Seuso sweetheart

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Dionysus or Bacchus wine can from the Seuso treasure

The Seuso treasure is a hoard of table silver from the late Roman period . It consists of 14 late Roman silver objects and a large copper cauldron in which they were found. The entire treasure consists of various objects of daily use in extremely artistic execution. However, it is unclear how the treasure belongs together. Individual pieces of the treasure could also have been collected by chance by collectors.

The circumstances of the find are unclear, several states have claimed the find. Until March 2014, all 14 known silver vessels were owned by a consortium led by Spencer Compton, 7th Marquess of Northampton , since 2017 all 14 pieces have been in Budapest.

Composition of the treasure

The find consists of 4 plates, 5 jugs, 2 small buckets, a bowl, a gillo , a box and the copper kettle in which the treasure was found. The 14 pieces can be divided into groups that distinguish their use. The 4 plates served representative purposes, but they were also used for eating. The amphora and the Dionysus jug were used for drinking, the animal jug for washing. The two geometric jugs and the bowl make up a washing set and the three objects with the Hippolytos myth and the box belong in the field of personal hygiene. It should be added that the various objects are not all made in the same workshop, but some can be combined as sets, e.g. B. the objects with the Hippolytos myth. Furthermore, the question arises as to whether the plates were all made in a workshop or whether one plate served as a model for the others.

The tableware is dated on the basis of iconographic studies of the representations on the vessels in late Roman times, from the second half of the 4th century to the first half of the 5th century AD. A plate shows the mythological hunter Meleager and thus shows parallels to other mythological ones Hunting representations on late Roman representative silver. The young Achilles is depicted on another bowl , similar to the depiction on the Achilles plate from the silver treasure of Kaiseraugst , which also comes from the late Roman period. Seuso's silverware, like those of Kaiseraugst, could have been made in Greece.

Inscriptions

The middle medallion of the hunting plate with the inscription.
A Christ monogram (consisting of the Greek letters Χ and Ρ) is also found in the dedication inscription near the mention of the name Seuso.

The treasure is named after a dedication to Seuso (SEVSO) , a historically inexplicable head of the family, to whom the richly decorated tableware was apparently given as a gift. The dedication is on the central medallion of the hunting plate. The Latin inscription on the outer ring of the middle medallion begins with a Christogram, which is followed by a Latin epigram in the form of an elegiac distich . This reads:

H (a) ec Sevso tibi durent per saecula multa posteris ut prosint vascula digna tuis

Translation: "May this last you, Seuso, for many ages, so that the small vessels still serve your descendants worthily."

As with many other decorations of this treasure, the eponymous inscription with niello has been immortalized in the silver. In total there are at least 14 inscriptions in Latin and Greek on the various objects. These inscriptions indicate either the names of possible owners or the value of the object and its weight. What is certain is that at least 3 owners are named. These include Seuso / Sevso, Syrianus and Syrikanos, where Syrianus and Syrikanos were found on the geometric plate and thus possibly name earlier owners of this piece. How many inscriptions are on the pieces is not known, because the individual pieces were partially left in their original state during the restoration work. This means that it is not clear whether there are other hallmarks on the pieces.

Belonging together of the vessels

Based on the corrosion on the individual plates of the treasure, it can be said with great probability that these pieces have been together in the same environment for a very long time. On the basis of imprints on the bottom and on the sides of the copper kettle, it is possible to reconstruct exactly how the individual objects were stacked in the kettle. You are only one hundred percent sure about the plates. Due to the marks and the corrosion on the individual plates themselves, one can say that all plates were placed with the foot up. At the bottom is the Meleager plate. The geometric plate was on top of it. On the geometric plate the Achilles plate and finally the hunting plate. Furthermore, there were also impressions on the individual plates. On the top of the geometric plate there is a circular imprint with an approximate diameter of 19 cm, on which the base of the Meleager plate fits exactly. The pressure exerted by the foot of the Achilles plate and other objects on the hunting plate also caused various damage to the hunting plate. The remaining items from the find were most likely then stacked on top of these 4 plates. The only thing that is certain is that the 4 plates were definitely buried together in the kettle. In the case of the other objects, it is only assumed that they were also in the boiler.

