East Central Europe: the gate to Byzantium

Florin Curta

East Central Europe the gate to ByzantiumAbstract

Adresse Prof Dr Florin Curta Department of History 202 Flint Hall PO Box 117320University of Florida Gainesville FL 32611ndash7320 USA fcurtaufledu

What we now call East Central Europe is the territory between East and the Westthat Tomaacuteš Garrigue Masaryk even before becoming the first president of Cze-choslovakia regarded as a ldquopeculiar zone of small nationsrdquo between Germanyand Russiasup1 Oskar Halecki a Polish historian specializing in the history oflate medieval Poland was the first to address the issue of a specific chronologyand history of the region during the Middle Agessup2 There was no reference to By-zantium in Masarykrsquos definition and no need to define East Central Europeagainst what to him must have been an exotic realm of the past and not astark reality of the Realpolitik of smaller and bigger nationssup3 Halecki on theother hand began to employ Masarykrsquos idea shortly after coming to the UnitedStates as a refugee from the region at that time occupied by the Nazis EchoingMasaryk he placed East Central Europe between the Holy Roman-German Em-pire and Kievan Rusrsquo Halecki gave a special role to Catholic Slavs whom heplaced at the interface between the West and the East and went as far as toclaim that a key issue in the history of both East Central Europe and Byzantium

TG Masaryk The new Europe (The Slav standpoint) London The ldquozone of smallnationsrdquo was first mentioned in Masarykrsquos inaugural lecture at the School of SlavonicStudies Kingrsquos College University of London See RW Seton-Watson Masaryk in EnglandCambridge One year later Masaryk called the region ldquothe central zonerdquo See T GMasaryk Pangermanism and the zone of small nations New Europe () no THayashi Masarykrsquos lsquozone of small nationsrsquo in his discourse during World War I Acta SlavicaIaponica () ndash F Curta Introduction in F Curta (ed) East Central and Eastern Europe in the early MiddleAges Ann Arbor ndash See O Halecki The limits and divisions of European history Lon-donNew York If anything Masarykrsquos Byzantium was just a ldquobigger nationrdquo of the past a kind of Germany ofthe Middle Ages ldquoWe must not forget that Byzantium never ceased to aim at the expansion of itspower hellip Down to the day of destruction this imperialist policy was never abandoned by Byzan-tium helliprdquo (TG Masaryk The spirit of Russia Studies in history literature and philosophy London )

DOI 101515bz-2015-0001 BZ 2015 108(2) 1ndash42

was the re-union of the Catholic and Orthodox churches⁴ Shortly after WorldWar II the Hungarian Byzantinist Endre Ivaacutenka explicitly linked the history ofmedieval Hungary between Byzantium and Rome to contemporary concernsabout the fate of Greek Catholics (Uniates) in Communist Hungary⁵

The idea that the people of Masarykrsquos ldquopeculiar zone of small nationsrdquo havemediated between East and West was particularly important for Slav Catholicpoliticians and historians even before World War I In 1881 for example JosipJuraj Strossmayer the bishop of Bosnia and Syrmia and main Croatian promot-er of the Yugoslav idea led a pilgrimage to Rome of all Catholic Slavs within theAustrian-Hungarian Empire He seized on the Cyrillic-Methodian tradition in anattempt to reunite not only Slavdom but also Christianity which according tohim had been divided by Byzantine and Latin sins⁶ More than a century laterEast Central Europe still appears as a ldquospecific contact transfer and transitionzone between West and Eastrdquo⁷ However unlike Oskar Halecki Maacuterta Fontnow regards East Central Europe as ldquoZwischen-Europardquo between the HolyRoman-German Empire and Byzantium not Russia⁸ As Piotr Goacuterecki notes

O Halecki La Pologne et lrsquoEmpire byzantine Byzantion () E Ivaacutenka La Hongrie entre Byzance et Rome Coup drsquoOeil lrsquoEst () ndash Some of themost important studies on Byzantine Christianity in Hungary were published in the early sfollowing the appointment by Mikloacutes Horthy of Mihaacutely Popoff a Russian eacutemigreacute as administra-tor of the self proclaimed autocephalous Hungarian Orthodox Church The church was not rec-ognized either by Benjamin I the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople or by MetropolitanSergius of Moscow and Kolomna See P Vaacuteczy Les racines byzantines du christianisme hon-grois Nouvelle Revue de Hongrie () ndash E Ivaacutenka Griechische Kirche und grie-chisches Moumlnchtum im mittelalterlichen Ungarn OCP () ndash At the time bothPeacuteter Vaacuteczy and Endre Ivaacutenka were professors at the University of ClujKolozsvaacuter the maincity in that part of northern Transylvania that was re-assigned to Hungary through the SecondVienna Award a territory inhabited at the time by numerous Orthodox and Greek Catholic Ro-manians R Okey Central EuropeEastern Europe behind the definitions Past amp Present () For Strossmayer and the Cyrillo Methodian tradition see M Betti The making of ChristianMoravia ( ) Papal power and political reality East Central and Eastern Europe in the Mid-dle Ages ndash LeidenBoston F Hadler Geschichte und Kultur Ostmitteleuropas in vergleichender Absicht Einleitende Be-merkungen Comparativ () See also G Szeacutekely Ungarns Stellung zwischen KaiserPapst und Byzanz zur Zeit der Kluniazenserreform in Spiritualitagrave cluniacense Todi ndash to whom medieval Hungary was a ldquoVerbindungsgliedrdquo between western and easternChristianity MF Font MitteleuropandashOsteuropandashOstmitteleuropa Bemerkungen zur Entstehung einer eu-ropaumlischen Region im Fruumlhmittelalter Jahrbuch fuumlr europaumlische Geschichte () Ac-cording to Font Kievan Rusrsquo is part of East Central Europe and a true distinction between East-ern (Rusrsquo) and East Central Europe (Bohemia Hungary and Poland) came about only ca

2 Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd 1082 2015 I Abteilung

the region is nonetheless still understood in ldquoessentially residual terms empha-sizing whatrdquo it ldquowas not or what the principal sources of external influence uponit have been above all Germany and Byzantiumrdquo To study the relations betweenEast Central Europe and Byzantium means more often than not to emphasizethe transfer of particular well-defined elements of high-level order (ldquociviliza-tionrdquo) from the Byzantine ldquocorerdquo to the East-Central European ldquoperipheryrdquo⁹

Diplomatic gifts seals and local adaptations

More often than not historians treat the rulers in East Central Europe as passiverecipients of the imperial munificence The enameled plaques found near Nitrain Slovakia and forming the so-called Monomachos crown must have been a giftfrom Emperor Constantine IX to the King of Hungary Andrew I or to his wifeSimilarly the corona graeca of the Holy Crown is believed to have come to Hun-gary as a present on the occasion of Geacuteza Irsquos marriage to the daughter of a By-zantine aristocrat named Theodoulos Synadenos Gifts from Byzantium musthave also accompanied Alexios-Beacutela whom Emperor Manuel I sent to Hungaryin 1173 as well as the 1185 marriage of Emperor Isaac II Angelos with MargaretMaria the daughter of the same Beacutela (at that time already king of Hungary asBeacutela III)sup1⁰ A Byzantine reliquary made to display a fragment of the TrueCross which is now in the cathedral treasury in Esztergom is believed to havebeen sent to Hungary from Constantinople under unknown circumstances in

P Goacuterecki Medieval Poland in its world then and today in J KłoczowskiH Łaszkiewicz(eds) East Central Europe in European history Themes and debates Lublin ndash G Prinzing Zum Austausch diplomatischer Geschenke zwischen Byzanz und seinen Nach-barn in Ostmittel und Suumldosteuropa Mitteilungen zur spaumltantiken Archaumlologie und byzantini-schen Kunstgeschichte () and For another marriage between a Czech and a By-zantine see P Balcaacuterek Českeacute země a Byzanc Problematika byzantskeacutehouměleckohistorickeacuteho vlivu Olomouc with note There is an abundant literatureon both the Nitra plaques and the Holy Crown For the former see E Kiss The state of researchon the Monomachos crown and some further thoughts in O Z Pevny (ed) Perceptions of By-zantium and its Neighbors (ndash) New York ndash For the corona graeca seemost recently E Kiss La lsquocouronne grecquersquo dans son context Acta Historiae Artium AcademiaeScientiarium Hungaricae () ndash C J Hilsdale The social life of the Byzantine giftthe royal crown of Hungary re-invented Art History () ndash E Kiss La Sacra Co-rona drsquoHongria in F MakkM Miquel R SarobeCs Toacuteth (eds) Princeses de terres llunyanesCatalunya i Hongria a lrsquoedat mitjana BarcelonaBudapest ndash

F Curta East Central Europe the gate to Byzantium 3

or shortly after 1190sup1sup1 Another reliquary of Constantinopolitan manufacturedated to the mid-eleventh century was preserved until World War II (when it dis-

The location in East Central Europe of the sites mentioned in the text

JC Anderson The Esztergom staurotheke in HC EvansWD Dixon (eds) The glory ofByzantium Art and culture of the middle Byzantine era AD ndash New York G Prinzing Zur Datierung der Staurothek von Esztergom aus historischer Sicht in WBulszaL Sadko (eds) Ars Graeca ndash ars Latina Studia dedykowane profesor Annie RoacuteżyckiejBryzek Cracow ndash P Hetherington Studying the Byzantine staurotheque at Esz-tergom in C Entwistle (ed) Through a glass brightly Studies in Byzantine and medieval artand archaeology presented to David Buckton Oxford ndash

4 Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd 1082 2015 I Abteilung

appeared) in Łęczyca (Poland) To explain its presence in Poland some have as-sumed it to be a donation to the Cistercian Abbey of Tum on the occasion of itsconsecration on May 21 1161 The donor supposedly was a Polish crusader re-turning from Constantinople ndash either Duke Henry of Sandomierz or the powerfulPolish aristocrat Jaksa of Miechoacutewsup1sup2 Under this scenario the crusader must haveobtained the reliquary from the Byzantine emperor allegedly as a reward for ex-ceptional valor

With so much emphasis on diplomatic gifts it is no surprise that compara-tively less attention has been paid to finds of lead seals from East Central Eu-rope To be sure none is known from Poland Bohemia Moravia or SlovakiaEven in Hungary the only specimens mentioned in relation to contacts betweenByzantium and the Magyars are the seals of bishops of Tourkia an ecclesiasticalprovince under the jurisdiction of the patriarch of Constantinoplesup1sup3 The histor-ical relevance of two other seals has been largely ignored The seal of EmperorMichael VII Dukas found in the late nineteenth century in Dunafoumlldvaacuter pointsto direct contact with the royal court in Hungary in the late 1070ssup1⁴ One couldonly imagine that the letter to which the seal was attached must have been writ-ten in Greekwhich implies the existence in the entourage of Geacuteza I or Ladislaus Iof speakers of Greek who could translate the letter and formulate the reply Oneis immediately reminded here of Simon Bishop of Peacutecs who in 1108 acting onbehalf of the Hungarian king signed the Greek text of the Treaty of Devol be-tween Emperor Alexius I Comnenus and Bohemond of Antioch Knowledge ofGreek by some local official in Hungary is also implied by the seal of Leo impe-rial protospatharios and genikos logothete The seal now lost was found in orshortly before 1897 during excavations in the Roman fortress of Lugio (withinthe village of Dunaszekcső in county Baranya)sup1⁵ Since the seal has been

TH Orłowski Le reliquaire de la Vraie Croix de Leczyca Cahiers de civilisation meacutedieacutevaleXendashXIIe siegravecles () ndash For Henry of Sandomierz and Jaksa of Miechoacutew as crusaderssee M Gładysz The forgotten crusaders Poland and the crusader movement in the twelfth andthirteenth century The Northern World Leiden ndash For the Abbey of the HolyVirgin in Tum see J Sikora Uwagi na temat tzw opactwa Panny Marii w Tumie podŁęczycą Kwartalnik historii kultury materialnej () ndash Eacute Reacuteveacutesz Die Siegel der Bischoumlfe von Turkia und die Rolle der Orthodoxie um das erste Mil-lennium im Koumlnigreich Ungarn in M Bolom Kotari J Zouhar (eds) Cogito scribo spero Aux-iliary historical sciences in central Europe at the outset of the st century Pontes series Hra-dec Kraacuteloveacute ndash P Prohaacuteszka VII Mikhaeacutel Dukas bizaacutenci csaacuteszaacuter oacutelombullaacuteja Dunafoumlldvaacuterroacutel A WosinskyMoacuter Muacutezeum Evkoumlnyve () Ch G Chotzakoglou Byzantinische Bleisiegel aus Ungarn Studies in Byzantine Sigillogra-phy () ndash

F Curta East Central Europe the gate to Byzantium 5

dated to the 10th century the letter that it accompanied may have well been sentto one of the bishops of Tourkia

Not everything Greek is necessarily Byzantine Historians continue to treatan 11th- or early 12th-century holy water vessel from Beszterec as a diplomaticgift from Byzantiumsup1⁶ To be sure the earliest mention of such vessels is inthe inventory of liturgical vessels from the Abbey of Pannonhalma ca 1090sup1⁷But the Greek inscription on the vessel reads H ZΩC(Α) ΠΗΓΗ ΧΡΙCΤΕ TΩΝ IAM-ATΩN (O Christ living spring of healings) The inscription contains multiple mis-spellings suggesting that its author was not a native speaker of Greek This inturn would indicate that the vessel was not manufactured in Byzantium buton the periphery of the Byzantine cultural area possibly in Hungarysup1⁸ A moreinteresting case is that of a dedicatory letter incorporated into a prayer booknow known as the Codex of Matilda The book was in fact given to Mieszko IIof Poland in 1025 by Matilda the daughter of Hermann II Duke of Swabiaand the wife of Frederick II of Lorraine Matilda apparently knew (probablyfrom the Count Palatine Ezzo whose daughter Richeza had married MieszkoII in 1013) that Mieszko praised God not only in his own language and inLatin but also in Greeksup1⁹ Nothing in Mieszko IIrsquos biography indicates a director sustained contact with Byzantium and it is unlikely that he learned Greekfrom the prisoners of war his father Bolesław the Brave had brought to Polandfrom Kiev in 1018sup2⁰ As Brygida Kuumlrbis has suggested Matildarsquos praise for Miesz-ko may have something to do with the admiration that both Ottonian and earlySalian elites had for Greek since the days of Empress Theophanu If so thenMieszko may have learned Greek in Poland from someone in his German

Prinzing Austausch (as footnote above) ndash E Kiss The Beszterec holy water vessel in EvansDixon The Glory of Byzantium (as foot-note above) E Kiss Byzantine silversmithsrsquo work around AD between China and the Ottonians theBeszterec Holy Water vessel JOumlB () B Kuumlrbis (ed) Kodeks Matyldy Księga obrzedoacutew z kartami dedycynymi Cracow ldquoCum in propria et latina deum digne uenerari posses in hoc tibi not satis grecam superadderemaluistirdquo For the dedicatory letter see M Perlbach W sprawie listu Matyldy do Mieszka IIKwartalnik historyczny () ndash F Muumltherich Epistula Mathildae Suevae Einewiederaufgefundene Handschrift Studia źroacutedłoznawcze () ndash B Kuumlrbis Studianad Kodeksem Matyldy II Jeszcze o losach rękopisu i miniatury III List księżnej Matyldy doMieszka II Studia źroacutedłoznawcze () ndash and ndash B Kuumlrbis Die Epistola Mathil-dis Suevae an Mieszko II in neuer Sicht Ein Forschungsbericht zu Cod C der DuumlsseldorferUniversitaumltsbibliothek Fruumlhmittelalterliche Studien () ndash M Salamon Polen und Byzanz Die Perspektiven des und des Jahrhunderts in VMuacutecska (ed) East Central Europe at the turn of the st and nd millenia Acta historica Poso-niensia Bratislava ndash

