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A Ewer from Nagyszentmiklós

An Archer Riding a Mythical Beast, Hunting


p21, ELI - 030 - D.Nicolle, A.McBride - Attila and the Nomad Hordes.
The gold ewer from the Nagyszentmiklos Treasure remains a mystery. Is it Germanic Goth from the time of the Great Migrations, early Hungarian, 10th century Khazar, or made north of Iran in the 8th-9th century? The armoured horseman has a segmented helmet with a separate coif or aventail, a full mail hauberk with splinted arm and leg defences similar to those seen in early Scandinavia or Anglo-Saxon England. But limb armour was also common in early medieval Transoxania, Armenia and the Muslim world. Neither this mailed rider nor the horse-archer uses stirrups but the latter may wear quilted soft armour and has headgear like the stylized 'infidel' turbans shown in Byzantine Russian art. This, and the decoration, suggest the ewer was made under early Islamic, Byzantine and Turkish influences in the Caucasus region between the 7th and 10th centuries. (Kunsthistorisches Mus., VII.B33, Vienna)

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