Zalai Múzeum 14. Müller Róbert 60 éves (Zalaegerszeg, 2005)

Lőrinczy Gábor–Straub Péter: Alpi típusú övgarnitúra a Szegvár–oromdűlői 81. sírból

158 Lőrinczy Gábor - Straub Péter accounted for by trading or war looting. It is considered here that the appearance of such finds within the Avar khaganate requires a more complex explanation. It is intriguing that in Keszthely-Dobogó, that represents the cemetery of the Keszthely culture, a considerable number of belt sets was found in graves that form a separate cluster within the cemetery (LIPP 1884, 25). This feature is more interesting if one considers the ethnic complexity of the Keszthely culture. In the last few decades a half dozen more or less complete belt sets have been found in Transdanubia. The interesting feature of these early belt sets is that all(!) were found in cemeteries, which exhibit different features from Avar customs in terms of grave goods and burial habits. In these cases it can be assumed that not only the belt sets have arrived from the west but their owners as well. These graves, however, hardly ever contain weapons, which implies that their owners, despite their belts with mountings, were not integrated into the militaristic social structure of the Avars. The situation is different in the Great Hungarian Plain. The mongoloid man in grave 81 at Szegvár was buried with Avar burial habits but with an Alpine-type belt set. As mentioned above, the best analogy of the belt set was found in grave 10 at Zamárdi. There is also a known grave east of Tisza from Pitvaros (grave 72) in which a belt set was found with silver and brass wire inlay decoration. The best analogy of this belt set can also be found in Zamárdi (BENDE 2000a, 204-205). The belt set from Pitvaros belonged to a 40-50 year old man who had a deformed skull. Both men (Szegvár, Pitvaros) were buried according to Avar customs and their anthropological features also indicate that they were Avars. Both men's belt sets show relations with Zamárdi. It is considered that the leaders of the Balaton region (Zamárdi) may have played a role in controlling the distribution of western artefacts and that these Alpine-type belt sets may have been given as individualised gifts to their allies living in different parts of the Avar occupational area. In the light of this, the above mentioned belt sets may not have been traded or have been a part of a war looting, but rather these items were constitutive towards strengthening alliances between Avar leaders. A considerable number of Alpine-type belt sets across Europe are very similar to each other. For this reason, for a long time, researchers have considered that these belt sets were manufactured in a series in workshops (BONA 1963, 57; WERNER 1974, 119; HESSEN 1983, 24). Detailed scientific investigation of the raw materials of belt sets has not been undertaken with one notable exception (ZÁBOJNÍK et al. 1991). The size and the raw materials of the belt sets from Zamárdi (grave 10) and Szegvár (grave 81) are intriguingly similar, suggesting that they were made in the same workshop and most probably in the same mould. Within the two belt sets, two smaller clusters can be distinguished, which may imply that they were made within one workshop but from two different batches of bronze. In the Szegvár assemblage there are extensive similarities between one of the mountings, the strap end of the belt, the body of the buckle and the buckle ring. These items also show similarities with the body of the buckle, hole protector and a mounting from Zamárdi. The similarities are so extensive between them that these items were probably cast at the same time. Similarly, there is close relation between the biggest mounting, three trapezoid mountings, mountings of side belt, hole protector and buckle pin from Szegvár that also show relation with the belt fittings and large strap ends and buckle ring from Zamárdi (Tabl. 2-3). Translated by Eszter Kreiter