6 Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd 1082 2015 I Abteilung

wifersquos entourage A somewhat similar argument could now be made about anumber of liturgical practices in Hungary long believed to be a sign of direct con-tact with Byzantium For example according to the decrees of the council of Sza-bolcs (1092) in Hungary fasting was observed on Monday and Tuesday beforeAsh Wednesday according to ldquoour customrdquo The custom was imposed by lawon the ldquoLatinsrdquo under penalty of exile and confiscation of propertysup2sup1 Many Hun-garian historians used to believe that the custom was of Byzantine origin since itcorresponded with the practice of the Eastern and not of the Western Churchsup2sup2

At stake however is not the Byzantine influence but the increasing authority ofthe king in religious matters As Roman Michałowski has shown comparablemeasures were taken in Poland by Bolesław Chrobry and their end result wasthe prolongation of Lent by two weeks This had nothing to do with the EasternChurch but was rather an indication of the kingrsquos authoritarian intervention inquestions of religious practice It was in other words the result of local devel-opments not of an outside influence from Byzantiumsup2sup3

Even when the Byzantine origin can be confirmed with certainty there seemsto have been some local concerns with the adaptation of the cultural elementsborrowed from Byzantium In Hungary the feast of St Demetrius (who wellinto the Late Middle Ages was regarded as a patron of the country) was celebrat-ed on October 26 and not on October 8 as in the Western Church A 15th-centurymanuscript from the University library in Budapest (Cod Lat 44) contains in facta Latin translation of a Greek passio of the saint which is different in many re-spects from the Passio altera (BHG 497) the standard text of the saintrsquos passiothat was translated into Latin in the 9th century by Anastasius the Librarian andformed the basis of the saintrsquos cult in the Westsup2⁴ As Peacuteter Toacuteth has brilliantlydemonstrated a number of details in the text (such as for example the mentionof the miracle-working myrrh mixed with water pouring out from the saintrsquos

G Gyoumlrffy Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft der Ungarn um die Jahrtausendwende Studia his-torica ViennaCologneGraz For ldquoLatinsrdquo in Hungary see H Sulyok Quasi Lat-ini in T Olajos (ed) Byzance et ses voisins Meacutelanges agrave la meacutemoire de Gyula Moravcsik agrave lrsquooc-casion du centiegraveme anniversaire de sa naissance Opuscula byzantina Szeged ndashG Kristoacute Latini italiani e veneziani nella cronaca ungherese in S Graciotti C Vasoli (eds)Spiritualitagrave e lettere nella cultura italiana e ungherese del basso medioevo Civiltagrave veneziana Florence ndash G Szeacutekely LrsquoHongrie et Byzance aux XendashXIIe siegravecles Acta Historica Academiae ScientiarumHungaricae () R Michałowski The nine-week Lent in Boleslaus the Braversquos Poland A study of the firstPiastsrsquo religious policy Acta Poloniae Historica () ndash P Toacuteth Egy bizaacutenci szent Magyarorszaacutegon egy magyar szent Bizaacutencban Szent Demetermagyarorszaacutegi kultuszaacuterol Magyar Koumlnyvszemle () ndash

F Curta East Central Europe the gate to Byzantium 7

tomb) and the language employed by the Latin translation (particularly the useof prosimetrum in a manner very similar to that in the text of the Legend of StLadislaus and in the Gesta Hungarorum) point to a date shortly after 1200sup2⁵ Thetext may have been translated around 1207 in Thessaloniki in the entourage ofMargaret the widow of Boniface of Montferrat (and of her son Demetrius)and brought to Hungary in the circumstances surrounding her return to herhome country but also the conflict over Sirmium with Bulgariasup2⁶

Insulation coins and pottery

Gifts of reliquaries and letters with lead seals typically remained with their recip-ients The same is true for Byzantine coins particularly for those sent as gifts orbribes or as some other kind of non-commercial payments to potentates outsidethe northern frontier of the Empire For example the largest number of Byzan-tine gold coins found in Hungary are those struck between 945 and 969 whichwas a period of close contacts between Byzantium and the Magyars ndash such asthe visit to Constantinople of three chieftains Bulcsuacute Termacsu and Gyula ndashas well as of raids into Byzantine territories ndash in 959 961 967 and again in968sup2⁷ If the large number of gold coins arrived to Hungary as gifts or bribesnone moved farther afield To be sure trade relations between Bohemia andthe Carpathian Basin are at least implied by Ibrahim ibn Yarsquoqubrsquos mention ofldquoTurksrdquo visiting the markets in Praguesup2⁸ However while tenth-century Byzantine

P Toacuteth Die sirmische Legende des heiligen Demetrius von Thessalonike Eine lateinischePassionsfassung aus dem mittelalterlichen Ungarn (BHL ) Analecta Bollandiana

() ndash and ndash Toacuteth (as footnote ) ndash For the Bulgarian Hungarian conflict over Sirmium see LTăutu Le conflit entre Johanitsa Asen et Emeric roi de Hongrie ( ) (Contribution agravelrsquoeacutetude du problegraveme du second empire valaque-bulgare) in Meacutelanges Eugegravene Tisserant Vat-ican ndash I Petkova Nordwestbulgarien in der ungarischen Politik der Balkanhal-binsel im Jahrhundert Bulgarian Historical Review () ndash P Langoacute Notes on the dating of Byzantine coins finds from th century context in the Car-pathian Basin in T Bendeguz (ed) Die Archaumlologie der fruumlhen Ungarn Chronologie Techno-logie und Methodik Internationaler Workshop des Archaumlologischen Instituts der UngarischenAkademie der Wissenschaften und des Roumlmisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz in Buda-pest am und Dezember RGZM Tagungen Mainz ndash Some of the solidistruck before may have also reached Hungary during the second half of the tenth century G Jacob (transl) Arabische Berichte von Gesandten an germanische Fuumlrstenhoumlfe aus dem und Jahrhundert Quellen zur deutschen Volkskunde Berlin For ibn Yakubrsquostravels and visit to Prague see P Engels Der Reisebericht des Ibrahim ibn Yarsquoqub (ndash)in A von EuwP Schreiner (eds) Kaiserin Theophanu Begegnung des Ostens und Westens um

8 Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd 1082 2015 I Abteilung

coins occasionally appear in Moravia and Bohemia there are no gold coinsstruck between 945 and 969sup2⁹ By contrast Byzantine coins of the second halfof the tenth century appear in Poland especially in hoards but they are all ofsilver not gold The careful examination of those coins known from 10th- and11th-century hoards found in Great Poland shows three separate groups One ofthem is made up of hoards with a mixture of Western Muslim and Byzantinecoins the latest of which have been struck in the 960s or the 970s The few By-zantine coins in those hoards (eg Zalesie with tpq in 976) show no traces ofwear an indication that they reached Poland where they were hoarded shortlyafter leaving the mint The second group includes hoards with the latest coinsstruck between 991 and 1045 The dates of the Byzantine coins in those hoardsare about 50 years older than the dates of the latest coins Finally the thirdgroup of hoards includes assemblages with latest coins minted in the 1060sand 1070s and the constituent Byzantine coins are considerably oldersup3⁰ The nu-mismatic evidence thus points to a surge of new Byzantine coins in Poland thatmay be dated to the 960s and 970s Unlike hoards of silver found in other parts ofPoland the Byzantine coins in hoards from Great Poland are in relatively goodcondition and many of them are complete ie not cut into fragments likeother coinssup3sup1 Moreover unlike Byzantine coins known from hoards or singlefinds in Sweden none of those from Poland was pierced to be re-used as jewelry

die Wende des ersten Jahrtausends Gedenkschrift des Koumllner Schnuumltgen-Museums zum Todesjahr der Kaiserin Cologne ndash DE Mishin Ibrahim ibn Yarsquoqub at-Turtushirsquosaccount of the Slavs from the middle of the tenth century Annual of Medieval Studies at the CEU(ndash) ndash Not everybody regards ibn Yakubrsquos ldquoTurksrdquo as Magyars see P Char-vaacutet Who are Ibrahimrsquos lsquoTurksrsquo (a discussion note) in P Charvaacutet J Proseckyacute (eds) Ibrahimibn Yarsquokub at-Turtushi Christianity Islam and Judaism meet in East-Central Europe c ndash AD Proceedings of the International Colloquy ndash April Prague ndash I Boacutena A magyarok eacutes Euroacutepa a ndash Szaacutezadban Histoacuteria koumlnyvtaacuter Monograacutefiaacutek Bu-dapest has wrongly assumed that ldquoTurksrdquo (Magyars) used Byzantine gold coins on thePrague markets to buy goods In reality there is no mention of gold coins (Byzantine or other-wise) in ibn Yakubrsquos account See N Profantovaacute Byzantine coins from the th th century from the Czech Republic inM Wołoszyn (ed) Byzantine coins in Central Europe between the th and th century Pro-ceedings from the conference organized by the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences and the In-stitute of Archaeology of the University of Rzeszoacutew under the patronage of Union AcadeacutemiqueInternationale (Programme No Moravia Magna) Krakoacutew ndash IV Moravia Magnaseria Polona Cracow and A Gliksman Obieg monet bizantyjskich na terenie Wielkopolski w X XI wieku Slavia Anti-qua () ndash and A Gliksman Some remarks on the beginning of influx of Byzantine coins into Wielkopolskain the th century in Wołoszyn Byzantine coins in Central Europe (as footnote above) notes that even when cut fragments of Byzantine coins are larger than those of Arab coins

F Curta East Central Europe the gate to Byzantium 9

This substantiates the idea that those coins did not change many hands betweenthe moment they left the mint in Constantinople and the moment they were de-posited in hoards in Great Polandsup3sup2 A comparison with Pomeranian and Swed-ish hoards of silver has also indicated that the Byzantine coins struck in the 960sand 970s reached Poland directly from Byzantiumsup3sup3 Since the vast majority ofcoins from the first group have been struck for Emperor John Tzimiskes (969ndash976) it has been suggested that they had been introduced into Great Polandby Scandinavian mercenaries returning from Byzantium possibly veterans ofEmperor Nicephorus II Phocasrsquo expedition for the conquest of Cretesup3⁴ It is impor-tant to note that neither the ldquonewrdquo Byzantine coins nor presumably their ownersseem to have moved farther afield for no such coins are known from coeval orlater hoards in Scandinavia Moreover the Byzantine coins from hoards in GreatPoland with tpq after 991 although of a comparatively older date appear to haveentered not from the south but from Scandinavia via Pomerania which suggestsa different interpretation than that advanced for the coins struck in the 960s and970ssup3⁵ The parallel between the latter and the slightly earlier Byzantine coins inHungary is remarkable To be sure different metals were used for different typesof exchanges with the peoples of East Central Europe That gold was restricted tothe Magyars and silver to the Scandinavians in Poland may be the result of morethan just a diplomatic decision in Constantinople In other words such a choiceof metal may reflect the cultural preferences of the recipients Be as it may inboth Hungary and Poland the sudden ldquoinjectionrdquo of Byzantine coins (gold inthe former silver in the latter) was not only short but also almost insulatedfrom the surrounding social and economic environment Gold coins did notmove from Hungary to Poland and ldquonewrdquo silver coins of the 960s and 970sdo not appear to have moved outside a restricted region of Great Polandmuch less crossed the Carpathian Mountains to the south and southwest To par-aphrase Niederle the export of Byzantine coins to the north stopped at the Dan-ube and the mountainssup3⁶

Gliksman (as footnote above) Gliksman (as footnote above) L Leciejewicz Normanowie nad Odrą i Wisłą w IXndashXI wieku Kwartalnik historyczny

() Gliksman (as footnote above) Such coins may have come together with Anglo-Saxon coinswhich were cut into pieces in Poland before being hoarded See P Ilisch Die Muumln-zen des Fundes von Ulejno (Groszligpolen) tpq in S Suchodolski (ed) Money circulation inAntiquity the Middle Ages and modern times Time range intensity International Symposiumof the th Anniversary of Wiadomości Numizmatyczne WarsawCracow The paraphrased sentence is from L Niederle Byzantskeacute šperky v Čechaacutech a na MoravěPamaacutetky Archeologickeacute (ndash)

10 Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd 1082 2015 I Abteilung

The insulation of the Byzantine impact is visible in other periods as well The1973 excavations led by Otto Trogmayer in the Szer Abbey near present-dayOacutepusztaszer in southern Hungary have produced a considerable quantity of frag-ments of pottery One of them is of a Slip Painted Ware a ceramic category withdistinct shapes and decoration produced in the late 11th and throughout the 12th

century in central Greece most likely in Corinthsup3⁷ A similar fragment is knownfrom Laacuteszloacute Zolnayrsquos excavations in the northern forecourt of the Buda CastleMoreover Gyula Sikloacutesirsquos excavations in a district of Szeacutekesfeheacutervaacuter known asSziget have produced a few fragments of Fine Sgraffito Ware dated betweenthe mid-12th and the early 13th century and originating either in Corinth or in Con-stantinoplesup3⁸ Whether the Byzantine pottery arrived to Hungary by means oftrade or through gifts or other forms of exchange it is remarkable that to dateno such finds are known from Moravia Bohemia or Poland Much like the By-zantine gold coins of the 10th century the Byzantine pottery of the 11th to 13th cen-tury does not appear to have been resold or re-gifted

What moved farther afield

When not moving directly into Poland from Constantinople artifacts of Byzan-tine origin arrived in that country from the East through Kievan Rusrsquosup3⁹ Butthey also arrived from Scandinavia across the Baltic Sea An 11th-century sin-gle-sided ivory comb is known from Ostroacutew Lednicki the residence of the firstPiast rulers in Great Poland Such combs are believed to have been used for lit-urgical services (specifically by the higher clergy in the liturgical ceremony ofcombing the hair and during the station liturgy in Rome) but must have had sec-ular functions as well A detailed analysis of the decoration of all single- anddouble-sided ivory combs known so far has identified several groups of whichone includes the specimen from Poland and three combs from Sigtuna (Sweden)

P Boldiszar Bizaacutenci eacutes deacutel italiai keramiak egyes magyarorszaacutegi koumlzeacutepkori lelőhelyekrőlMoacutera Ferenc Muacutezeum Evkoumlnyve () with fig For Slip Painted Ware easily recogniz-able by means of the contrast between the brown clay and the pale slip painted designs see JVroom Byzantine to modern pottery in the Aegean An introduction and field guide Utrecht Boldiszar ibid and fig fig fig Vroom ibid Wasters of FineSgraffito Ware are known from Corinth but the ware may have been produced also in Constan-tinople Argos and Cyprus M Wołoszyn Die byzantinische Fundstuumlcke in Polen Ausgewaumlhlte Probleme in MSalamonG PrinzingP Stephenson (eds) Byzantium and East Central Europe Byzantina etslavica cracoviensia Cracow

F Curta East Central Europe the gate to Byzantium 11

ndash its closest analogies⁴⁰ It is therefore likely that the comb arrived from Scandi-navia not directly from Byzantium Similarly one of the few authentically By-zantine reliquary pectoral crosses (engolpia) from the Czech lands was foundin a small cache in Opočnice near Poděbrady in eastern Bohemia Accordingto Kateřina Horniacutečkovaacute all Byzantine pectoral crosses found in Bohemiacame from Hungary⁴sup1 But no crosses like that from Opočnice are known fromamong the relatively large number of specimens found in Hungary Moreoverthe Opočnice cross was found together with three enameled pectoral crosseswith no parallels among authentically Byzantine specimens Horniacutečkovaacute con-vincingly argues that those were most likely of German production as the orna-mental patterns employed are most typical for the Meuse-Rhine region eventhough enamel is a typically Byzantine technique⁴sup2 However a new reliquarypectoral cross very similar to the Byzantine one from Opočnice has recentlybeen found in Lyngby just north of Copenhagen and two other specimens areknown from Russia⁴sup3 Could the cross from Opočnice have come from Byzantiumby means of a detour through Russia and Denmark or did the Lyngby crossreach Denmark through Bohemia Given the current state of research on findsof Byzantine reliquary crosses outside the Empire which is often restricted to

