Horváth Attila – H. Tóth Elvira szerk.: Cumania 1. Archeologia (Bács-Kiskun Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei, Kecskemét, 1972)

E. H. Tóth: Előzetes beszámoló a kunbábonyi avar fejedelmi leletről

Bocsa. More than that have been found on the bronze belt, with pressed fake-buckle, of Kiskunfélegyháza— Pákapuszta only. Pressed pattern of similar fittings is known in Hungary, its typical example, with wedged ornamentation around the precious stone, is the fake-buckle of Tépe. The piece in the find of Pereshcepina, constructed of pressed elements, is modest compared to those found in this country. The fine cutting of the beautifully sparking precious stone of our find is of outstanding quality, its colour, owing to its thickness, is dark red. i Our shield-shape fitting, without fake-buckle is analogous with pieces of this same sphere it differs from them but slightly: its stone is thinner, horizontally cut, on its edges there is bevelled red almandine. The shield-shape body of the fake-buckle exactly corresponds to the previous piece. Its hanging part, however, is like a transitory form between the pieces of Bocsa and Tépe. The elaboration of the plaited wire ornamentation of the piece of Tépe is undoubtedly of higher quality than that of the pieces of Bábony — out of which only two could be found (Fig. 4/3). We know for sure, however, of a further piece, and the find of Bocsa allows us to presume that the number of such pieces may have been more than two in the grave of Bábony. Thus, there is no substantial difference in quality between the fake-buckles of Tépe and Bábony, partly because the size of the latter pieces is almost one centimeter larger than that of the fake-buckle of Tépe. Professor Gyula László rightly assumes that the missing stone inlay on this latter may have been red, but apart from the gold suspender fitting of the former Fleissig collection, the find of Kunbábony has been so far the only belt with fake-buckle having red colour stone inlays. It has been pointed out by Professor Gyula László that the elaboration of gold fake-buckles, found in Hungary, tends to be uniform as far as the working process is concerned. The alternation of partitioned glass inlays and of decoration with large precious stone on the fittings is typical for a set of belt. The same feature is characteristic of the find of Malaia Pereshcepina, though there the number of fake-buckles with set stones is greater than that of partitioned fittings. The other, more important difference is, as far as I could find out, that — in contrast to the general belief — every gold piece found in Hungary is framed by rows of solid cast globes, whereas the fake-buckles of Southern Russia are framed by rows of globes formed of two pressed semi-globes. This princely belt was fastened by a large gold buckle, richly ornamented with heavy stone-sets. Its ring is rather worn, the majority of set red stones have fallen out, its shield-shape part is in surprisingly good state. Its surface and the framing row of globes are hardly worn, the stylized human or animal head pattern is distinctly visible. On the lower part of the head, millefiori is fastened by tiny little gold stifts. In Avar princely finds large gold buckles, as the one belonging to this belt, seldom occur. In the find of Malaia-Pereshcepina there was a similar buckle with tongue, and with an ornamentation of row of globes and set stones in geometrical pattern. Our find, however, reflects not only Byzantine but North Italian influences as well. The small cast gold fitting, with no more than 1.5 centimeter diameter, comes from the same circle. Its small surface, with red and blue set stones, whitegold and niel inlays is a masterpiece. Precious stones of similar colour and arrangement can be found on mosaic representations of Byzantine rulers. On its reverse side, there are scrapped marks. The gold drinking horn certainly belonged to this belt (Fig. 5). Its edge with ribbed ribbon and beads on wire has been dented by the finders. Complete drinking horn made of gold with similar edge and round bottom of Avarian origin has been known from the find of Malaia-Pereshcepina. In the find of Kelege at the South of Ukrajna a fitting of roundended drinking horn can be traced as Well. The shape of the piece of Kunbábony with cornet-shape edge is, however, much more similar to that of the roundended drinking horn of the find of Nagyszentmiklós. The large gold vessel, weighing more than 500 gramms may have belonged to this same belt. The vault of its opening part is decorated with partitioned strap with green glass inlyas,its edge is bordered by ribbed ribbon. Pairs of similarly shaped, silver, unornamented vessels have been found in the grave of Kunágota and in the cemetery beside KiskőrösButchery. Our find is similar to the properly partitioned ornamentation on the sword-suspender of the find of Csepel, jus as on the ring and pair of disks of 146