Traces of silver abrasion in the boiler were also examined to ensure that the vessels had actually been in the copper container for around 1,600 years. The composition of tiny traces of earth on the silver was also analyzed using an X-ray diffractometer .

Age of the treasure

Traces of soot on the copper kettle in which the silver treasure was kept were examined using accelerator mass spectrometry . Tiny traces of the carbon isotope 14 C can be isolated. Using the C14 method , the soot was dated to the second half of the 4th century AD. The dating of the cauldron is decisive for the time the treasure was deposited. Everything indicates that the silver was hidden as early as the end of the 4th century and not, as was originally stated, not until the 7th century during the fighting with the Arabs in what is now Lebanon .

Unclear origin

During an exhibition of the treasure in 1983 in the Paul Getty Museum in California , which wanted to buy the pieces, the Hungarian archeology professor János György Szilágyi noticed the inscription Pelso on one of the pieces. Pelso was the name of a lake in the Roman province of Pannonia , which today is mostly identified with Lake Balaton , but sometimes also with Lake Neusiedl . Szilágyi made the museum aware that the treasure could have come from Hungary. It later emerged that the papers identifying Lebanon as the country of origin had been forged. Nevertheless, Lebanon is also making claims to the find, which the Lebanese authorities believe to have come from the area of ​​the historic cities of Sidon and Tire .

Hungary as a place of discovery

According to Hungarian authorities, however, the treasure is said to have been found in the Polgárdi-Szabadbattyán-Kőszárhegy area in Fejér County, northeast of Lake Balaton. Officially, the Hungarian authorities cannot rule out a connection with the death of the 24-year-old quarry worker József Sümegh, who died in 1980 under mysterious circumstances. Many see him as the discoverer of the silver treasure. Because soon afterwards the silver vessels appeared in the international art trade.

The excavations of the largest single Roman building in Hungary to date also took place in Szabadbattyán. The archaeologists see a connection with the Seuso treasure. The palace-like building was destroyed at the end of the 4th century, probably during an attack by groups of warriors who were marching through Pannonia at that time. The building must have been completely cleared prior to the attack as no art objects were found in the rubble. In contrast, rich wall paintings came to light during the excavations. In Hungary it is believed that the building is the palace depicted on one of the pieces of the silver treasure.

An indication of the Hungarian origin seems to be given by a quadripus, a four-legged base for vessels, which was found in Polgárdi in 1874. A bowl from the Seuso treasure fits exactly in the size of this quadripus, which is kept in the Hungarian National Museum. The quadripus is also made of pure silver, its inscription and the decorative motif are identical to those of the Seuso treasure.

As early as 1990, the archaeologist Endre Tóth and his colleague Mihály Nagy argued for the treasure's Hungarian origin. In 2007, the archaeologist Zsolt Mráv appeared in the television documentary Time Team of the British broadcaster Channel 4 to reiterate this claim, and for the online journal The Antiquaries Journal , the archaeologist Zsolt Visy again described the history and attitude from the point of view of Hungarians in 2010.

transfer

The first pieces from the treasure appeared in Vienna at the end of 1980 in the possession of the coin dealer Anton Tkalec. The Austrian citizen Tkalec, who was born in Belgrade, brought in the antiques dealer Halim Korban, who was also active in Vienna, in order to get in touch with the international art market. On November 24, 1980, a single piece was flown to London via Zurich and presented to the former chairman of the Sotheby’s auction house , Peter Wilson , via the art dealer Rainer Zietz . After an investigation by experts from the British Museum , it turned out that it was late Roman table silver. To finance the purchase of the art treasure, Wilson contacted the Marquess of Northampton, whom he had already advised on the auction of a collection of Greek amphorae from the family owned by Sotheby's. Individual amphorae, including the Northampton amphora , had a price of up to half a million dollars. Lord Northampton was legally represented by Peter Mimpriss from Allen & Overy.

Originally, Anton Tkalec stated that he had acquired the treasure in his former homeland, Yugoslavia . Later, however, Halim Korban specified Lebanon as the place of discovery. In 1983 ten of Lord Northampton's silver vessels were offered for sale at the J. Paul Getty Museum in California and exhibited there. However, after research by experts at the museum, the Lebanese export licenses turned out to be fake. The museum then refused the purchase.