M Roslund Crumbs from the rich manrsquos table Byzantine finds in Lund and Sigtuna cndash in H AndersonP Carelli L Ersgaringrd (eds) Visions of the past Trends and tradi-tions in Swedish medieval archaeology Lund studies in medieval archaeology LundStock-holm with fig J Goacuterecki Ze studioacutew nad zagadanieniem napływu przedmietoacutewproweniencji bizantyńskiej na ziemie polski an przykłade Ostrowia Lednickiego ArcheologiaPolski () ndash Wołoszyn Fundstuumlcke (as footnote above) mentions twoivory pendants from Kruszwica and Gniezno which could be dated to the twelfth century andhave good analogies in Corinth It remains unclear whether those artifacts arrived directlyfrom Byzantium or via Scandinavia or Rusrsquo K Horničkovaacute Byzantine reliquary pectoral crosses in Central Europe Byzantinoslavica

() K Horničkovaacute Between East and West Bohemian reliquary pectoral crosses astestimony to religious and cultural exchange in M SalamonMWołoszynAE MusinP Špe-har (eds) Rome Constantinople and Newly-Converted Europe Archaeological and HistoricalEvidence CracowLeipzigRzeszoacutewWarsaw Horničkovaacute Byzantine reliquary pectoral crosses Horničkovaacute Between East andWest J Staecker Bremen ndash Canterbury ndash Kiev ndash Konstantinopel Auf Spurensuche nach Missio-nierenden und Missionierten in Altdaumlnemark und Schweden in M Muumlller-Wille (ed) Rom undByzanz im Norden Mission und Glaubenswechsel im Ostseeraum waumlhrend des ndash Jahrhun-derts Internationale Fachkonferenz der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft in Verbindung mitder Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur Mainz Kiel ndash September Abhder geistes‐ und sozialwiss Klasse Stuttgart ndash fig and map

12 Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd 1082 2015 I Abteilung

particularly countries or even regions there is no way to provide an answer tothis question

Other things however most certainly moved farther afield A late 13th-cen-tury source claims that a fragment of the Holy Cross enclosed in an engolpionwas sent to Hungary in 1007 by Emperor Basil II on the occasion of the birthof King Stephenrsquos son Emeric Later however Emeric donated the relic to theBenedictine Abbey of the Holy Cross in Łysa Goacutera (Little Poland)⁴⁴ A great quan-tity and variety of gifts were sent to Bohemia from Constantinople in 11645 onthe occasion of the marriage into the Comnenian family of a Přemyslid princess ndashthe granddaughter of King Vladislav II of Bohemia and of King Geacuteza II of Hun-gary⁴⁵ One of the gifts sent to the Přemyslids at that time may have been the By-zantine enameled cross which was found in the cathedral in Ringsted (Denmark)in the grave of a female believed to be Queen Dagmar (Margaret) the spouse ofKing Valdemar II of Denmark and the daughter of King Přemysl I Ottokar of Bo-hemia Forty years after her cousin who had married into the imperial family ofthe Comneni Margaret who was considerably younger married King Valdemarin Luumlbeck⁴⁶ She died in 1213 and was buried in the Church of St Bent in Ringst-ed According to other opinions the cross was in fact found not in Dagmarrsquosgrave but in that of Richiza the sister of King Valdemar who had died oneyear earlier Be as it may the cross is most likely from the area of Thessalonikiand may have well reached Denmark with Dagmar⁴⁷ It may therefore havereached southern Scandinavia through Bohemia Another forty years later agold double cross was manufactured in Hungary with recycled cabochoncases from at least five different Byzantine artifacts made between the 10th

and the 12th century Each locket has a painted bust of a saint with accompanyingGreek inscriptions Some of the 44 gemstones decorating the arms of the crossare perforated sapphires which may have also been recycled Byzantine arti-

Prinzing Austausch (as footnote above) Vincent of Prague Chronicle in J Emler (ed) Regesta diplomatica nec non epistolaria Bo-hemiae et Moraviae Prague Horničkovaacute Between East and West (as footnote above) ndash The princess was the daughter of Bedřich Vladislavrsquos son and of Elisa-beth Geacutezarsquos daughter A B Černyacute Křiacutežek kraacutelovny Dagmary Časopis společnosti přaacutetel starožitnosti českyacutech vPraze () See HC Evans The Dagmar Cross in EvansDixon The Glory of Byzantium (as footnote

above) ndash For a different but less convincing interpretation according to which thecross came directly from Constantinople with the Byzantine embassy of see K CiggaarDenmark and Byzantium from to Queen Dagmarrsquos cross a chrysobull of Alexius IIIand an ldquoultramarinerdquo connection Mediaeval Scandinavia ()

F Curta East Central Europe the gate to Byzantium 13

facts⁴⁸ The cross has long been thought to have been acquired from Hungary forthe Abbey of Vyššiacute Brod (near Českyacute Krumlov in southern Bohemia) by a Czechnobleman named Zaviš of Falkenštejn who married Kunigunda the widow ofthe deceased king of Bohemia Přemysl II Ottokar before being executed in1290 What came to be known as the cross of Zaviš may however have come toBohemia at a much later date perhaps in the early 15th century

There is also clear evidence of the role East Central Europe played in thetransmission of Byzantine artifacts Upon his return from a trip to Jerusalem in1129ndash 1130 Bishop Meinhard of Prague (1122ndash1134) made a rich donation tothe Abbey of Zwiefalten in Swabia Bertholdrsquos addendum to his Chronicle ofZwiefalten a libellus written in 1137ndash 1138 on the building of the new monasterychurch lists Meinhardrsquos donations to the monastery Among them was ldquoa mantle(cappa) of black color with gold stitched top and bottom margins which hadbeen given to him by the emperor in Coonstantinople on the occasion of histrip to Jerusalemrdquo⁴⁹ The emperor in question must have been John II Comnenuswho is otherwise known to have waged war against Hungary shortly beforeMeinhard took the road to Constantinople and farther to Jerusalem⁵⁰ But hewas also in very good relations to Emperor Lothar III which may explain whyBishop Meinhard was so well received in Constantinople Whether or not thesymbolism of the mantle with gold stitched top and bottom margins has any-thing to do with Bishop Meinhardrsquos perceived status and importance in the By-zantine-German relations it was certainly viewed as sufficiently precious to bedonated to the abbey The mention of the mantle in the libellus leaves onewith the impression that far more important than its intrinsic value was thefact that Meinhard had received it from the ldquoemperor in Constantinoplerdquo

An even greater example of the attraction of Byzantium is the story of anoth-er donation to the abbey of Zwiefalten The story most likely written by Ortlieb in

Zs Lovag Byzantinische Beziehungen in Ungarn nach der Staatsgruumlndung ArchaumlologischeForschungen zwischen und Mitteilungen des archaumlologischen Instituts der ungari-schen Akademie der Wissenschaften () Balcaacuterek (as footnote above) ndash L Wallach (ed) Die Zwiefalter Chroniken Ortliebs und Bertholds Schwaumlbische Chronikender Stauferzeit Sigmaringen ndash For the authorship and date of the libellussee Sz Wieczorek Zwiefalten a Polska w pierwszej połowie XII w Kwartalnik historyczny

() ndash Bishop Meinhard also sent to Zwiefalten a gold cross with chain (ldquocruciculamcam catenulardquo) and many other smaller gifts Horničkovaacute Between East and West (as footnote above) believes that the gold pectoral cross was also Byzantine and contained a relic ofthe True Cross but nothing of the sort is mentioned in the text The only artifact of clearly By-zantine origin is the mantle For the Byzantine Hungarian conflict in the late s see P Stephenson John CinnamusJohn II Comnenus and the Hungarian campaign of ndash Byzantion () ndash

14 Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd 1082 2015 I Abteilung

1141 is meant to explain in detail how the abbey acquired a very precious relic ndashthe hand of St Stephen the Protomartyr⁵sup1 According to that story ldquoone of thenoblest princes of the Greeksrdquo gave his daughter in marriage to the ldquoking ofthe Rutheniansrdquo The marriage is said to have happened ldquoat the time of EmperorHenry IV and Duke Bolesław of Polandrdquo which would suggest that the ldquoking ofthe Rutheniansrdquo was Iziaslav the son of Yaroslav the Wise assuming of coursethat ldquokingrdquo in this case refers to the prince of Kiev Be as it may as part of thedowry the daughter in question received a great number of relics includingthe hand of the Protomartyr A daughter born of that marriage was later giveninto marriage to one of the most important magnates of Poland The go-betweenfor the marriage was a rich prince named Patricius who in the end managed toget the girl for himself together with her dowry which included the hand of StStephen Scolded for this and other such deeds by the local bishop and by thepope himself Patricius decided to make amends by giving his riches to thechurch He is said to have built seventy churches with his own money Howeverhe did not donate the precious relic but instead sold it to Duke Bolesław III Wry-mouth in exchange for a land grant⁵sup2 Upon the dukersquos death in 1138 his wifeSalomea of Berg sent multiple gifts to the Abbey of Zwiefalten through one ofher daughters who entered the convent there A few years later she asked forOtto of Steutzlingen to come to her in Poland together with a priest-monkOtto and two other monks (one of whom was named Gernot) went to Polandand were led to Małogoszcz There they were shown Salomearsquos fabulous collec-tion of relics and told that they could take whatever they would like to bring backwith them to Zwiefalten Before returning however Salomea gave them thegreatest gift of all the hand of St Stephen which they ceremoniously brought

Wieczorek Zwiefalten (as footnote above) MWołoszyn Zwei Episoden aus der Ge-schichte der polnisch-byzantinischen Kontakte des bis Jahrhunderts in MKaimakamovaM SalamonM Smorąg Roacuteżycka (eds) Byzantium new peoples new powersthe Byzantino-Slav contact zone from the ninth to the fifteenth century Byzantina et slavica cra-coviensia Cracow Wallach Zwiefalter Chroniken (see footnote above) and Wołoszyn Zwei Epi-soden (as footnote above) believes that ldquoPatriciusrdquo was Bolesławrsquos count palatine PiotrWłostowic who had married Maria the daughter of Oleg Sviatoslavich prince of Chernigov ButMaria Piotrrsquos wifewas the daughter of Prince Sviatopolk of Kiev (d ) and not of his cousinOleg (d ) Moreover Mariarsquos mother was the Cuman princess Olena the daughter of KhanTugor See J Martin Medieval Russia ndash nd ed CambridgeNew York Shecould therefore not have been the daughter of a Byzantine princess Maria died in or and Piotr does not seem to have remarried during the last three years of his life (he died in)

F Curta East Central Europe the gate to Byzantium 15

to their abbey together with the other relics on April 1 1141⁵sup3 The relations be-tween Poland and the Abbey of Zwiefalten are not difficult to explain⁵⁴ The Ben-edictine house has been for a long while in the care of Salomearsquos family with herfather Count Henry of Berg being buried in the monastic chapter house next tothe actual founders of the abbey Counts Gero and Kuno of Achalm The threemonks had in fact been invited to Poland in the aftermath of Salomearsquos 1141meeting in Łęczyca with her sons Bolesław (future Bolesław IV Curly) Mieszko(future Mieszko III the Old) Casimir (future Casimir II the Just) and Henry dukeof Sandomierz At that meeting Salomea asked her sons to accept that their sis-ter Agnes (her second daughter) be sent to Zwiefalten Eventually the brothersdecided instead to marry her with Prince Mstislav II of Kiev but the monks re-turned to Zwiefalten with very precious relics⁵⁵ The account of how theirabbey acquired the hand of St Stephen places a great emphasis on the chainof translation of that relic from Byzantium to Zwiefalten In the process of trans-lation three women are said to have played a key role ndash the Byzantine princessher daughter who married a Polish magnate and of course Salomea This is insharp contrast to the role assigned to men especially to Patricius who is descri-bed as having stolen somebody elsersquos bride before repenting and deciding toturn his wealth to the church Even in repentance though he was not capableof a generous and self-effacing gift such as that of Salomea since he sold theprecious relic to Duke Bolesław in exchange for an estate Poland is thereforethe place where the relic on the point of being lost is acquired by means ofa commercial transaction by a pious duke whose wife then sends it to the mon-astery There seems to have been a particular reason for which the hand of StStephen was not kept together with the other relics in Małogoszcz since themonks acquired it later after being given permission to pick up at will any relicsthey may have wished to take with them to Zwiefalten Had the hand of StGeorge been kept all this time in Łęczyca at Salomearsquos residence⁵⁶ If so oneis almost tempted to associate the relic with the reliquary from Tum which

Wallach Zwiefalter Chroniken (see footnote ) and Wieczorek Zwiefalten (as footnote ) P Wiszewski Domus Bolezlai Values and socialidentity in dynastic traditions of medieval Poland (c ndash) East Central and Eastern Eu-rope in the Middle Ages ndash LeidenBoston ndash Wiszewski ibid ndash For Łęczyca at the beginning of the twelfth century shortly before Salomea moved her per-manent residence there see Z Morawski ldquoSedes translaterdquo Łęczyca na początku XII wieku inW Fałkowsk H ManikowskaA MączakK Modzelewski (eds) Aetas media ndash aetas modernaStudia ofiarowane profesorowi Henrykowi Samsonowiczowi w siedemdziesiątą rocznicę urod-zin Warsaw ndash

16 Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd 1082 2015 I Abteilung

was lost during World War II Could that Byzantine artifact have been acquiredby the Piasts from Rusrsquo under the same circumstances that explain the presenceof the hand of St Stephen at the court of Bolesław Wrymouth There is so far nopossible answer to this question because nothing is known about when andhow the reliquary reached the Abbey of Tum However it may not be an accidentthat both the relic and the reliquary were associated with the town assigned toSalomea through her husbandrsquos testament of 1138 Łęczyca may have been themain relay in the transmission of a Byzantine relic from Rusrsquo to Swabia

Another Benedictine abbey from Hungary was itself the relay in the trans-mission of fundamental theological texts from Byzantium to the West A numberof south German and Austrian manuscripts containing a Latin translation ofMaximus the Confessorrsquos Four Hundred Chapters on Charity written in the 7th

century indicate that the translator a Venetian named Cerbanus had donethe translation on the basis of a Greek manuscript from the Abbey of Paacutesztoacute⁵⁷In the introduction to his translation Cerbanus dedicated it to David Abbot ofPannonhalma (1131ndash1150) as a token of gratitude for his hospitality whichhad apparently been bestowed at least twice upon Cerbanus The manuscript tra-dition suggests that Cerbanus also translated John of Damascusrsquo Exposition of theOrthodox Faith As Gyula Moravcsik has long pointed outWestern theologiansand among them Peter the Lombard became acquainted with John of Damascusrsquomain work through Cerbanusrsquo translation⁵⁸ Arno and Gerhoh of Reichersbergmust have used that translation possibly the copy now in the Admont AbbeyIt is in fact the controversy that they provoked with their citations from Johnof Damascus that prompted Pope Eugenius III to ask Burgundio of Pisa for a

I Kapitaacutenffy Cerbanus eacutes Maximus fordiacutetaacutesa in I Takaacutecs (ed) Mons Sacer ndashPannonhalma eacuteve Vol Pannonhalma A Zsoldos Hongria als segles XIIi XIII in MakkMiquelSarobeToacuteth Princeses (as footnote above) Cerbanusrsquo transla-tion exists in many manuscripts now in libraries of primarily Austrian monasteries (AdmontZwettl Heiligenkreuz Hohenfurth and Sankt Florian) See I Boronkai Die Maximus-Uumlberset-zung des Cerbanus (Lehren aus seiner Muumlnchener Handschrift) Acta Antiqua Academiae Scien-tiarum Hungaricae () Hungarian historians have long regarded Paacutesztoacute as an initial-ly Orthodox monastery later converted to a Benedictine abbey Archaeological excavations onthe site have however invalidated that hypothesis the abbey was Benedictine from the very be-ginning See IValtera A paacutesztoacutei monostor feltaacuteraacutesa Communicationes Archaeologicae Hungar-iae () ndash Eacute Reacuteveacutesz Reacutegeacuteszeti eacutes toumlrteacuteneti adatok a kora Aacuterpaacuted kori bizaacutenci bolgaacutermagyar egyhaacutezi kapcsolatokhoz PhD dissertation University of Szeged Szeged ndash G Moravcsik The role of the Byzantine church in medieval Hungary American Slavic andEast European Review () In his Sententiae the foundation of theological learning inthe Middle Ages Peter does not use but eight chapters of the Exposition namely exactly thosethat appear in Cerbanusrsquo translation See Ivaacutenka Hongrie (as footnote above)

