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Hozzáadhatod e lapot a kedvencekhez
Tarsolybearers’ Homepage
Hungarian    The tarsoly cover plate of Tarcal    English
Hozzáadhatod e lapot a kedvencekhez

Leather tarsoly

 

 

 

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No professionals were present at the uncovering, so the lack of accessories of three graves is most doubtful.
The tarsoly cover plate of Tarcal
Photo: József Hapák, data: Ancient Hungarians, Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum 1996

Provenance:
Grave No. 4., Tarcal, Rima hill, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county.

Discovery of the finding:
During wine planting, in the autumn of 1894. No professional archaeologist was present at the uncovering of the four graves.

Material:
Copper backplate, silver gilt foreplate, the two plates held together with the rivets on the silver ribbon border.

Size:
134x124 mm.

Preparation method:
It must have been made in one of the major gold workshops of the upper Tisza region. The main contours of the design were engraved and carefully chased. The background was hammered down and gilded.

 
Detail of the tarsoly cover plate of Tarcal
Photo: József Hapák, data: Ancient Hungarians, Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum 1996
 
Drawing of the tarsoly cover plate of Tarcal
József Huszka: History of the Magyar Turanian Ornamentation

Artwork:
The plate is decorated with a design of looped tendrils enclosing bunches of palmettes. The leaves are edged with hatching, while the veins are marked by an engraved line, finished off and flanked by small circles. The ribbon border is engraved with hatched bands combined with dot-terminalled lines and a palmette bunch in the centre on top and at the base. The suspension and closing straps were fixed to the plate at the two ends of the symmetrical axis of the plate, where the backplate is detached from the frontplate along a 2.8 cm long section. The strap was fixed between the two plates by two pairs of silver rivets. Closest analogies to this tarsoly cover plate are the one of Kiskunfélegyháza and Túrkeve.

Usage:
The traces of heavy wear and signs of repair indicate that the tarsoly plate had undergone considerable use. Its bearer must have been a high-ranking man in the princely retinue.

Inventory number:
Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum, Budapest - 8/1895.74.

Literature:
 Hampel 1900, 702; 1905, 596-598; Fettich 1937, 73-74.

Detail of a former map
The provenance of the tarsoly finding can be found on this map detail of Zemplén county from 1915.
Source: Map-collection of the National Széchényi Library of Budapest

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