Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Volume 20
Heinrich Härke
Eberhard Karls Universität (Tübingen, D)
Oleksiy V. Komar
Institute of Archaeology of NUAS (Kiev, Ua)
Abdulkarim Maamoun
Damascus University (Damascus, Syr)
Denys Pringle
Cardiff University (Cardiff, UK)
Dmitry A. Stashenkov
Samara Regional Historical Museum (Samara, Ru)
BUDAPEST
2021
This book is published as part of the project “Archaeological Research on the Contacts between Hungary and
the East” (Our Eastern Heritage, PPCU History and Archaeology Interdisciplinary Research Team;
TUDFO/51757-1/2019/ITM), with generous funding from the Thematic Excellence Program,
National Research, Development and Innovation Office.
Front cover
Bulgar soldiers slaughter Christians, from the Menologion of Basil II, 10th–11th centuries
Back cover
Amulet (Б-4027) modelled in the figure of a horseman riding his horse to the left, 10th–11th centuries
Contributors
Gergely Csiky (Plates 75–97), András Patay Horváth (Plates 1–24), † Lívia Bende, Aleksander Minchev
Illustrations
† Zoltán Pápai
Photos
Máté Tóth-Vásárhelyi
English translation
Magdalena Seleanu, Gergely Csiky, Vajk Szeverényi
Bulgarian text
Olga Pelevina
ISBN 978-615-5766-38-1
HU-ISSN 2064-8162
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without requesting prior
permission in writing from the publisher.
2021
ARCHAEOLINGUA ALAPÍTVÁNY
H-1067 Budapest, Teréz krt. 13
Desktop editing and layout by Szilamér Nemes
Printed in Hungary by Prime Rate Kft.
Looking back on many fruitful decades, academic cooperation between Bulgaria and Hungary received a new impe-
tus from the early 2000s. Regular study trips, jointly organised conferences in 2009 and 2016, and the publication of the
papers read at the former in the volume Avars, Bulgars and Magyars on the Middle and Lower Danube in 2014 imparted a
fresh boost to the already existing wide-ranging contacts. In 2006, during one of our study trips, we had the opportu-
nity to familiarise ourselves with the deservedly renowned Stara Bulgaria Collection housed in Varna. Csanád Bálint
and Ludmilla Doncheva-Petkova both encouraged us to devote our scholarly energies to the finds: a research team
of Bulgarian and Hungarian archaeologists was formed within the framework of an academic exchange programme,
with support from Valentin Pletnyov (†) and Valeri Yotov, which began its work in 2007.
The Stara Bulgaria Collection is made up of 4210 items, most of which are belt fittings, costume accessories, horse
gear fittings and buckles. Most of these objects date from the 6th–11th centuries, with some coming from earlier pe-
riods (Scythian, Thracian, Roman and early Migration period) and some from later ages (12th–18th centuries). Even
though the exact findspots remain unknown, most are known to have come to light somewhere in north-eastern Bul-
garia. The collection was established by Stefan Vălkov, director of the General Agency Bulgaria LTD. in Varna, who as
a generous patron of Bulgarian archaeological research spared no effort to keep the most outstanding objects in Bul-
garia, particularly after the collapse of socialism, which also saw the onset of illicit excavations and looting, as a re-
sult of which many fine objects were taken out of the country and eventually surfaced in foreign, principally Western
European and American auction houses and private collections. The Stara Bulgaria Collection is the fruit of an almost
one and a half decades long collecting activity. The collection was granted the legal status of a museum collection in
1997 by the renowned art historian Ivan Marazov, the then Minister of Culture. The most remarkable items of the col-
lection are displayed in the permanent exhibition of the Varna branch of the General Agency Bulgaria LTD., while the
accessions register containing the data of the finds is housed in the Archaeological Museum of Varna.
The research group did not undertake to present the entire collection; however, the 1935 pieces described and pub-
lished in the present volume offer a representative selection of the finds, with a focus on the early medieval period.
The publication right of the collection was acquired by its curator, the renowned archaeologist Boyan Totev (Re-
gional Historical Museum Dobrich, Dobrich). The index cards containing the descriptions of the finds and their pho-
tos necessary for the foreign language publication were prepared by Olga Pelevina (Varna Archaeological Museum,
Varna). The photographing of the finds was performed by Máté Tóth-Vásárhelyi. Following their work, the finds to be
published were selected by Lívia Bende (†) (Móra Ferenc Museum, Szeged) and Péter Langó (Institute of Archaeology,
Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest) under the direction of Attila Türk (Institute of Archaeology, Pázmány
Péter Catholic University, Budapest). Following the conservation work and the full assessment of the selected finds, the
editorial work involving the arrangement of the material, the compilation of the illustrations and the volume was un-
dertaken by Csilla Balogh (Department of Art History, Istanbul Medeniyet University, Istanbul) and Attila Türk. The
individual finds were described in collaboration with Péter Langó, Gergely Csiky and András Patay-Horváth (Institute
of Archaeology, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, Budapest).