F Curta East Central Europe the gate to Byzantium 17

new translation of Johnrsquos work⁵⁹ It has been suggested that Cerbanus visitedHungary several times in the 1130s and 1140s⁶⁰ It is of course impossible to de-termine the nature of that mission if there was any but based on the term inoffice of Abbot David to whom the translation was dedicated Cerbanus musthave come to Hungary during the last years of John II or more likely the earlyyears of Manuel Irsquos reign ndash at any rate after the normalization of the Vene-tian-Hungarian relations after 1124 and before the deterioration of the Hungar-ian-Byzantine relations in the aftermath of the battle of Tara in 1150⁶sup1 Whetherhe came to see Beacutela II or Geacuteza II Cerbanus seems to have had a high profilegiven that he apparently stayed in Pannonhalma where Abbot David had recent-ly rebuilt the church⁶sup2 But the Greek manuscript that he translated was in Paacutesz-toacute not Pannonhalma How did Cerbanus learn about its presence there Andmore to the point of this paper when and how did that manuscript end up inthe library of a relatively small Benedictine house in Hungary Who in Paacutesztoacutecould read Greek or was interested in the theology of Maximus the Confessorand John of Damascus Given the existing evidence it is impossible to answerthose questions However I would like to suggest that Cerbanus visited Hungaryin the circumstances surrounding the Second Crusade His may have been a mis-sion related to that of Nicephorus who led a Byzantine embassy to the Germancourt in 1145 which apparently discussed the marriage of Bertha of Sulzbach andEmperor Manuel but actually aimed among other things to obtain from Ber-tharsquos brother-in-law Emperor Conrad III a firm promise that he would not par-ticipate in a second armed pilgrimage through Byzantine territory⁶sup3 When it be-came clear however that Conrad had serious intentions to participate in thecrusade Manuel may have established contact with Geacuteza II to obtain both assur-ances of political neutrality and cooperation for the passage of Conradrsquos crusad-

Ibid W Berschin Greek letters and the Latin Middle Ages from Jerome to Nicholas ofCusa Washington Kapitaacutenffy Cerbanus (as footnote above) See also I Kapitaacutenffy Cerbanus e la suatraduzione di San Massimo in J Paacutel A Somorjai (eds) Mille anni di storia dellrsquoarciabbazia diPannonhalma RomePannonhalma For the chronology of the Venetian Hungarian and Hungarian Byzantine relations see P Ste-phenson Manuel I Comnenus and Geza II a revised context and chronology for Hungaro By-zantine relations ndash Byzantinoslavica () ndash P Stephenson Byzanti-umrsquos Balkan frontier A political study of the northern Balkans ndash Cambridge ndash For the architectural history of the abbey church see Cs Laacuteszloacute Reacutegeacuteszeti adatok Pannon-halma eacutepiacuteteacutestoumlrteacuteneteacutehez in Takaacutecs Mons Sacer (as footnote above) ndash For Nicephorusrsquo embassy and the negotiations between Manuel and Conrad see Ste-phenson Balkan frontier (as footnote above) ndash

18 Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd 1082 2015 I Abteilung

ing army King Geacuteza after all had just as many reasons as Emperor Manuel to besuspicious about Conradrsquos intentions given that just a few years earlier his rivalBoris an illegitimate son of King Coloman had attempted to invade Hungarywith German support⁶⁴ While Cerbanus was in Hungary a Byzantine embassycrossed that country in June 1147 in order to meet with King Louis VII in Regens-burg⁶⁵ No information exists on how Manuel and Geacuteza II coordinated their ef-forts to monitor and to provision of the crusading armies but some degree of co-operation is implied by the fact that before entering Bulgaria ldquoa land belongingto the Greeksrdquo the French crusaders stocked themselves with provisions ldquothemost of which Hungary supplied via the Danuberdquo⁶⁶ Odo of Deuilrsquos account ofLouis VIIrsquos expedition leaves one the impression that even before reaching Bul-garia the French crusaders could already get a taste of Byzantium In HungaryBoris is said to have decided to join Louis VIIrsquos army ldquobecause of the emperor ofConstantinople whose niece he had marriedrdquo⁶⁷ Boris had indeed been well re-ceived in Byzantium by Emperor John II who had given him the hand of an im-perial niece whom Vitalien Laurent has convincingly identified with Arete Dou-kaina the daughter of Constantine a nephew of Irene Doukaina EmperorAlexius Irsquos wife⁶⁸ Odo of Deuilrsquos explanation for Borisrsquos joining the French cru-saders suggests that he felt a special attachment to Byzantium perhaps becausehis wife had remained in Constantinople He may have also offered his servicesto Louis VII particularly for mediating between the French and the Byzantines

At the gate of Byzantium

That from a Western point of view Hungary was indeed a bit Byzantine has beenapparent since the time of the First Crusade To be sure upon entering HungaryWalter lsquoSansavoirrsquo is said to have arrived at a river called Maroe which is ldquothe

For the Boris episode see F Makk The Arpads and the Comneni Political relations betweenHungary and Byzantium in the th century Budapest ndash For the Czech ramifica-tions of the Boris episode see S Albrecht Die Gesandschaft des boumlhmischen KanzlersAlexander nach Konstantinopel Byzantinoslavica () ndash V Gingerick Berry (ed and transl) Odo of Deuil Journey of Louis VII to the East Recordsof civilization sources and studies New York ndash Ibid ndash Ibid ndash V Laurent Areacutetegrave Doukaina la Kralaina femme du preacutetendant hongrois Boris et megravere desKalamanoi mediatizes BZ () ndash See also R Kerbl Byzantinischen Prinzessinen inUngarn zwischen ndash und ihr Einfluszlig auf das Arpadenkoumlnigreich Dissertationen derUniversitaumlt Wien Vienna ndash

F Curta East Central Europe the gate to Byzantium 19

recognized boundary between Hungary and the Orientrdquo⁶⁹ This is most likely theriver Morava which is mistaken for the Sava on the southern border of eleventh-century Hungary Regardless of the geographical accuracy of his account Wil-liam of Tyre appears to suggest that Hungary was in fact at the gates of the Ori-ent In a sense very similar to Odo of Deuilrsquos account one expected things inHungary to be almost Byzantine According to Albert of Aachen as he approach-ed the frontier between Hungary and Byzantium Peter the Hermit and his menlearned that

a count of that region Guz by name one of the Hungarian kingrsquos nobles corrupted bygreed had assembled of band of armed soldiers and has entered into a very wicked plotwith the said duke who was called Nichita prince of the Bulgars and ruler of the city ofBelgrade that the duke having brought together the strength of his accomplices wouldvanquish and kill the vanguard of Peterrsquos army while Guz would pursue and behead themen at the rear of Peterrsquos soldiers so that they might thus snatch and share between them-selves all the spoils of such a great army in horses gold and silver and clothes⁷⁰

While Guz does not appear in any other sources duke ldquoNichita prince of theBulgarsrdquo is most likely one and the same person as a protoproedros by thename Niketas Karykes which appears on several seals dated to the last decadeof the 11th century He was the Byzantine commander of Belgrade and at thesame time the commander of the theme of Bulgaria⁷sup1 Guz on the otherhand was a count in the frontier region possibly of Zemun a Hungarian fort

William of Tyre I RBC Huygens (ed) Willemi Tyrensis Archiepiscopi Chronicon CCContinuatio Medievalis Turnhout English version from EA Babcock (transl)A history of deeds done beyond the sea New York (who wrongly ldquotranslatesrdquoMaroe as MarosMureş) That Williamrsquos report on the boundary between Hungary and Orientis based on earlier sources results from the fact that the river Maroe appears also in Albert ofAachen I SB Edgington (ed and transl) Albert of Aachen History of the journey of Jeru-salem Oxford To Albert the kingdom of the Hungarians ended at ldquoMallevilardquo (Zemun) Edgington ibid and L Veszpreacutemy Magyarorszaacuteg eacutes az első keresztes hadjaacuterat Aa-cheni Albert tanuacutesaacutega Hadtoumlrteacutenelmi koumlzlemeacutenyek () with note ldquotranslatesrdquothe name of Guz as Geacuteza and makes him the count of Zemun I Iordanov Печати на тема България Numizmatika sfragistika i epigrafika ()ndash and For the identity of Niketas see also A Madgearu Byzantine military organ-ization on the Danube thndashth Centuries East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Agesndash Leiden Madgearu suggests that the theme of Bulgaria was divided inthe late th century into two smaller provinces one of which was under a duke residing in Bel-grade Stephenson Byzantiumrsquos Balkan frontier (as footnote above) wrongly interpretsAlbert of Aachenrsquos reference to a ldquoprince of the Bulgarsrdquo as indication that Niketas was ldquoa localrulerrdquo with autonomy granted from Constantinople

20 Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd 1082 2015 I Abteilung

across the Danube from Belgrade⁷sup2 Albert of Aachen insists that he was one ofthe primates of King Coloman in order perhaps to convey the idea that Guz hasacted in collusion with the Hungarian ruler If so the king may have been con-cerned with the disruption of the Hungarian-Byzantine trade brought by armedpilgrims After all one of the offices responsible for the collection of royal rev-enues was in Titel only 26 miles (41 km) to the north from Zemun⁷sup3 Guz hadhis own soldiers whom he had assembled over a relatively short period oftime That he and Niketas were planning to deprive the armed pilgrims oftheir horses gold silver and clothes may simply be a narrative strategy insteadof providing for the pilgrims as they were expected to do they were plotting torob them of what they already had That Guz needed to despoil the pilgrims sug-gests that at least to him Byzantium was not the only source of luxuries Be as itmay one can hardly miss Albert of Aachenrsquos point in Hungary (or at least insouthern Hungary) people were as sneaky and untrustworthy as the Byzantines

Writing a few decades later Otto of Freising put it more forcefully the Hun-garians ldquoimitate the shrewdness of the Greeks in that they undertake no impor-tant matter without frequent and prolonged deliberationsrdquo⁷⁴ This remark ap-pears within a longer excursus on Hungary which Otto inserted right beforethe account of King Geacuteza IIrsquos 1146 campaign that led to his victory in the battleof Fischa against Duke Henry XI of Bavaria (September 11 1146) Because of thatOtto is therefore inclined to depict the Hungarians in the worst possible colorsTo him they are all of ldquodisgusting aspect with deep-set eyes and short statureThey are barbarous and ferocious in their habits and languagerdquo⁷⁵ In short ldquonotmen but caricatures of menrdquo (ne dicam hominibus sed talibus hominum mon-stris) The caricatural aspect derives apparently from them being ldquohideous onthe march with rude weaponsrdquo (omnes pene tetri tetris in armis procedunt)and displaying ldquoa kind of valor not innate but acquired so to speak by imitat-ing princes and foreigners of our racerdquo (non innatam sed quasi extrinsecus affix-am virtutem trahentes principes tantum et hospites nostros impugnandi)⁷⁶ What

Stephenson ibid A Kubinyi Handel und Entwicklung der Staumldte in der ungarischen Tiefebene im Mittelalterin KD GrothusenK Zernack (eds) Europa Slavica Europa Orientalis Festschrift fuumlr HerbertLudat zum Geburtstag Gieszligener Abhandlungen zur Agrar‐ und Wirtschaftsforschung des euro-paumlischen Ostens Berlin Otto of Freising I GWaitz (ed) Otto of Freising Gesta Friderici MGH SS rer Germ HannoverLeipzig English version from CC Mierow (transl) Deeds of Frederick Bar-abarossa Records of civilization sources and studies New York Waitz ibid Mierow ibid Waitz Mierow

F Curta East Central Europe the gate to Byzantium 21

is remarkable in Ottorsquos attempt to demonize the Hungarians however is his useof a comparison with the Byzantines Like them the Hungarian noblemen like totalk and to ldquogive due consideration and discussion to the affairs of the staterdquoThey even do that in the middle of the winter ldquoin such abodes as theyhaverdquo⁷⁷ One is tempted to take this as a negative feature given that too muchdeliberation may prevent action But Otto of Freising notes with some jealousythat the Hungarian nobles ldquoobey their prince so unconditionally that they wouldconsider it a crime not only to rouse his anger with open resistance but even tooffend him with hidden whisperingrdquo⁷⁸ In Ottorsquos eyes therefore Geacuteza IIrsquos Hun-gary is not a republic of the nobles Nor is there any evidence that he viewed By-zantium in that light Sollertia the quality attributed to both Hungarians and By-zantines appear two more times in Gesta Friderici and is understood as apositive value ndash perspicacity It is to Emperor Conradrsquo sollertia that the citizensof Rome appealed to recall ldquothe many great ills the papal curiardquo had inflictedupon previous Roman emperors⁷⁹ Sollertia is also the wisdom of the ancient Ro-mans that the Lombards ldquohaving put aside crude barbarous ferocityrdquo have de-cided to imitate in the ldquogoverning of their cities also in the conduct of publicaffairsrdquo⁸⁰ There is therefore nothing ldquoByzantinerdquo (in the modern negativesense of the word) in the Hungarian shrewdness Talking things over in frequentand prolonged meetings is something that explains why there is so little if anyopposition to the Hungarian king The wisdom of the Hungarians explains theremarkable cohesion of their kingdom in spite of all barbarous aspects oftheir life and culture Just as the Lombards strove to imitate the wisdom of theancient Romans so the Hungarians ldquonew barbariansrdquo now imitate the perspi-cacity of their Byzantine neighbors The meaning of Ottorsquos remark is thereforeclear even before entering Byzantium someone coming from the Empirewould get a good taste of it in Hungary One can begin to understand Byzantiumeven before entering through its gates

To judge by the existing sourcesWesterners became aware that Hungary wasa Vermittler only in the early 11th century According to Rodulfus Glaber therewas a dramatic change in pilgrimage patterns after King Stephen of Hungaryconverted to Christianity and after Emperor Henry II gave his sister in marriageto him Suddenly ldquoall those in Italy and Gaul who wanted to go to the Holy Se-pulcher in Jerusalemrdquo abandoned the usual route which was by sea makingtheir way through the country of King Stephen made the road safe for everyone

Waitz Mierow Waitz Mierow Waitz Mierow Waitz Mierow

22 Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd 1082 2015 I Abteilung

welcomed as brothers all he saw and gave them enormous giftsrdquo⁸sup1 This passageis in sharp contrast to Albert of Aachenrsquos story of count Guz while King Stephenhas bestowed gifts upon the pilgrims the count wanted to despoil them of theirown goods That in the early 11th century the road was supposedly safe can onlymean that those returning from Jerusalem also avoided to go by sea and insteadpreferred to go through Hungary In fact Zsuzsa Lovag has associated the Byzan-tine pectoral crosses found in Hungary the vast majority of which may be datedto the 11th century to the pilgrimage route that opened at that time through Hun-gary⁸sup2 This may explain why relief crosses are the most common type of pectoralcrosses found in East Central Europe ndash many of them were most likely producedin the Balkan provinces of the Byzantine Empire⁸sup3 The few pectoral crosses thatmoved beyond Hungary and were found in the Czech lands must therefore havecome from Byzantium via the Balkans not Italy Both the Balkan direction andthe idea that some of the most conspicuous signs of Byzantine influence foundin 11th-century Hungary may be associated with the pilgrimage routes could alsoexplain the surprising absence from East Central Europe of other markers of By-zantine material culture Authentically 10th- to 11th-century Byzantine jewelry isabsent from finds in the Carpathian Basin For example there are no earrings