In 1990 the treasure, now 14 pieces, was to be auctioned by Sotheby's in New York. Sotheby's notified 29 states that were on the former territory of the Roman Empire about the auction. The states of Hungary, Lebanon and the former Yugoslav Croatia protested against the sale and claimed the provenance of the find from their area. The silverware was confiscated by order of a New York court. As a result of the efforts of the Hungarian government, seven pieces of the treasure and the cauldron were returned to Budapest on March 26, 2014, according to a report by the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, where they were initially on display in an exhibition in the Budapest Parliament. After further negotiations, the remaining seven pieces came to Budapest at the end of June 2017 and were also exhibited in the Budapest Parliament until the end of August 2017.

literature

  • Marlia Mundell Mango: The Seuso Treasure Find. An ensemble of western and eastern art . In: Antike Welt , 21, 1990, pp. 70-88.
  • Marlia Mundell Mango: The Sevso Treasure Hunting Plate . In: Apollo (London) July 1990, pp. 2-13.
  • Marlia Mundell Mango, Anna Bennett: The Sevso Treasure (= Journal of Roman Archeology , Supplement 12). 1994.
  • Ruth E. Leader-Newby: Silver and Society in Late Antiquity. Functions and Meanings of Silver Plate in the Fourth to Seventh Centuries. Aldershot, Ashgate, 2004, pp.? - ?.
  • Leo V. Gagion, Harvey Kurzweil, Ludovic de Walden: The Trial of the Sevso Treasure: What a Nation Will Do in the Name of Its Heritage . In: Kate FitzGibbon (ed.): Who Owns the Past? Cultural Policy, Cultural Property and the Law . Rutgers University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-8135-3687-1 , pp. 83-95 Google Books .
  • Zsolt Visy, Zsolt Mráv (ed.): A Seuso-kincs és Pannónia. Magyarországi tanulmányok a Seuso-kincsről / The Sevso treasure and Pannonia: scientific contributions to the Sevso treasure from Hungary. GeniaNet, Pécs 2012, ISBN 978-963-89394-4-9 .

Web links

Commons : Seuso treasure  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Zsolt Visy (quoted below) has collected the information about other possible related pieces.
  2. ↑ A distich , see e.g. Bence Fehér, Pannonia latin nyelvtörténete , Budapest 2007, pp. 43–44.
  3. ↑ The Seuso case .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Pester Lloyd , January 17, 2008, No. 01–03, 2008 (German)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.pesterlloyd.eu  
  4. ↑ terasz.hu Pictures from the excavations in Szabadbattyán
  5. ↑ Seuso treasure . ( Memento of the original from November 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 392 kB) In: Neue Zeitung - Ungarndeutsches Wochenblatt, 35/2002 (German) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.neue-zeitung.hu
  6. ↑ At the beginning, in the 19th century, restored as a tripus. The current form s. www.terasz.hu .
  7. ↑ No Comment by Bonhams on Reported Sevso Hoard Sale .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. culture.hu, March 13, 2007@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.culture.hu  
  8. ^ Mihály Nagy, Endre Tóth: The Seuso Treasure Mystery. The Pannonian Connection? In: Minerva 1, No. 7, Sept. 1990, pp. 4-11. Mihály Nagy, Endre Tóth: Is the Seuso Treasure from Hungary? In: Minerva 1, No. 10, 1990, pp. 22-23.
  9. ^ Time Team Special: The Mystery of the Roman Treasure. British television documentary on Channel 4 . First broadcast in 2008, The Mystery of the Roman Treasure in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  10. ↑ Zsolt Visy: Contributions to the Archeology of the Seuso Treasure In: The Antiquaries Journal (online journal in English) sal.org.uk  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved July 23, 2011.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.sal.org.uk  
  11. ↑ a b scratches in the boiler . In: Der Spiegel . No. 9 , 1990, pp. 242 ( online ).
  12. ↑ The former owner received 15 million euros as compensation for his previous costs, see p. mandiner.hu .
  13. ↑ www.kormany.hu ( Memento of the original from March 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. and www.szepmuveszeti.hu with images of the finds. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kormany.hu