There is still much work ahead of Hungarian and Bulgarian archaeological scholarship regarding the Balkanic
connections of the archaeological legacy of the Avar period and the 10th–11th centuries of the Carpathian Basin, the
comparison of the metalwork from the Carpathian Basin and Bulgaria, and the detailed study of the cultural implica-
tions. The current selection of finds offers a wealth of new source material for these studies. It is our hope that the vol-
ume will fulfil its purpose and that our colleagues and the broader public interested in the period will find this new
corpus of finds illuminating, and that it will add to our already existing knowledge through the rich early medieval
material record of Bulgaria. The present volume is a catalogue of the selected finds, containing their basic data and
description, providing a firm springboard for future studies in the realm of classification, typological work and inter-
pretation.
Regrettably, our young archaeologist colleague Lívia Bende and our two eminent fellow archaeologists Vanya Pav-
lova and Valentin Pletnyov, both renowned specialists of the period’s belt fittings, could not see the publication of the
volume, which we dedicate to their memory.
The study of the early medieval relics of the Carpathian Basin was and remains one of the prioritised fields of Hun-
garian archaeological scholarship. Research on the origins and prehistory of the Hungarian people and on the lega-
cy of the earlier population groups with a steppean background as well as the interpretation of the relevant finds was
simultaneously part of Hungarian scholarship and of international research, with the latter’s frames of reference and
research designs being highly influential from the very beginning in view of the cultural and other connections of the
communities with which these relics could be associated. Coins minted in Italy and Western Europe played a promi-
nent role in the identification of the early Hungarian finds,1 while coins issued in Byzantium were of immense aid in
distinguishing the Avar-period find assemblages.2 Hungarian research of the 19th century, although imbued with na-
tional romanticism and a positivist attitude, succeeded in determining the cultural legacy of the early medieval com-
munities of the Carpathian Basin, which had a relevance far beyond the region’s research and played an important part
in studies on early steppean relics, and thus indirectly influenced the identification and interpretation of the early Bul-
gar material with a steppean cultural background. Géza Fehér’s work was truly pioneering in this respect: he can be
credited with seminal studies relevant to both Bulgarian and Hungarian research, and he eventually grew into an in-
fluential scholar with his own school.
In Bulgaria, research on the early medieval period was intertwined with the creation of independent statehood
and its special needs in the 19th century.3 The “brotherly help” received by the modern Bulgarian state from Shafárik’s
Slavic movement through Konstantin Jirechek was one of the driving forces behind the search for the relics of the ear-
ly Bulgar state.4 Studies on the steppean background of this legacy played an increasingly important role in Hungari-
an early medieval studies too, particularly in the modern critical assessment of linguistic and historical connections.5
At the time of World War I, Géza Fehér’s attention turned towards Byzantium and the Bulgar Khanate with whom
she was constantly warring under influence of Jenő Darkó’s studies on the Byzantine sources of early medieval Hun-
garian history.6 Fehér later continued his studies in Istanbul and Bulgaria, his main interest being the background to
the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin.7 His excavations shed light not only on the many links between the
material culture of the Carpathian Basin and Bulgaria, but also on the colourful diversity of these contacts.8 It became
clear that these contacts were not restricted to the 10th century, but could be attested in the material record of early
Bulgar history and of the Avar period too, which brought an entirely new perspective to the study of the material cul-
ture of these periods. His findings had a major impact on the period’s research as well as on subsequent Bulgarian and
Hungarian scholarship.9
The whirlwinds disrupting the history of the 20th century brought an end to Géza Fehér’s research in Bulgaria and
he could only keep abreast of the findings of the new excavations in Pliska and Preslav, the two former Bulgar capi-
tal cities, from their publications.10 Returning to Hungary in 1948, Fehér was soon integrated into Hungarian scholar-
ship although in the wake of the political and cultural re-orientation after World War II, he was expected to present
the then much sought-after archaeological evidence of the Slavic precursors of early Hungarian statehood. Aware of
his investigations in Bulgaria, the decision-makers of the period’s academic policy hoped that large centres resembling
the early Bulgar capital cities would also be discovered in Hungary. Thus, Fehér was entrusted with the research on
the relics of the early Slavs owing to his previous academic work and he began the systematic excavation of the 9th-
century centre of Mosaburg-Zalavár in Transdanubia as part of this work.11
Géza Fehér’s research in Bulgaria undoubtedly played a major role in the close ties between Bulgarian and Hungar-
ian archaeological scholarship after World War II.12 One tangible result of this scholarly collaboration was the publi-
1
K 1989.
2
B 1983.
3
C 2006, 2.
4
F 2008, 171‒172; C 2013.
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G 1912.
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F 1916.
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For the academic and non-academic factors influencing his choice of research themes, cf. L 2005, 213.
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C. S 1963.
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