Rodulfus Glaber III M Arnoux (ed) Raoul Glaber Histoires Turnhout Eng-lish version from J France (ed) The five books of histories Oxford For Glaberrsquos viewof Hungary see A Gyoumlrkoumls La relation de Raoul Glaber sur les premiegraveres deacutecennies de lrsquoEtathongrois in K Papp J Barta (eds) The first millenium of Hungary in Europe Debrecen ndash In the late eleventh century it took one days to cross Hungary from the borderwith Austria to Zemun See J Plumtree Forming the First Crusade the role of the kingdomof Hungary in western crusading discourse MA thesis Central European University Budapest ndash Zs Lovag Byzantine type reliquary pectoral crosses in the Hungarian National MuseumFolia Archaeologica () Aacute Bolloacutek Byzantine missions among the Magyars duringthe later th century in M SalamonM WołoszynAE MusinP Špehar (eds) Rome Con-stantinople and newly converted Europe Archaeological and historical evidence CracowLeipzigRzeszoacutewWarsaw For an updated complete catalogue of finds see ReacuteveacuteszReacutegeacuteszeti eacutes toumlrteacuteneti adatok (as footnote above) ndash Judging from the distribution offinds Zsuzsa Lovag believes that the pectoral crosses entered Hungary through its southeasterncounties Beacutekeacutes and Csongraacuted Horničkovaacute Pectoral crosses (as footnote above) K Mesterhaacutezy Die Beziehungenzwischen Byzanz und dem fruumlhmittelalterlichen Ungarn im Lichte der materiellen Kultur in TŠtefanovičovaacuteZ Ševčikovaacute (eds) Mitteldonaugebiet und Suumldosteuropa im fruumlhen MittelalterStudia archaeological et mediaevalia Bratislava On the other hand so-called ldquohis-toriated reliquariesrdquo made of gold (ie crosses of Horničkovaacutersquos Pliska group) have not so farbeen found in East Central Europe an indication that those who introduced pectoral crossesto Hungary were people of modest means possibly pilgrims

F Curta East Central Europe the gate to Byzantium 23

with basket-shaped pendant which appear in Turkey but not in the Balkans⁸⁴On the other hand typically Byzantine artifacts such as amphorae and glass-ware appear in Scandinavia but not in East Central Europe As Mats Roslundhas demonstrated in the case of the 10th- to 13th-century Byzantine finds fromLund and Sigtuna the Vermittler was Russia not East Central Europe⁸⁵ The con-spicuous absence of Byzantine amphorae and glass from tenth- to thirteenth-century archaeological assemblages in East Central Europe strongly suggeststhat other Byzantine finds such as pectoral crosses did not reach that regionby means of trade

That Byzantine artifacts were procured in East Central Europe through spe-cial non-commercial relations with the Empire results also from two interestingrecent developments in the research on Byzantine material culture in GreatMoravia Despite Imre Boba Charles Bowlus and Martin Eggersrsquos efforts tothe contrary most scholars now accept the idea that the mission of Constan-tineCyril and Methodius arrived in 863 in the lands north of the Danube inwhat is now the eastern part of the Czech Republic and the southwestern regionof Slovakia There is a great body of literature on the Byzantine influence in thispart of the European continent which supposedly accompanied or followed thatmission From law to church plans historians and archaeologists often assumeda considerable role of Byzantium in the shaping of the culture of Great Moravia⁸⁶Leaving aside the thorny question of how to separate local imitations from au-thentically Byzantine artifacts the re-examination of some of the latter has pro-duced some very interesting conclusions Given the notorious absence from East

Aacute Bolloacutek Byzantine jewellery of the Hungarian conquest period a view from the Balkansin C EntwistleN Adams (eds) ldquoIntelligible Beautyrdquo Recent research on Byzantine jewelleryLondon On the other hand glass braceletswhich appear in both Turkey and the Bal-kans are quite rare in Hungary Roslund Crumbs (as footnote above) ndash ndash and ldquoThe answer to thequestion of what these finds represent can instead by looked for in the triptych made up of By-zantine economic expansion changing trade routes in the Rusrsquo kingdom and consumption inthe Scandinavian towns which was gradually conforming to more continental patternsrdquo TheRus(sian) mediation is also strongly advocated by W Duczko Vikingartida bysantinska metal-lsmycken I arkeologiska fynd fraringn Skandinavien in E Piltz (ed) Bysans och Norden Aktafoumlr Nordiska forskakursen i bysantinsk konstvetenskap Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis Fig-ura Uppsala ndash W Duczko The Byzantine presence in Viking Age SwedenArchaeological finds and their interpretation Akad der Wiss und der Lit (Mainz) Abh dergeistes‐ und sozialwiss Klasse () no ndash See in that vein V VavřiacutenekB Zaacutestĕrovaacute Byzantiumrsquos role in the formation of GreatMoravian culture Byzantinoslavica () ndash T Štefanovičovaacute Great Moraviaand Byzantium in Thessaloniki Magna Moravia Proceedings of the international conferenceThessaloniki ndash October Thessaloniki ndash

24 Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd 1082 2015 I Abteilung

Central Europe of Byzantine ivories in sharp contrast for example to the re-gions farther to the west which had been included in the 10th century in the Ot-tonian Empire the 1974 discovery of fragments of a pyxid in Čierny Kľaciany nearNitra in Slovakia has stirred a great deal of interest⁸⁷ The fragments resultedfrom an accidental excavation of a number of graves and were apparently asso-ciated with pottery dated to the 9th and 10th century The close examination of thefragments has however revealed that the pyxid is a much earlier artifact initiallydated to the 4th now largely believed to be of a 6th-century date⁸⁸ If the pyxidwas indeed from one of the accidentally destroyed graves and if those gravescould indeed be dated on the basis of the associated pottery to the late 9th orearly 10th century then at the time of its burial deposition the pyxid musthave been an antique Petr Balcaacuterek has recently drawn a similar conclusionfrom the examination of four curious book-shaped amulets Three of themhave been found in two 9th-century graves in Mikulčice (Moravia) while a fourthis known from the 9thndash10th stronghold in Staraacute Kouřim (central Bohemia)⁸⁹ Hav-ing noted that none of them appears to have been worn as a pendant since nonehas a suspension loop Balcaacuterek believes that they were in fact phylacteriaworn directly on the body perhaps in a pocket According to him analogiesfor all four amulets point to a date before the Iconoclastic Controversy whichsuggests that those objects were already quite old when reaching East CentralEurope⁹⁰ Balcaacuterekrsquos conclusion is worth citing in full those objects may havebeen taken outside the Empire ldquoas objects that had gone out of fashion in its cul-tural centersrdquo⁹sup1 That antique gems have been reused in the fashioning of 9th-cen-

T Kolniacutek L Veliačiacutek Neskoroantickaacute pyxida z Čiernych Kľačian (Ikonografia datovanie avzťahy k Veľkej Morave) Slovenskaacute Archeoloacutegia () ndash This is the second late antiquepyxid from East Central Europe Another has been found earlier in a fifth century burial moundin Žurań near Brno in Moravia See J Pouliacutek Žuraacuteň in der Geschichte Mitteleuropas SlovenskaacuteArcheoloacutegia () ndash KolniacutekVeliačiacutek ibid ndash and M Pardyova La pyxide de Čierne Kľačiany (la sig-nification de son deacutecor figureacute) Byzantinoslavica () P Balcaacuterek A contribution to the discussions about the possible origin of certain pieces ofjewellery shaped like book covers Eirene () ndash According to Balcaacuterek the speci-men from Staraacute Kouřim may not have been a Christian but either a Muslim or a Jewish amuletFor a less convincing treatment of the book shaped amulets see Z Klanica Naacutelez ozdob tvaruknižniacute vazby in Š UngermanR Přychstalovaacute (eds) Zaměřeno na středověk Zdeňkovi Měřiacuten-skeacutemu k narozeninaacutem Prague ndash Both authors ignored M Corsten Diebuchfoumlrmige Anhaumlnger des fruumlhen Mittelalters ndash ein Beitrag zur Amulettforschung Fornvaumlnnen () ndash Just how old they may have been is suggested by the book-shaped amulet found in the

th

century hoard of gold from Houmlg Edsten (Bohuslaumln Sweden) See Corsten ibid ndash Balcaacuterek Contribution (as footnote above)

F Curta East Central Europe the gate to Byzantium 25

tury Moravian jewelry has been long recognized⁹sup2 What seems to have escapedeverybodyrsquos attention however is that book-shaped amulets also appear else-where in Central Europe in somewhat earlier assemblages in which they seemto have been treated in the same way ndash as antiques⁹sup3 This places the Moravianfinds in a very different environment one in which the Byzantine origin of theartifacts is less significant as their perceived value as old amulets In that re-spect if not in others as well East Central Europe or at least (Great) Moraviamay be seen as part of a broader picture of religious behavior in early medievalEurope

Early medieval developments

Moreover the reinterpretation of the Byzantine finds from 9th-century Moravia asantiques raises the question of why is medieval East Central Europe perceivedonly as a ldquorealityrdquo of the High Middle Ages ie to be dated after AD 1000and only in historical or art history terms Can one speak of East Central Europein the same terms for the early Middle Ages ie for the period between ca 500and ca 1000 In the introduction to a book published nine years ago I havestrongly argued in favor of that approach and given the paucity of written sour-ces I have laid the emphasis on the archaeological evidence⁹⁴ The develop-ments in the discipline over the last decade or so are not in contradiction towhat I was writing back then If anything in the archaeological literature theissue of East Central Europe as a gate to Byzantium has already been raised al-beit indirectly without historians apparently noticing it In an article publishedin 1985 Csanaacuted Baacutelint the former director of the Institute of Archaeology in Bu-dapest complained about the fact that Hungarian archaeologists were not seri-ously interested in studying the relations between Byzantium and the CarpathianBasin⁹⁵ In a paper presented more than ten years ago at a conference on the

J BouzekI Ondrejovaacute Antike Gemmen im groszligmaumlhrischen Schmuck Listy filologickeacute () ndash See also P Charvaacutet Fliege hoch du stolzer Adler eine orientalische Gemme ausfruumlhmittelalterlichen Maumlhren Civis () ndash P Balcaacuterek Karneolovaacute intaglie z Ry-baacuteren Uherskeacuteho Hradiště Přiacutespěvek k interpretaci Bibliotheca alexandrina () ndash A book-shaped amulet has been found in a supposedly isolated th-century male burial inMerching near Augsburg (southwestern Germany) See P Reinecke Spaumltmerowingisch karolin-gische Grabfunde aus Suumlddeutschland Altertuumlmer unserer heidnischen Vorzeit () andpl ndash Curta (as footnote ) Cs Baacutelint Zur Frage der byzantinischen Beziehungen im Fundmaterial Ungarns Archaumlolo-gische Forschungen zwischen und Mitteilungen des archaumlologischen Instituts der un-

26 Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd 1082 2015 I Abteilung

Mediterranean and the Carpathian Basin he called for a re-assessment of theEarly Avar culture as ldquosub-Byzantinerdquo while at the same time calling archaeol-ogists to exercise caution and not treat every exquisitely decorated artifact orevery luxury as ipso facto Byzantine⁹⁶ This remarkable change of attitude re-flects a fundamental change in the discipline In fact the last two decades orso have witnessed an extraordinary progress of the archaeological understand-ing of the Byzantine influence on the lands of East Central Europe Hungarianarchaeologists have been the pioneers of this movement to colonize with solidscholarship the uncharted territory of this most neglected part of the medievalpast In the early 1990s Kaacuteroly Mesterhaacutezy published two seminal articleson artifacts of Byzantine origin in 10th- and 11th-century burial assemblages inHungary thus opening the archaeological discussion about the relations be-tween the Magyars and Byzantium that continues today with Peacuteter Langoacute andAacutedaacutem Bolloacutek⁹⁷ However the most spectacular developments took place inthe archaeology of the Avar period An initial impetus from the pioneering stud-ies of Andraacutes Alfoumlldi and Dezső Csallaacuteny has resulted over the last two dec-ades in an explosion of studies stimulated among other things by a more recentpreoccupation with distinguishing between authentically Byzantine artifacts andAvar imitations a line of research associated with the Austrian archaeologistFalko Daim now the director of the Roumlmisch-Germanisches Museum inMainz⁹⁸ This has also been the framework for the discussion of the topic in Slo-

garischen Akademie der Wissenschaften () See also Cs Baacutelint Az avarkor eacutes hon-foglalaacuteskor bizaacutenci vonatkozaacutesainak reacutegeacuteszeti kutataacutesa Magyarorszaacutegon koumlzoumltt AntikTanulmaacutenyok Studia Antiqua () Cs Baacutelint A Mediterraacuteneum eacutes a Kaacuterpaacutet medence kapcsolatai a kora koumlzeacutepkori reacutegeacuteszetszempontjaacuteboacutel in G Erdei B Nagy (eds) Vaacuteltozatok a toumlrteacutenelemre Tanulmaacutenyok SzeacutekelyGyoumlrgy tiszteleteacutere Monumenta historica Budapestinensia Budapest ndash K Mesterhaacutezy Bizaacutenci eacutes balkaacuteni eredetű taacutergyak a ndash szaacutezadi magyar siacuterleletekben IFolia Archaeologica () ndash K Mesterhaacutezy Bizaacutenci eacutes balkaacuteni eredetű taacutergyak andash szaacutezadi magyar siacuterleletekben II Folia Archaeologica () ndash See alsoLangoacute Notes (as footnote ) P Langoacute Crescent shaped earrings with lower ornamentalband in F DaimJ Drauschke (eds) Byzanz ndash das Roumlmerreich im Mittelalter Peripherieund Nachbarschaft Monographien des Roumlmisch Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz ndash Bolloacutek (as footnote ) Bolloacutek (as footnote ) A Alfoumlldi A kereszteacutenyseacuteg nyomai Pannoacuteniaacuteban a neacutepvaacutendorlaacutes koraacuteban in J Sereacutedi(ed) Emleacutekkoumlnyv Szent Istvaacuten kiraacutely halaacutelaacutenak kilencszaacutezadik eacutevforduloacutejaacuten Budapest ndash D Csallaacuteny Византийские монеты в аварских находках Acta Archaeologica Aca-demiae Scientiarum Hungaricae () ndash idem A bizaacutenci feacutemművesseacuteg emleacutekei IIBizaacutenci csatok csatveretek Antik Tanulmaacutenyok Studia Antiqua ndash () ndash idem By-zantinische Schnallen und Guumlrtelbeschlaumlge mit Maskenmuster Acta Antiqua Academiae Scien-tiarum Hungaricae () ndash For distinguishing between Byzantine artifacts and Avar

