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Earrings
Earrings must have been an essential accessory for ancient Hungarians judging from the frequency with which they are recovered. They have been found in both male and female conquest era graves of all social layers. The majority of finds indentified as earrings have been from graves also identified as female, but that may be caused by the difficulty with positively identifying ornaments in male graves as either earrings or "lock-rings", ornaments threaded into the hair.
Lockrings, temple rings, ear rings - how do we know how a particular object was worn? I guess the short answer is that we don't. A leathery bit of ear pierced by an earring would be pretty conclusive, but soil conditions don't allow that. Archaeologists use the location of the artifact, related to the position of the skeleton to aid in identification of objects.
I think that some earrings and lock rings are interchangable. The same object could have been worn in the ear or in the hair depending on the gender of the wearer. In general, earrings have a thinner upper wire loop, one end of which was solidly fixed to the earring, the other end was open and filed to a point.
| Hajdúdorog-Gyúlás |
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The most commonly recovered type of earring were simple loops of wire, sometimes this loop had a single bead threaded onto it. Metals used in the earrings are bronze or silver, or more rarely, gold. Beads can be made of either metal, glass paste, shell, pearls or semi-precious stones such as carnelian and fluorite.
Bead Row Pendant Style
| Karos II |
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grave 27
L. 9.8cm |
An earring style commonly recovered from Conquest Era graves are "bead row pendant" earrings. This is one of the older types of earring. In fact, it is speculated that the Magyar brought it with them upon their migration into Carpathian Basin. Similar earrings have been recovered in the Don region. Early versions featured a pendant of small round beads strung on a wire and interspersed with wire coils of bronze or silver. Tracing of gilding has been identified on some of the coiled wire beads. This pendant was then suspended from an oval loop of wire, the upper portion of which had a soldered prong possibly used to hold another bead.
The image at left was drawn from the earring found in grave 27 of the Karos-Eperjesszög II cemetery (Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county) and is dated to the last years of the 9th century through the mid-10th century. This style of earring appears to have been quite popular among the inhabitants of this community.
| Sándorfalva |
 |
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grave 16
Silver gilt
L. 9.8cm |
grave 64
Silver gilt
L. 5.8cm |
Later versions of bead row pendant earring type were cast either in part or entirely in metal. This heavier style of earring has been recovered in grave finds from the the second half of the 10th century. One pair, found in grave 16 of the Sándorfalva (Csongrád county) cemetary (pictured at right), were discovered lying on either side of the skull. This is pretty much where you might expect them to be. They are cast silver, with gilt decorations in the center tear-shaped design. A second pair, recovered from grave 64 of the same excavation effor, a female burial, were found separately. One earring was placed next to the skull, the second placed near the center body of the skeleton.
Though this particular cemetary has been identified as a belonging to the free middle class, cast bead pendant earrings have also been recovered from noblewomen's graves at other excavation sites.
Grape Bunch Pendant Style
| Przemysl |
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grave 2
Silver
4.3 X 2.9 cm |
Another type of Magyar earring of the Conquest is descriptively referred to as grape bunch pendant earrings. Grape bunch pendant earrings have been found in the grave goods of several excavation sites both in- and outside modern day Hungary.
The grape bunch style of earring is characterized by a circular loop of metal wire, onto which metal beads, sometimes with granulations, are fixed at more or less evenly spaced intervals. The base of the earring usually has a larger spike-like pendant that, to archaeologists, somewhat resembles a stylized bunch of grapes. The upper loop is soldered into place on one side; the other side is unattached.
| Tokaj |
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Silver
W. 5.8 cm |
Lunular Style
Lunular style earrings appear rarely in Conquest Era burials, though there are several instances of a single lunular neck pendants being found.
The lunular style earring pictured at right dates from the earlier half of the 10th century and was fashioned from sheet silver. The edges are outlined with decorative metal braid and the three points have hollow round finials. Though only two are drawn, the base had four or five loops from which additional ornamentation could be strung.
I think it's possible that these earrings may also have been used as temple pendants, similar to the way women of the early Rus wore them.
Byzantine
| Kecel |
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grave 1
Gold
4.7 X 3.9 cm |
Conquest Era Magyars had a stormy love/hate relationship with Byzantium. Byzantium, on the other hand, was busy setting the various nomadic tribes against each other. Regardless of their on-again off-again alliance, Byzantium was always the arbiter of fashion. Their craftsmanship was certainly at its finest in the 10th century, as demonstrated by the gold earring at left. This pair of earrings was recovered from a late 10th century female burial. It is thought that they found their way to a magyar grave as part of Byzantines annual tribute or through a Hungarian raid.
Crafted from sheet gold, gold wire and gold granulation, the ring-shaped openings once were inset with pearls as was the flat semi-circle in the base of the work.
| Nagyteremia |
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Bronze gilt
4 X 3 cm |
The Byzantine style of ornamentation was widely imitated with somewhat less skill and in less precious materials.
This pair of triangular earrings, made of gilded bronze and in the Byzantine style, are missing their ear loops. There are three unseen loops in the base from which additional pendants depended. The round hollows once contained glass paste. Filigree wire fills the rest of the space on the piece. A row of small tubes outline the frame.
Further Reading
The majority of the information in this article was taken from The Ancient Hungarians, an 1996 exhibition book published by the Hungarian National Museum. This is an essential book every Magyar living history enthusiast should own.
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