and Persia beyond doubt prove that they were manufactured in the Caliphate. The very highly standardized types show us that this is not a general type with many variations produced in a number of loosely connected centers but a product of one or a few closely related manufactures - we are tempted to add - or small industries. The exact location of these industries is not known but the use of cross symbols could suggest a production is an ex Byzantine province of the Caliphate. As already pointed out these millefiori beads together with other types of Oriental beads (Fig. 2) however also reached other parts of Europe via the Mediterranean and Western Europe. The beadtypes occurring frequently together with them are segment beads with or without silverfoil, (Callmer 1977 88 [E-beads]), wound beads with concentrically layered eyes (ibidem 85 [Bg-beads]) and cut beads of bisertype (ibidem 89 [F-beads]). Finds of beads with this assemblage of types we encounter (Fig. 3) in the eastern part of the Carolingian Realm especially in Frisia (e. g. van Giffen 1927, Schmidt 1970), Saxony (Rempel 1966), in der Oberpfalz (e. g. Stroh 1954), Austria (e. g. Tovornik 1986), Istria (e. g. Dinklage 1943 Taf. 8) and Pannónia (e. g. Sos & Bökönyi 1963). They are also found in the Early Great Moravian cemeteries (e. g. Poulik 1948, Hruby 1955) and further south on the Balkan Peninsula including Greece (Bulle 1934). In Central and Eastern Europe we find them in a few finds (Dekówna 1964, Skol'nikova 1978) and in the Dniepr Basin and then in more considerable numbers among the Finno-Ugric peoples further east (Lvova 1973,1976,1983, Goldina & Koroleva 1983, MateriaTnaja kuftura Sredne-Cninskoj Mordvy VIII-IX w. 1969). They occur frequently in Crimea and the Caucasus (Deopik 1961). Their appearance in Northern Europe is mainly concentrated to Norway and Sweden (Callmer 1977) but they also occur in Denmark (Ramskou 1976) and on the eastern side of the Baltic in Latvia (Nerman 1958) and in Finland (unpublished finds). It is now necessary to examine the variations of these Oriental beads in detail and to map their distribution all over this vast area. A considerable number of stable types are found both in Eastern Europe and in Western and Southern Europe in about equal numbers. Other types show a better representation in either the west or the east but are represented in numbers in both parts (Andrae 1975 128). These types are of course not relevant for our question. 26