F Curta East Central Europe the gate to Byzantium 27

vak literature Eacuteva Garamrsquos monograph and later studies by the Hungarian ar-chaeologist Tivadar Vida and the Slovak archaeologists Jozef Zaacutebojniacutek and Vla-dimiacuter Turčan have primarily focused on the influx of Byzantine artifacts into theCarpathian Basin their chronology and regional distribution⁹⁹ In Poland an

imitations see F Daim Der awarische Greif und die byzantinische Antike Uumlberlegungen zueinem fruumlhmittelalterlichen Motiv in H FriesingerF Daim (eds) Typen der Ethnogeneseunter besonderer Beruumlcksichtigung der Bayern Veroumlffentlichungen der Kommission fuumlr Fruumlhmit-telalterforschung Vol Vienna ndash F Daim Zu einigen byzantinischen Mo-tiven in der awarischen Kunst in F DaimK KausP Tomka (eds) Reitervoumllker aus demOsten Hunnen + Awaren Burgenlaumlndische Landesausstellung Schloszlig Halbturn April Oktober Eisenstadt ndash F Daim Byzantinische Guumlrtelgarnitu-ren des Jahrhunderts in Mezhdunarodnaya konferenciya ldquoVizantiya i Krymrdquo Sevastopolrsquo iunia g Tezisy dokladov Simferopolrsquo ndash F Daim Byzantinische und awari-sche Voumlgel Zum Kulturtransfer zwischen dem Mediterraneum und dem Karpatenbecken in JHenning (ed) Zwischen Byzanz und Abendland Pliska der oumlstliche Balkanraum und Europaim Spiegel der Fruumlhmittelalterarchaumlologie Frankfurt am Main ndash F Daim lsquoByzanti-nischersquo Guumlrtelgarnituren des Jahrhunderts in F Daim (ed) Die Awaren am Rand der byzan-tinischen Welt Studien zu Diplomatie Handel und Technologietransfer im FruumlhmittelalterMon-ographien zur Fruumlhgeschichte und Mittelalterarchaumlologie Innsbruck ndash F DaimByzantine belts and Avar birds Diplomacy trade and cultural transfer in the eighth century inW Pohl I WoodH Reimitz (eds) The Transformation of frontiers From Late Antiquity to theCarolingians The Transformation of the Roman World LeidenBostonCologne ndash F Daim Byzantine belt ornaments of the th and th centuries in Avar contexts in Entwis-tleAdams ldquoIntelligible Beautyrdquo (as footnote above) ndash F Daim J Chameroy et alKaiser Voumlgel Rankenwerk ndash byzantinischer Guumlrteldekor des Jahrhunderts und ein Neufundaus Suumldungarn in DaimDrauschke Byzanz (as footnote above) ndash F Daim BBuumlhler Awaren oder Byzanz Interpretationsprobleme am Beispiel der goldenen Man-telschlieszlige von Dunapataj in T Vida (ed) Thesaurus Avarorum Reacutegeacuteszeti taacutenulmanyokGaram Eacuteva tiszteleteacutere Budapest pp ndash Falko Daimrsquos work is now continuedby Birgit Buumlhler B Buumlhler Is it Byzantine metalwork or not Evidence for Byzantine craftsman-ship outside the Byzantine Empire (th to th centuries AD) in F Daim J Drauschke (eds) By-zanz ndash das Roumlmerreich im Mittelalter Teil Welt der Ideen Welt der Dinge Monographien desRoumlmisch Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz ndash B Buumlhler Zur Identifi-zierung ldquobyzantinischerrdquo Feinschmiedearbeiten mithilfe herstellungstechnischer Studien unterbesonderer Beruumlcksichtigung von Funden aus dem awarischen Siedlungsgebiet in B Boumlhlen-dorf-Arslan A Ricci (eds) Byzantine small finds in archaeological contexts Byzas Istan-bul ndash Eacute Garam Funde byzantinischer Herkunft in der Awarenzeit vom Ende des bis zum Endedes Jahrhunderts Monumenta Avarorum archaeologica Budapest TVida The Byzan-tine vessels of the Avars in T KovaacutecsEacute Garam (eds) The Gold of the Avars The Nagyszentmi-kloacutes Treasure Magyar Nemzeti Muacutezeum Budapest March ndash June Budapest ndash G Kiss Peacuteldaacutek a bizaacutenci csatok hataacutesaacutera a keacutesőavar feacutemművesseacutegre in M Kiss ILengvaacuteri (eds) Egyuumltt a Kaacuterpaacutet medenceacuteben A neacutepvaacutendorlaacuteskor fiatal kutatoacuteinak VII oumlsszejouml-vetele Peacutecs szeptember ndash Peacutecs ndash G Kiss Egy bizaacutenci oumlvcsat KeszthelyDobogoacuteroacutel Zalai Muacutezeum () ndash For Slovakia see J Zaacutebojniacutek Zur Problematik

28 Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd 1082 2015 I Abteilung

early interest in early Byzantine coins has recently inspired path-breaking stud-ies of the traffic between the Mediterranean and the Baltic seas in Late Antiquityand the early Middle Agessup1⁰⁰ Only recently have efforts been made to gather allthe archaeological evidence pertaining to the presence of Byzantine material cul-ture in the Polish landssup1⁰sup1 Similarly despite the early publication of a number offinds of Byzantine coins from Bohemia and Moravia it is only recently that coins

der ldquobyzantinischenrdquo Guumlrtelbeschlaumlge aus Čataj Slowakei in F Daim (ed) Die Awaren am Randder byzantinischen Welt Studien zu Diplomatie Handel und Technologietransfer im Fruumlhmitte-lalter Monographien zur Fruumlhgeschichte und Mittelalterarchaumlologie Innsbruck ndash V Turčan Predmety byzantskeacuteho povocircdu zo ndash storočia v archeologickyacutech naacutelezochna Slovensku Byzantinoslovaca () ndash J Zaacutebojniacutek K problematike predmetov ldquoby-zantskeacuteho pocircvodurdquo z naacuteleziacutesk obdobia avarskeacuteho kaganaacutetu na Slovensku in V Turčan (ed) By-zantskaacute kultuacutera a Slovensko Zborniacutek štuacutediiacute Zborniacutek Slovenskeacuteho Naacuterodneacuteho Muacutezea ArcheoloacutegiaSupplementum Bratislava ndash E Gąssowska Bizancjum a ziemie poacutełnocno zachodnio słowiańskie we wczesnym średnio-wieczuWrocławWarsawCracowGdańsk J Iluk The export of gold from the Roman Em-pire to barbarian countries from the th to the th centuries Muumlnstersche Beitraumlge zur antikenHandelsgeschichte () ndash M Salamon The Byzantine gold coin found at Żoacutełkoacutew(Southern Poland) and the problem of lightweight solidi in Central Europe Notae numismaticae () ndash R Ciołek Skarb złotych monet z Mrzezina (Gm Puck) a zespoacuteł z BrzezinaGdańskiego Wiadomości Numizmatyczne () ndash J Iluk Bałtycki epizod wczesnobi-zantyskich dziejoacutew Znaleziska solidoacutew na Pomorzu Nadwiślańskim z V VI wieku in H Paner(ed) Gdańsk średniowieczny w świetle najnowszych badań archeologicznych i historycznychGdańsk ndash M Salamon Znalezisko miliarensoacutew Justyniana I z doliny RabyProacuteba interpretacji numizmatycznej in W Kaczanowicz (ed) Studia z dziejoacutew antyku PamieciProfesora Andrzeja Kunisza Prace naukowe Uniwersytetu Śląskiego w Katowicach Kato-wice ndash R Ciołek Solidusfunde in den suumldlichen Ostseegebieten in C AlfaroCMarcosP Otero (eds) XIII Congresso Internacional de Numismaacutetica Madrid Acta ndash Pro-ceedings ndash Actes Madrid ndash MWołoszyn Monety bizantyńskie z VIndashVII ww Polsce na tle środkowoeuropejskim in P Kaczanowski M Parczewski (eds) Archeologia opoczątkach Słowian Materiały z konferencji Krakoacutew ndash listopada Cracow ndash M SalamonM Wołoszyn Byzantine coins from the th and the th centuryfound in Poland and their East Central European context Bulletin du cercle drsquoeacutetudes numisma-tiques () ndash idem Byzantine coins from the th and th century from Polandand their East Central European context Ways and phases contexts and functions in ABurscheR CiołekR Wolters (eds) Roman Coins Outside the Empire Ways and Phases Con-texts and Functions Proceedings of the ESFSCH Exploratory Workshop Radziwiłł Palace Nie-boroacutew (Poland) ndash September Collection Moneta Wetteren ndash MWo-łoszyn Byzantinische Muumlnzen aus dem ndash Jh in Polen in Wołoszyn Byzantine coins (asfootnote above) ndash M Wołoszyn Bizantyńskie i ruskie zabytki o charakterze sakralnym z Polski wybraneprzykłądy in S Moździoch (ed) Człowiek sacrum środowisko Miejsca kultu we wczesnymśredniowieczu Spotkania Bytomskie Wrocław ndash Wołoszyn Fundstuumlcke (asfootnote above)

F Curta East Central Europe the gate to Byzantium 29

and other categories of the archaeological evidence of Byzantine culture in thoseparts of East Central Europe have received systematic treatmentssup1⁰sup2

A number of conclusions derive from this recent explosion of scholarshipsome of which are of great significance for the topic of this paper For exampleit has become clear that northern Poland or the region known as Pomeraniawas a gateway for a flow of late Roman and early Byzantine solidi which inthe late 5th and early 6th century reached as far north across the Baltic Sea asSweden In Pomerania finds of such coins cluster within a narrow coastalarea between the rivers Parsęta and Wieprza around the present-day city of Kos-zalin There are more gold coin finds in Pomerania than in all Scandinaviancountries combined The flow of solidi into Pomerania lasted for about fiftyyears and during this period Pomerania played the role of intermediary for con-tacts between Scandinavia and the south Bornholm for example received alllate Roman and early Byzantine coins from Pomerania When Pomerania stop-ped being an intermediary only a few more coins (up to the reign of Justinian)entered the Baltic region along the Elbe River It has been suggested that thecoins did not come directly from Constantinople but from Italy where theymust have been sent as subsidies for the Ostrogoths It is however possiblethat they came from the region of the Carpathian Basin to which gold coinswere equally sent from Constantinople during the second half of the fifth centuryand in the early sixth century as subsidiesWhatever their point of origin how-ever they could not have traveled all the way to the north without crossing EastCentral Europesup1⁰sup3 Since no hoards are known from East Central Europe that

J Kučer Naacutelezy byzantskyacutech minciacute z a stol v Poděbradech Numismatickyacute sborniacutek

( ) M Jančo Naacutelezy riacutemskych a byzantskyacutech minciacute v zbierke Mestskeacuteho Muacutezea vČelaacutekovciach Germaacutenske osiacutedlenie severnej časti okresu Praha vyacutechod v dobe riacutemskej a sťaho-vaniacute naacuterodov Archeologie ve středniacutech Čechaacutech () ndash J Militkyacute Finds of Romanand early Byzantine gold coins on the territory of the Czech Republic Slovenskaacute Numizmatika

() ndash J Militkyacute Finds of the early Byzantine coins of the th and the th century inthe territory of the Czech Republic in Wołoszyn Byzantine coins (as footnote above) ndash J Militkyacute Finds of Greek Roman and early Byzantine coins in the territory of the CzechRepublic I Bohemia Collection Moneta Wetteren For archaeology see N Profan-tovaacute Naacutelezy byzantskeacuteho původu z ndash stoletiacute z Českeacute respubliky teze in V Turčan (ed)Byzantskaacute kultuacutera a Slovensko Zborniacutek štuacutediiacute Zborniacutek Slovenskeacuteho Naacuterodneacuteho Muacutezea Archeoloacute-gia Supplementum Bratislava ndash N Profantovaacute Byzantskeacute naacutelezy v ndash stolv Čechaacutech a na Moravě in P Charvaacutet P Mařiacutekovaacute Vlčkovaacute (eds) Země Koruny českeacute a vyacutechodniacuteStředomořiacute ve středověku a novověku Prague ndash Balcaacuterek Českeacute země (as foot-note above) R Ciołek Der Zufluss von Solidi in die suumldlichen Ostseegebiete in Wołoszyn Byzantinecoins (as footnote above) ndash For Bornholm see H W HORSNAES Late Romanand Byzantine coins found in Denmark ibid

30 Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd 1082 2015 I Abteilung

could be compared to those of Pomerania the presence of the late Roman andearly Byzantine coins in the North cannot be the result of trade which if inplace would have left some traces in the vast territory between the northern bor-der of Byzantium and the Baltic Sea shore Perhaps those were payments for al-lies or mercenaries coming from North In any case it is important to note herethat whether or not the coins came from the region the Carpathian Basin playeda mediating role between the Empire and northern Europe Judging from thepaucity of finds in Central Germany there was no alternative route throughWest Central Europe Moreover the late fifth- and sixth-century Byzantinecoins found in Central Germany most likely came from the north ie from Scan-dinaviasup1⁰⁴ By contrast an East Central European connection most likely viaHungary must be assumed for such northernmost finds as the segmental hel-met found in the 1870s in Vintala near Turku (southwestern Finland)sup1⁰⁵ Suchhelmets (the so-called Baldenheim type) were produced in imperial workshopsin the major cities of the empire such as Constantinople Kyzikos Nikomediaand Thessalonica They were part of the equipment of high-ranking officers ofthe early Byzantine army and their presence beyond the northern frontier ofthe Empire is a clear indication of elevated social status and special relationswith Byantium Several such helmets have been found in burial assemblagesin Hungary and Slovakia and the specimen from Finland may have well comefrom the Carpathian Basin as wellsup1⁰⁶ One can only guess what the nature of

E Droberjar A propos des contacts entre lrsquoempire drsquoOrient et les Germains de lrsquoElbe auVIe siegravecle in V IvaniševićM Kazanski (eds) The Pontic-Danubian realm in the period ofthe Great Migration Monographies ParisBelgrade and Belt buckles withplates decorated with cloisonneacute or cabochons which are believed to be of Mediterranean originappear in graves in Thuringia but such buckles were most likely obtained from the Merovingianarea to the west The Baldenheim type helmets from Stoumlszligen and from an unknown location inMecklenburg must have come directly from Italy J Luoto Pari kansainvaellusajan aseistuksen erikoispiirrettauml Karhunhammas ()ndash K Boumlhner Zur Herkunft der fruumlhmittelalterlichen Spangenhelme in J Pavuj (ed) Actesdu XII e Congregraves international des sciences preacutehistoriques et protohistoriques Bratislavandash septembre Bratislava ndash D Quast Byzantinisch-gepidische Kon-takte nach im Spiegel der Kleinfunde in E IstvaacutenovitsV Kulcsaacuter (eds) International con-nections of the Barbarians of the Carpathian Basin in the st th centuries AD Proceedings ofthe International Conference held in in Aszoacuted and NyiacuteregyhaacutezaMuacutezeumi fuumlzetek Nyiacuter-egyhaacutezaAszoacuted and fig M Vogt Spangenhelme Baldenheim und verwandteTypen Kataloge vor‐ und fruumlhgeschichtlicher Altertuumlmer Mainz B Bavant Fragmentsde casques de type Baldenheim trouveacutes agrave Caričin Grad Meacutelanges de lrsquoEcole Franccedilaise de RomeMoyen Age () ndash D Quast Einige alte und neue Waffenfunde aus dem fruumlh-byzantinischen Reich in T Vida (ed) Thesaurus Avarorum Reacutegeacuteszeti taacutenulmanyok Garam

F Curta East Central Europe the gate to Byzantium 31

the relations may have been between elites in the lands of present-day Hungaryand Finland the former must have operated as a relay for the Byzantine influ-ence from the south reaching as far as Scandinavia Relations between Scandi-navia and the Carpathian Basin are otherwise well documented in the archaeo-logical record Nils Aringberg has once suggested that a true commercial networkexisted between sixth-century Gotland and Italy in which the lands of the Ge-pids in what is now Hungary played a major rolesup1⁰⁷ An equal-armed broochfound in a female grave of the contemporary cemetery of Szentes-Nagyhegy inHungary is a typical specimen of the animal Style I (phase B) in eastern SwedenTo the same direction points the buckle accidentally found at Gyula near thepresent-day Romanian-Hungarian border The buckle was certainly producedin Scandinavia in a style strikingly similar to local fibulae decorated in animalStyle I Finally the square-headed brooch with foot-plate bar which wasfound in burial no 73 at Szolnok-Szandaszoumllloumls is one of the few continentalspecimen of a purely Scandinavian series of the early 500ssup1⁰⁸ Pace Aringbergsuch finds cannot be associated with trade but with contacts of non-commercialnature ndash gift-exchange with or without exogamy ndash as well as traveling crafts-mensup1⁰⁹ The same interpretation may be applied to finds of amethyst beads

