Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 30/1. (2010)
Articles
194 Z. Soós-Sz. S. Gál graves than other communities, although they were also Christians at that time already. We have a larger concentration of these types of diadems and discs at the burials of the Cuman communities. Of course this is not relevant for the everyday use of the diadems and discs; about this we have no references. Although we have a few analogies from other regions none of the identified graves contains the same combination of discs and none of them contains all the three types together. We have analogies for each symbol apart but they appear in other combinations. It seems that the combination of the discs had no special meaning and the discs were combined randomly. This is true in case of the diadem from Tärgu Mure?, as well. The figures on the discs are rather influenced by the contemporary fashion and art and one can find them in different contexts such as on stove tiles, floor tiles, manuscripts or even tapestries. This is the case of the very wide spread deer depiction. The figure of the running deer is widely used, it is a popular decoration motif and it could have been borrowed from different hunting scenes from tapestries or manuscripts. The same type of decoration one can see on the late 14th century stove tiles of the royal castle of Diósgyőr,6 or on the floor tiles of the Visegrád royal chapel.7 On several hunting scenes one can see a very similar depiction of the running deer as it is on the discs, stove tiles or floor tiles. The second figure represents a heraldic symbol, that is again very wide spread in the whole Central and Western Europe and it represents a lily borrowed from the Angevin coat of arm. The Anjou family reaches the peak of its power and popularity in the 14th century, they became a very influent family from the Hungarian kingdom to Italy and France, therefore it is easy to understand the popularity of the Anjou lily symbol among the decoration symbols and figures. Just as in case of the deer the lily appears on stove tiles, floor tiles8 and of course on many other items and artefacts as well. In the case of the lily analogies from other diadems are also known. Its form is a little bit different on the discs discovered at Kiskunhalas-Fefiertó9 and 'Perkáta-Kőhalmi-dűlő,10 11 but they were produced with the same technique and probably in the same area. The third figure represents a solar symbol. This is also a well known decorative figure although it is not so widely used as the previous two figures. The solar symbol has an excellent analogy in the medieval cemetery of Drazovce/Zobordarázs in Slovakia.11 Two types of discs were identified here one with the already mentioned solar symbol and one representing Meluzina the mythological queen. The discs from Drazovce/Zobordarázs are the closest analogies for the discs discovered in Tärgu Mure? and it is possible that they were produced in the same workshop. As we already mentioned, a large number of similar artefacts were identified in the Cuman area situated on the Great Hungarian Plain between the Tisza and Danube rivers. Although the Cuman communities were already Christians, they kept a number of pagan burial rituals and they placed a larger number of objects in the graves of their dead people. Among the objects the diadem discs can be also found. The presence of discs in medieval rural or market town cemeteries and in Cuman cemeteries provides a clue regarding the social status of the individuals in whose grave discs or diadems were discovered. These were produced in a large number in workshops situated somewhere in central Hungary and they could be bought 6 Boldizsár et al. 2007, 27, 73, 75. 7 Marosi 1987, 135. 8 Boldizsár et al. 2007, 9, 69. 9 Marosi 1987, 126. 10 Hatházy 2004, 314. 11 Ruttkay 2005, 31-57.
