Garam Éva szerk.: Between East and West - History of the peoples living in hungarian lands (Guide to the Archaeological Exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum; Budapest, 2005)

HALL 6 - The Roman Age (6 A.D.-420 A.D.) (László Kocsis, Endre Tóth)

78. Nereid with the triton - detail of the silver quadripus from Polgárdi. 4th century underworld. His cult arrived to Pannónia with the soldiers transferred here from the empire's eastern provinces and the oriental merchants in the late 1st century. The cult of Mithras soon attracted a sizeable following in Pannónia too. The cult pictures of the Danubian Rider God are known from small lead tablets (Fig. 73). 14. SILVER AND GOLDWORK Very few sumptuous jewellery pieces or other articles made from precious metal have survived. The reason for this can only partly be attributed to the fact that silver and gold articles were periodically melted down and reused. In the Roman Age, wealth was not measured by coins hoards or the accumulation of articles of precious metal, but by landed estate, an efficient villa economy and a luxurious home. Most of the known jewellery pieces were recovered from burials, into which silver and gold articles were rarely placed, except for personal jewellery items, such as finger-rings, earrings and necklaces (Figs 74-76). The magnificent silver and gold jewellery worn by the wealthy are often masterpieces of the goldsmith's art in their own right. In Pannónia, only the very rich could afford these articles - no more than a handful of the largest estate owners of the 4th century. We know that there were important silver mines on the province's border with Dalmatia in the imperial period, which provided a constant supply of silver ores. Metalworking