Eacuteva tiszteleteacutere Budapest For finds of segmental helmets and barbarian elites see KBoumlhner Die fruumlhmittelalterlichen Spangenhelme und die nordischen Helme der VendelzeitJahrbuch des RGZM () ndash D Glad The Empirersquos influence on barbarian elitesfrom the Pontus to the Rhine (thndashth centuries) a case study of lamellar weapons and segmen-tal helmets in IvaniševićKazanski Pontic-Danubian realm (as footnote above) ndash N Aringberg Den historiska relationen mellan folkvandringstid och Vendeltid Kungl Vitter-hets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien Stockholm and ndash According to M Nagy Aacutellataacutebraacutezolaacutesok eacutes az I germaacuten aacutellatstiacutelus a Koumlzeacutep Duna videacutekenMonumenta germanorum archaeological Hungariae Budapest ndash the Szentes Na-gyhegy and Szolnok Szanda fibulae as well as the Gyula buckle are in fact imitations of speci-mens from Scandinavia That however does not impinge upon the argument presented here forin order for such imitations to exist in the Middle Danube region a number of specimens had tobe brought in the first place from Scandinavia F Curta The making of the Slavs History and archaeology of the lower Danube region cndash Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought th ser CambridgeNew York calls the Szolnok fibula a ldquouniquerdquo continental specimen In fact such fibulaehave been found on several sites along the Lower Danube in both Bulgaria and Serbia Evenif some of them are apparently locally produced imitations the models they copied musthave initially come from Scandinavia See A Stanev Елементи от германския фибулен кос-тюм на Юг от Ддунав По археологически данни от балканските провинции на Източ-ната Римска империя VndashVI век Sofia ndash For the fibula from Szentes see MNagy Szentes eacutes koumlrnyeacuteke az szaacutezadban Toumlrteacuteneti vaacutezlat eacutes reacutegeacuteszeti lelőhelykataszterMoacutera Ferenc Muacutezeum Eacutevkoumlnyve Studia Archaeologica () ndash and fig Forthe Gyula buckle see D Csallaacuteny A szentes nagyhegyi gepida siacuterlelet () eacutes reacutegeacuteszeti kapc-

32 Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd 1082 2015 I Abteilung

from Swedenwhich appear especially during the Vendel periods 2 and 3sup1sup1⁰ Suchbeads appear suddenly in Scandinavia around 600 However no such finds areknown from Finland Aringland and Gotland even though all three areas have pro-duced evidence of contacts with the Mediterranean region and with ByzantiumThe amethyst beads originated from the mines in Upper Egypt and after 600they became high fashion in Europe from Hungary to England and SwedenIn Hungary however they first appear in assemblages of the Early Avar ageie dated between 570 and 630 and are not known from the otherwise abun-dant archaeological record of the remainder of the sixth centurysup1sup1sup1 The slightchronological lag between the Hungarian and the Swedish specimens stronglysuggests that the latter reached the north via East Central Europe even thoughan Italian intermediary cannot be completely excluded This interpretation is fur-ther substantiated by the analysis of other finds Ever since the late fifth centurycontacts have been established between the Carpathian Basin and the southernand southeastern Baltic Sea regionsup1sup1sup2 An eagle-headed buckle most likely madein Hungary was found in a cremation burial in Stare Kosewo a sixth-centurycemetery in Mazuria (northeastern Poland)sup1sup1sup3 Connections between Mazuriaand Hungary are also documented for the Early Avar age namely for the early

solatai Archaeologiai Eacutertesitoumlő () and pl For the fibula from Szolnok see IBoacutena M Nagy Gepidische Graumlberfelder am Theiszliggebiet I Monumenta Gepidica Budapest ndash fig pl pl J Ljungkvist Influences from the Empire Byzantine related objects in Sweden and Scan-dinavia ndash ndash AD in DaimDrauschke Byzanz (as footnote above) ndash A Paacutesztor Ergebnisse der typochronologische Untersuchung awarenzeitlicher Perlen-funde in Ungarn Perlentracht in der Fruumlh und Mittelawarenzeit Antaeus ndash () See also A Paacutesztor A Csaacutekbereacuteny orondpusztai avar kori temető gyoumlngyleleteinek tipokrono-loacutegiai vizsgaacutelata Savaria A Vas megye muacutezeumok eacutertesitője (ndash) ndash withpl A Bliujienė F Curta Exotic lands quixotic friends Eastern Lithuania and the Carpathi-an Basin in the Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages (c to c )Medieval Archaeology () ndash V I Kulakov Mogilrsquoniki zapadnoi chasti Mazurskogo Poozeria konca V nachala VIII vv (pomaterialom raskopok g) Barbaricum () and fig See also M Rud-nicki Zespoacuteł zabytkoacutew z grobu w Kosewie Uwagi ponad lat po odkryciu in AUrbaniakR Prochowicz (eds) Terra barbarica Studia ofiarowane Magdalenie Mączyńskiej w rocznicę urodzin Monumenta archaeological barbarica series gemina ŁoacutedźWarsaw ndash For further evidence of contacts between Mazuria and the Carpathian Basinduring the second half of the th century and in the early th century see V Hilberg MasurischeBuumlgelfibeln Studien zu den Fernbeziehungen der voumllkerwanderungszeitlichen Brandgraumlberfeld-er von Daumen und Kellaren Schriften des archaumlologischen Landesmuseum Neumuumlnster ndash

F Curta East Central Europe the gate to Byzantium 33

seventh centurysup1sup1⁴ A belt buckle of the Syracuse class from Malbork (northeast-ern Poland) may illustrate the continuation of those contacts into the seventhcenturysup1sup1⁵ The Syracuse class of buckles was named after the site in Sicilywith the first known finds but buckles of this class have been found in Constan-tinople and on various sites in western Turkey Syria Cyprus and Egyptsup1sup1⁶ Theyalso appear on sites in the Crimea in association with artifacts most typical forthe first decades of the seventh centurysup1sup1⁷ On the basis of metallographic anal-

M Rudnicki Uwagi na temat niektoacuterych form zawiesek z terenu grupy olsztyńskiej in ABitner-WroacuteblewskaG Iwanowska (eds) Bałtowie i ich sąsiedzi Marian Kaczyński in memori-am Seminarium Bałtyjskie Warsaw ndash M Rudnicki Ażurowa tarczka z KielarPrzyczynek do badań nad dalekosiężnymi powiązaniami grupy olsztyńskiej Światowit () ndash M Sekuła Ocalałe zabytki pochodzące z badań niemieckich na cmentarzysku w MalborkWielbarku w zbiorach muzeoacutew polskich in W NowakowskiA Szela (eds) Pogranicze trzechświatoacutew Kontakty kultury przeworskiej wielbarskiej i bogaczewskiej w świetle materiałoacutew zbadań i poszukiwań archeologicznych Światowit Supplement series P Warsaw fig J Werner Byzantinische Guumlrtelschnallen des und Jahrhunderts aus der SammlungDiergardt Koumllner Jahrbuch fuumlr Vor‐ und Fruumlhgeschichte () For the first finds see POrsi Sicilia bizantina Rome and fig left F Maurici Ancora sulle fibbieda cintura di etagrave bizantina in Sicilia in RM Carra Bonacasa (ed) Byzantino-Sicula IV Attidel I Congresso internazionale di archeologia della Sicilia bizantina (Corleone luglio agos-to ) Quaderni Palermo For other finds see MV Gill The small finds inRM Harrison (ed) Excavations at Saraccedilhane in Istanbul Princeton ndash and fig U JC Waldbaum Metalwork from Sardis the finds through Archaeological Ex-ploration of Sardis Cambridge Mass and pl ndash K Neeft Byzantijnsegespen en riembeslag in Amsterdam Vereniging van Vrienden Allard Pierson Museum Amster-dam Mededelingenblad () and fig E Prokopiou Βυζαντινές πόρπες από τηνΑμαθούντα και την Παλαιά Συλλογή του Κυπριακού Μουσείου in D ChristouD Pileidou etal (eds) Η Κύπρος και το Αιγαίο στην αρχαιότητα από την προϊστορική περίοδο ως τον οαιώνα μ Χ Λευκωσία ndash Δεκεμβρίου Nicosia and fig J RussellByzantine lsquoinstrumenta domesticarsquo from Anemurium the significance of the context in RLHohlfelder (ed) City town and countryside in the early Byzantine era East European Mono-graphs Boulder Ch Eger Eine byzantinische Guumlrtelschnalle von der Krim inder Sammlung des Hamburger Museum fuumlr Archaumlologie Materialy po arkheologii istorii i etnog-rafii Tavrii () and E Riemer Romanische Grabfunde des ndash Jahrhunderts in Ita-lien Internationale Archaumlologie Rahden claim that no such buckles have beenfound in Spain However at least one is known from the cemetery excavated at Puig Rom nearGirona See W Ebel-Zepezauer ldquoByzantinischerdquo Guumlrtelschnallen auf der Iberischen Halbinselin C Dobiat (ed) Festschrift fuumlr Otto Herman Frey zum Geburtstag Marburger Studien zurVor‐ und Fruumlhgeschichte Marburg N I Repnikov Некоторые могильники области крымских готов Izvestiya imperator-skoy arkheologicheskoy kommissii () ndash EVVeimarnA I Aibabin Скалистинскиймогильник Kiev fig I I Loboda Новые раннесредневековые могиль-

34 Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd 1082 2015 I Abteilung

yses of both buckles and miscasts Aleksandr Aibabin has advanced the ideathat the buckles of the Syracuse class found in Crimea may have been producedtheresup1sup1⁸ However it is unlikely that the specimen from Malbork came from theCrimea The European distribution map of all known finds suggests insteadthat it came from the Carpathian Basin whether or not some at least of thespecimens found in assemblages from that region came from Italy or from thesouthern Balkanssup1sup1⁹ Moreover buckles of the Syracuse class found in southernand western Germany also came from the Carpathian Basin and not from ItalyTheir distribution in central Europe reminds one of the distribution map of theearliest Avar-age stirrups in that same region of the continent which demon-strates that specimens found as far west as the Rhine valley or as far south asthe valley of the Upper Danube are outliers of the main cluster of finds in west-ern Hungarysup1sup2⁰ The earliest stirrups of ldquoWesternrdquo Europe those from Budenheimand Regensburg were either brought from the Avar qaganate as booty or as giftsor local imitations of stirrups in use at that time among Avar warriors

To many the notion of Avars being at the gates of Byzantium conjures theimage of Avars and Persians besieging Constantinople in 626sup1sup2sup1 That the Avarsmay have been the gate of Byzantium and as such mediated the spread of

ники в Юго-Западном Крыму (Бахчисарайский район) Sovetskaya Arkheologiya A I Aibabin О производстве поясных наборов в раннесредневековом Херсоне So-vetskaya Arkheologiya see also VB Kovalevskaya Поясные наборы Евразии

IVndashIX вв Пряжки Arkheologiya SSSR E Moscow The claims of DG TeodorPiese vestimentare bizantine din secolele VI VIII icircn spaţiul carpato dunăreano pontic ArheologiaMoldovei () and W Martini C Steckner Das Gymnasium von Samos Das fruumlh-byzantinische Klostergut Samos Bonn according to which buckles of the Syra-cuse class were produced in specialized workshops in Italy and Constantinople respectivelyhave no support in the archaeological evidence M Schulze-Doumlrrlamm Byzantinische Guumlrtelschnallen und Guumlrtelbeschlaumlge im Roumlmisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Teil I Die Schnallen ohne Beschlaumlg mit Laschenbeschlaumlg undmit festem Beschlaumlg des bis Jahrhunderts Kataloge vor‐ und fruumlhgeschichtlicher Altertuumlmer Mainz fig F Curta The earliest Avar age stirrups or the ldquostirrup controversyrdquo revisited in F Curta(ed) The other Europe in the Middle Ages Avars Bulgars Khazars and Cumans East Centraland Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages ndash LeidenBoston and fig See also V La Salvia La diffusione della staffa nellrsquoarea merovingia orientale alla luce dellefonti archeologiche Temporis signa Archeologia della tarda antichitagrave e del medioevo ()ndash V La Salvia Germanic populations and steppe people An example of the integra-tion of material cultures The diffusion of the stirrup in the eastern Merovingian area Chronica () ndash See M Hurbanič Historiografia k avarskeacutemu uacutetoku na Konštantiacutenopol roku Konštan-tinove listy () ndash

F Curta East Central Europe the gate to Byzantium 35

the Byzantine influence to Central and Western Europe is unfathomable Afterall were they not barbarians nomads primitive and Asian on top of thatHow could barbarian nomads have mediated the influence of a superior civiliza-tion namely that of Byzantium onto the rest of Europe to which they could notpossibly have belongedsup1sup2sup2 Leaving irony aside archaeologists studying theAvars could not really make the case for the contrary for ever since 2003when Hungary joined the European Union they have been busy documentingWest European influences on the Avarssup1sup2sup3 A few non-Hungarian archaeologistswho tackled the problem have concluded that what looks like Avar influence onldquoEast Frankishrdquo military equipment and tactics must in fact have been borrowed

This is in fact why despite their differences in terms of stirrups and feudalism both LynnWhite and Bernard Bachrach rejected the possibility of such devices being introduced to Europeby the primitive nomads If they agreed on anything that was the idea that the Avars got thestirrups from the Byzantines and not the other way around Both historians then had WesternEuropeans getting the stirrups directly from Byzantium without any Avar mediation See LTWhite Medieval technology and social change Oxford and B Bachrach CharlesMartel mounted shock combat the stirrup and feudalism Studies in Medieval and RenaissanceHistory () B Bachrach A picture of Avar-Frankish warfare from a Carolingian Psalterof the early ninth century in light of the Strategikon Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi () The stereotype of Avars as barbarians has been incessantly repeated in textbooks of medievalhistory in use in American universities and colleges See for example R Collins Early Medi-eval Europe nd ed New York B TierneyS PainterWestern Europe in the MiddleAges ndash th edition New York ndash AD Frankforter The Medieval Millen-nium An introduction Upper Saddle River The pertinent remarks of W POHL A non-Roman empire in Central Europe the Avars in HW Goetz J Jarnut W Pohl (eds) Regna andgentes The relationship between late antique and early medieval peoples and kingdoms in thetransformation of the Roman world The Transformation of the Roman World LeidenBoston ndash seem to have fallen on deaf ears TVida Reconstruction of a Germanic noble womanrsquos costume (Koumllked Feketekapu B grave) in G Fusek (ed) Zbornik na počest Dariny Bialekovej Archaeologica Slovaca monogra-phiae Communicationes Nitra ndash idem Az avar kori meroving tiacutepusuacute korong-fibulaacutek AWosinsky Moacuter Muacutezeum Evkoumlnyve () ndash I Szentpeacuteteri A BarbaricumboacutelPannoniaacuteba (Germaacuten katonai segeacutedneacutepek a korai Avar Kaganatuacutes koumlzpontyaacuteban) ArchaeologiaCumanica () ndash L Schilling An Avar-period Germanic brooch from Taacutec Foumlveny-puszta in D Quast (ed) Foreigners in early medieval Europe Thirteen international studies inearly medieval mobility Monographien des RGZM Mainz ndash G Csiky Saxe imawarenzeitlichen Karpatenbecken in TVida (ed) Thesaurus Avarorum Reacutegeacuteszeti taacutenulmanyokGaram Eacuteva tiszteleteacutere Budapest ndash Long before Hungarian archaeologists pickedup the topic it has been tackled by J Zaacutebojniacutek K vyacuteskytu predmetov zaacutepadneacuteho pocircvodu napohrebiskaacutech z obdobia avarskej riacuteše v Dunajskej kotline Slovenskaacute Archeoloacutegia ()ndash idem Zur Frage der Kontakte der noumlrdlichen Peripherie des awarischen Khaganatsmit den westlichen Gebieten A Wosinsky Moacuter Muacutezeum Evkoumlnyve () ndash

36 Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd 1082 2015 I Abteilung

directly from the Byzantines or the Lombardssup1sup2⁴ However Peacuteter Somogyirsquos su-perb analysis of the Byzantine coins found within the area of the Avar qaganatesuggests a different interpretation of the relations between the Avars and theirneighbors to the westsup1sup2⁵ In his recent dissertation Somogyi has drawn attentionto a group of light-weight solidi struck for Emperor Heraclius (MIB 64 616ndash625)One specimen is known from Żoacutełkoacutew in southern Poland and may well have ar-rived there via the Avar qaganatesup1sup2⁶ Much more interesting however is the dis-tribution of those coins in the lands to the west from the qaganate A recent anal-ysis of 187 5th- to 8th-century Byzantine coins from the southern part of present-day Germany and the surrounding regions in France Switzerland Austria andthe Czech Republic has noted that many specimens struck for Justinian and Ti-berius II cluster in the northern Upper Rhine and the Lower Main region Onlycoins of Heraclius and Constans II appear in the eastern part namely alongthe Upper Danube Those coins judging from the great number of specimensfrom the mint in Constantinople do not seem to have entered the region fromItaly Moreover Joumlrg Drauschke notes clear similarities with the situation fartherto the east within the Avar qaganate which according to him points to early

Uvon Freeden Awarische Funde in Suumlddeutschland Jahrbuch des RGZM () ndash M Schulze-Doumlrrlamm Awarische Einfluumlsse auf Bewaffnung und Kampftechnik des ost-fraumlnkischen Heeres in der Zeit um in M Mode J Tubach (eds) Arms and armour as indi-cators of cultural transfer The steppes and the ancient world from Hellenistic times to the earlyMiddle Ages Nomaden und Sesshafte Wiesbaden ndash P Somogyi Byzantinische Fundmuumlnzen der Awarenzeit Monographien zur Fruhgeschichteund Mittelalterarcha ologie Innsbruck idem Uacutejabb gondolatok a Bizaacutenci eacutermeacutek avarfoumll-di elterjedeacuteseacuteről Numizmatikai megjegyzeacutesek Baacutelint Csanaacuted koumlzeacutep avar kor kezdeteacutere vonatkozoacutevizsgaacutelataihozMoacutera Ferenc Muacutezeum Evkoumlnyve Studia Archaeologica () ndash idemByzantinische Fundmuumlnzen der Awarenzeit Eine Bestandaufnahme ndash Acta Archae-ologica Carpathica ndash (ndash) ndash idem New remarks on the flow of Byzan-tine coins in Avaria and Walachia during the second half of the seventh century in Curta Theother Europe (as footnote above) ndash idem Neue Uumlberlegungen uumlber den Zustrom by-zantinischer Muumlnzen ins Awarenland (numismatischer Kommentar zu Csanaacuted Baacutelints Betrach-tungen zum Beginn der Mittelawarenzeit) Antaeus ndash () ndash idem Die Imita-tivsolidi des Heraclius (ndash) von Zrmanja Kroatien Eine Neubewertung VjesnikArheološkog Muzeja u Zagrebu () ndash idem Byzantinische Fundmuumlnzen in derAwarenforschung eine Forschungsgeschichte von den Anfaumlngen bis zum Jahre Moacutera Fer-enc Muacutezeum Evkoumlnyve Studia Archaeologica () ndash Salamon Byzantine gold coin (as footnote above) P Somogyi Byzantinische Fund-muumlnzen der Awarenzeit Ergebnisse und Moumlglichkeiten PhD Dissertation Eoumltvoumls Loraacutend Tu-domaacutenyegyetem Budapest and According to Somogyi most early Byzantinecopper coins from Poland also came from the Avar qaganate

F Curta East Central Europe the gate to Byzantium 37

seventh-century contacts between Bavarians and Avarssup1sup2⁷ Peacuteter Somogyi tookthat conclusion even farther The careful examination of all light-weight solidiof Heraclius found across Europe from Hungary to England via the Rhinelandand Frisia shows that those Byzantine coins came from the Avar qaganate Tojudge from the existing evidence the Avars obtained the coins from stipendsfrom Constantinople and then redistributed them farther to the west Somogyibelieves that the middlemen were the Bulgars who in the aftermath of the civilwar in the Avar qaganate took refuge in Bavaria an event mentioned in the so-called Chronicle of Fredegar Parts of the Bulgar hoard consisting of coins ob-tained from Constantinople were then distributed across the trade network link-ing Bavarians to the Alamanni Frisia and the Anglo-Saxon worldsup1sup2⁸ Somogyirsquosnumismatic demonstration is impeccable but leaving aside the premise thatgold coins moved across Europe by means of trade to accept his historical inter-pretation one would have to accept also that there was nothing more to the con-tacts between Bavarians and Avars than the episode of 631632 In reality a num-ber of observations made by different authors about different categories ofarchaeological evidence strongly suggest that those contacts were far from epi-sodic and entailed a much more complex network of relations between elitesA number of gold or bronze earrings with croissant-shaped pendant and open-work ornament have been found in Bavaria mostly in the so-called Rupertiwin-kel area between Salzburg and Munich as well as sporadically along the UpperDanube Most assemblages with such dress accessories have been dated aroundor shortly after 600sup1sup2⁹ At least two of those earrings (those from Petting andSteinhoumlring) must have been manufactured in the Mediterranean region andmost likely came from Byantium because of the casting and ornamental techni-ques employed (opus interrasile) for which there is no parallel in Bavariasup1sup3⁰However since all Italian parallels to those earrings are from Sicily and no

J Drauschke Byzantinische Muumlnzen des ausgehenden bis beginnenden Jahrhundertsin den oumlstlichen Regionen des Merowingerreiches in Wołoszyn Byzantine coins (as footnote above) ndash and Somogyi Byzantinische Fundmuumlnzen (as footnote above) and ndash map See B Kruch (ed) Fredegar Chronicle IV MGH rer Mer Hannover J Drauschke Halbmondfoumlrmige Goldohrringe aus bajuwarischen Frauengraumlbern Uumlberle-gungen zu Parallelen und Provenienz in DaimDrauschke Byzanz (as footnote above) and fig M Schulze-Doumlrrlamm Der Handel mit byzantinischen Metallwaren aus archaumlologischerSicht (Guumlrtelschnallen Frauenschmuck Zaumzeug Bronzegefaumlsse) in E Kislinger J KoderAKuumllzer (eds) Handelsguumlter und Verkehrswege Aspekte der Warenversorgung im oumlstlichen Mit-telmeerraum ( bis Jahrhundert) Akten des internationalen Symposiums Wien ndash Ok-tober Vienna

38 Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd 1082 2015 I Abteilung

finds are known from northern Italy it is likely that that they reached Bavariathrough the Avar qaganate much like the light-weight solidi of Emperor Hera-clius and quite possibly at about the same time So far 8 specimens are infact known from Hungary 6 of which are of goldsup1sup3sup1 The distribution of findsin Bavaria matches that of stirrups which are without any doubt of Avar originAt the very least therefore the archaeological evidence thus confirms Somogyirsquosconclusions based exclusively on coins But it also suggests a re-evaluation ofthe role of East Central Europe as Vermittler between East and West Not onlywas ldquoAvariardquo in contact with Bavaria around AD 600 but it seems to have oper-ated as a gateway through which Byzantine artifacts reached Central and West-ern Europe

The contacts howeverwere ephemeral and nothing indicates that they con-tinued past the middle of the seventh century It has already been suggested thatafter that date Byzantine coins and artifacts continued to enter ldquoAvariardquo if onlyin much smaller numbers and most likely from Italy not through the Balkanssup1sup3sup2

Unlike the previous period however very few of them moved farther afield Theonly exception is in the northeastern and not western direction A belt mount ofthe Brestovac-Weiden am See type found in Bołeslawiec in Lower Silesia wasmost likely manufactured in the eastern Mediterranean region at some point dur-ing the second half or the final third of the 8th century Its closest analogy wasfound in Blatnica (Slovakia)sup1sup3sup3 To my knowledge this is the only artifact of Mid-dle Byzantine origin so far found in East Central Europe outside the region ofthe Avar qaganate through which however it may have gone to reach itsfinal destination That no other Byzantine artifacts or coins are known to havepassed through ldquoAvariardquo on their way to Central Western or Northern Europeis definitely not a function of the diminishing influence of Avar culture Morethan 20 years ago Naďa Profantovaacute has gathered the evidence of Avar-age ar-tifacts in East Central Europe primarily in Moravia Bohemia and Polandsup1sup3⁴ Thenew finds have confirmed her conclusion namely that the largest number of ar-

Garam (as footnote ) ndash Drauschkersquos conclusion according to which an Avar con-nection must be excluded is problematic because its premise is that no relations existed be-tween Bavarians and Avars (Drauschke Goldohrringe as footnote above ) Coins Somogyi New remarks (as footnote above) ndash Artifacts Daim Byzan-tine belt ornaments (as footnote above) ndash Daim lsquoByzantinischersquo Guumlrtelgarnituren (as footnote above) and

figs ndash F Daim Avars and Avar archaeology in GoetzJarnutPohl Regna and gentes(as footnote above) N Profantovaacute Awarische Funde aus den Gebieten noumlrdlich der awarischen Siedlungs-grenzen in F Daim (ed) Awarenforschungen Studien zur Archaumlologie der Awaren Vienna ndash

F Curta East Central Europe the gate to Byzantium 39

tifacts may be dated to the Late Avar period namely to the second half of the 8th

century thus coinciding in time with the Bołeslawiec mountsup1sup3⁵ But Avar artifactsoccasionally moved beyond the ldquoperiphery of the qaganaterdquo as Profantovaacute haslabeled the territory of the distribution of Late Avar artifacts in the present-dayCzech Republic and in Polandsup1sup3⁶ At the beginning of the 20th century Julius Ai-liorsquos excavation of a cemetery in Perniouml-Paarskylauml (southern Finland) have led tothe discovery of a cremation grave associated with handmade potsherds a frag-ment of a bronze strap end a belt buckle a fragment of a bifurcated pin andanother of a wheel-shaped bronze ornamentsup1sup3⁷ Of all those artifacts the strapend is the most remarkable find as it turns out to be a specimen of Stadlerrsquosclass 7120 most certainly produced in Hungary in the eighth century as indicat-ed by the distribution of all 8 analogies known so farsup1sup3⁸ One is reminded of thefragment of a Baldenheim-type helmet from Vintala but the 8th-century findfrom Finland has no connection with Byzantium

The gate to Byzantium

It is time to draw some conclusions from this survey of the archaeological andhistorical evidence of contacts between East Central Europe and ByzantiumAsn expected relations were closer when the Empire was closer namely atthe Danube ndash first in the 6th and early 7th century and then in the 11th and 12th

centuries During the gap between the early and the later periods relationswere sporadic but Byzantine artifacts and coins continued to enter East CentralEurope ndash a few buckles in the 8th century book-shaped amulets and rare albeitantique ivories in the 9th century and solidi in the 10th century During all thistime however Byzantium was farther away separated from East Central Europe

N Profantovaacute Awarische Funde in der Tschechischen Republik ndash Forschungsstand undneue Erkenntnisse Acta Archaeologica Carpathica () J Poleski Awarische Fundein Polen Zur Frage der Gestaltung von Kulturzonen bei den Westslawen in der zweiten Haumllftedes Jhs Anfang des Jhs Acta Archaeologica Carpathica () Profantovaacute Funde (as footnote above) ndash AM Tallgren Miten on eraumlaumln avaarilaisen esineen loumlytyminen Suomesta seliettaumlvauml Suo-men museo () ndash N Fettich Uumlber die ungarlaumlndischen Beziehungen der Funde vonKsp Perniouml Tyynelauml Suumldwestfinnland Eurasia Septentrionalis Antiqua () ndash For thestrap end see also EM Kivikoski Die Eisenzeit Finnlands Helsinki and pl P Stadler Quantitative Studien zur Archaumlologie der Awaren I Mitteilungen der Prahistor-ischen Kommission Vienna CD ROM database type lists analogies fromKeszthely Koumlroumlslaacutedaacuteny and Tiszafuumlred The first to claim that the Perniouml strap was an artifactproduced in Hungary was Fettich Beziehungen (as footnote above)

40 Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd 1082 2015 I Abteilung

by the northern and central Balkans The main difference however between theearlier and later periods on one hand and the 8th- to 10th-century gap on theother hand is neither the quantity nor the nature of the goods entering the re-gion from the south across the Danube but the fact that in both the earlier andthe later periods Byzantine goods moved farther afield The earrings and thegold coins around 600 crossed the Carpathian Basin moved along the UpperDanube then the Rhine and reached as far as England At about the sametime amethyst beads moved north to Scandinavia Similarly East Central Eu-rope received pectoral crosses in the 11th century relics and theological worksin the 12th century some of which went even farther to the west and to thenorth It is during the later period and because of intensified interactions causedby pilgrimage routes and crusades that the region even gained a reputation inCentral and Western Europe for striving to imitate Byzantium in both a positiveand a negative sense

Yet not everything moved up the East Central European channel Even attimes of closer contact with Byzantium the region seems to have retainedsome thingswhile allowing others to continue moving In the 6th or early 7th cen-tury no balances weights monogram rings bronze vessels strainers glassbeakers or belt buckles of the Corinth or Balgota classes are known to havemoved up the Danube river into Bavaria and farther afield Similarly Orthodoxmonasticism is not known to have spread in the 11th or 12th century outside theborders of the kingdom of Hungary either to the west or to the north and theearly 13th-century Latin translation of the passion of St Demetrius made orused in Hungary did neither replace the earlier translation nor made the cultof saint more popular in the Catholic West That East Central Europe retainedsome of the Byzantine goods entering the region without passing them downthe line of transmission is of course not a unique feature of the regionrsquos relationswith Byzantium In the 6th century few amber beads coming into the Carpathianfrom the Baltic coast were allowed to pass further which has been interpreted asan indication that amber may have been used at that time as marker of groupidentity in the Middle Danube regionsup1sup3⁹ The same may well be true for someof the elements of Byzantine material culture that were retained in that same re-gion during the 6th and early 7th century

Contrary to earlier opinions on this matter almost all things Byzantine enter-ing Europe through its East Central region did so not by means of trade but asgifts bribes or other forms of exchange between the imperial government and

F Curta The amber trail in early medieval Eastern Europe in F Lifshitz C Chazelle (eds)Paradigms and methods in early medieval studies New York ndash

F Curta East Central Europe the gate to Byzantium 41

the local elitessup1⁴⁰ Unlike Rusrsquo there were no imports into East Central Europe ofamphorae carrying wine or olive oil) or of glasswaresup1⁴sup1 Byzantine coins of the12th and early 13th century appear only sporadically inside the region and werehoarded only on its southern peripheriessup1⁴sup2 On the other hand the strong asso-ciation between Hungary and Byzantium established in the late 11th and 12th cen-tury in the minds of at least some Westerners strongly suggests that when medi-ating between Byzantium and the rest of Europe East Central Europe did somore in the direction of the Balkans than in that of Italy Byzantine goods en-tered the region from Italy only at specific times in the Middle Ages such asin the 8th century when the route from Constantinope to the Danube wasblocked Unlike Italy which was Byzantine at least in part until the 11th centuryEast Central Europe effectively operated as a gate to Byzantium

A gate is a structure that can be swung drawn or lowered to block an en-trance or a passageway Between the 6th and the early 13th century East CentralEurope was a regional filter for Byzantine influences on Europe In that respectit was significantly different from Italy in that what was allowed to pass wasoften a function of a particular political situation while what was retainedwas quickly assimilated without long-term consequences Mutatis mutandisthere was no Byzance-apregraves-Byzance in East Central Europe for the regionseems to have been perceived as an alternative and not as a part of the Byzan-tine Commonwealth That may in fact explain why with the notable exception ofHungarian historians scholars in East-Central European countries were so latein turning their attention to Byzantium and why ultimately East Central Europeto this day remains a marginal topic in Byzantine studies

Schulze-Doumlrrlamm (as footnote above) Contra AR Lewis The Danube routeand Byzantium ndash in M BerzaE Stănescu (eds) Actes du XIV e Congregraves internation-al des eacutetudes byzantines Bucarest ndash septembre Vol Bucharest For imports of Byzantine wine and oil into Rusrsquo see TS NoonanRK KovalevWine andoil for all the Rusrsquo The importation of Byzantine wine and olive oil to Kievan Rusrsquo Acta Byzan-tina Fennica () ndash

See E Oberlaumlnder-Tacircrnoveanu Din nou despre tezaurul de monede bizantine din secolele XIIXIII descoperit la Făgăraş (jud Braşov) Studii şi comunicări () ndash E Ober-

42 Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd 1082 2015 I Abteilung