The discovery of an unusual early medieval buckle in Czechia has allowed researchers to make a connection with three almost identical objects. A new study reveals where and why they were made.
The latest discovery was made by archaeologists from Masaryk University during a dig near the village of Lány u Břeclavi in the southern part of Czechia (Czech Republic). They unearthed a bronze belt fitting from the 8th century AD depicting a snake devouring a frog-like creature.
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Fighting a dragon or a snake is one of the basic motifs in cosmogonic world creation myths of many different cultures, while the interaction between the frog and the snake can be linked to fertility cult practices. However, they soon realized that other artefacts with identical depictions had been found in different parts of central Europe, hundreds of kilometres apart. They point to the existence of a previously unknown pagan cult that connected diverse populations of varying origins during the early Middle Ages. Their research has just been published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
The four buckles – photo courtesy Masaryk University
The artefacts were unknown until 2012-3 when articles were published about finds at Iffelsdorf, Germany, and at Zsámbék in Hungary. The researchers then learned about a third buckle, which was also found in Czechia.
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“When the belt with the motif of a snake devouring a frog was discovered with the help of metal detectors at the site near Břeclav in southern Moravia, we thought it was a rare find with a unique decoration,” says Jiří Macháček, head of the Department of Archaeology and Museology at the Masaryk University. “However, we later found that other nearly identical artefacts were also unearthed in Germany, Hungary and Bohemia. I realised that we were looking at a previously unknown pagan cult that linked different regions of central Europe in the early Middle Ages, before the arrival of Christianity. That is why we organised an international research team to study the artefacts in detail.
To analyse the Lány belt fittings and other similar artefacts, the researchers used state-of-the-art methods such as X-ray fluorescence analysis (EDXRF), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), a lead isotope analysis and 3D digital morphometry. Photo courtesy Masaryk University
“The motif of a serpent or snake devouring its victim appears in Germanic, Avar and Slavic mythology. It was a universally comprehensible and important ideogram. Today, we can only speculate about its exact meaning, but in the early Middle Ages, it connected the diverse peoples living in Central Europe on a spiritual level.”
Map of Central Europe in the 8th century AD where the buckles were discovered – image courtesy Journal of Archaeological Science / CC BY 4.0 DEED
According to archaeologists, the Lány u Břeclavi artefact belongs to a group called Avar belt fittings, which were produced in Central Europe in the 7th and 8th centuries AD and were part of the costume of the Avars, originally a nomadic people who settled in the Carpathian Basin in what is now Hungary. Their fashion was often adopted by neighbouring peoples, such as the Slavs.
In the article, the researchers note how the ‘snake-eating-frog’ motif could be connected to the pre-Christian Slavic beliefs:
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In Slavic mythology, the dragon or snake played a prominent role. The Slavic and Baltic god of the underworld, of cattle and war called Veles/Velnias transformed himself into a snake. Another deity worshipped by Slavs was the female Mokosh, associated with water. In the cult of this goddess of fertility water and spinning played a central role. A fight with a dragon or a snake is the basic myth and repetition of creation, the counterpoint between two opposing forces representing the central act of cosmogonic and fertility myth. The scene of the snake devouring the frog-like creature, in which Veles is represented by the snake and Mokosh by the frog, could represent such an act.
Backsides of the high-resolution 3D belt ends models and their reporting value. 1. Bydžov (CZ), 2. Iffelsdorf (GER), 3. Zsambek (HU), 4. Lány (CZ) – image courtesy Journal of Archaeological Science / CC BY 4.0 DEED
The researchers also found some other interesting details about the buckles:
Stefan Eichert of the Natural History Museum in Vienna carried out a material and technological analysis which revealed that the majority of these bronze fittings were originally heavily gilded and produced using the lost-wax casting method.
Ernst Pernicka of the University of Tübingen, using a chemical analysis of the lead isotopes contained in the bronze alloy, identified a common source of the copper from which all the discovered fittings were made – the copper used for the production of Avar bronzes was mined in the Slovak Ore Mountains.
A morphometric analysis based on 3D digital models carried out by Vojtěch Nosek of Masaryk University also suggests that some of the fittings came from the same workshop or were derived from a common model.
The article, “Copper-alloy belt fittings and elite networking in Early Medieval Central Europe,” by Jiří Macháček, Stefan Eichert, Vojtěch Nosek and Ernst Pernicka, appears in the Journal of Archaeological Science. Click here to read it.
Top Image: 3D Scan Comparison of two of the buckles – image courtesy Journal of Archaeological Science / CC BY 4.0 DEED
The discovery of an unusual early medieval buckle in Czechia has allowed researchers to make a connection with three almost identical objects. A new study reveals where and why they were made.
The latest discovery was made by archaeologists from Masaryk University during a dig near the village of Lány u Břeclavi in the southern part of Czechia (Czech Republic). They unearthed a bronze belt fitting from the 8th century AD depicting a snake devouring a frog-like creature.
Fighting a dragon or a snake is one of the basic motifs in cosmogonic world creation myths of many different cultures, while the interaction between the frog and the snake can be linked to fertility cult practices. However, they soon realized that other artefacts with identical depictions had been found in different parts of central Europe, hundreds of kilometres apart. They point to the existence of a previously unknown pagan cult that connected diverse populations of varying origins during the early Middle Ages. Their research has just been published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
The artefacts were unknown until 2012-3 when articles were published about finds at Iffelsdorf, Germany, and at Zsámbék in Hungary. The researchers then learned about a third buckle, which was also found in Czechia.
“When the belt with the motif of a snake devouring a frog was discovered with the help of metal detectors at the site near Břeclav in southern Moravia, we thought it was a rare find with a unique decoration,” says Jiří Macháček, head of the Department of Archaeology and Museology at the Masaryk University. “However, we later found that other nearly identical artefacts were also unearthed in Germany, Hungary and Bohemia. I realised that we were looking at a previously unknown pagan cult that linked different regions of central Europe in the early Middle Ages, before the arrival of Christianity. That is why we organised an international research team to study the artefacts in detail.
“The motif of a serpent or snake devouring its victim appears in Germanic, Avar and Slavic mythology. It was a universally comprehensible and important ideogram. Today, we can only speculate about its exact meaning, but in the early Middle Ages, it connected the diverse peoples living in Central Europe on a spiritual level.”
According to archaeologists, the Lány u Břeclavi artefact belongs to a group called Avar belt fittings, which were produced in Central Europe in the 7th and 8th centuries AD and were part of the costume of the Avars, originally a nomadic people who settled in the Carpathian Basin in what is now Hungary. Their fashion was often adopted by neighbouring peoples, such as the Slavs.
In the article, the researchers note how the ‘snake-eating-frog’ motif could be connected to the pre-Christian Slavic beliefs:
In Slavic mythology, the dragon or snake played a prominent role. The Slavic and Baltic god of the underworld, of cattle and war called Veles/Velnias transformed himself into a snake. Another deity worshipped by Slavs was the female Mokosh, associated with water. In the cult of this goddess of fertility water and spinning played a central role. A fight with a dragon or a snake is the basic myth and repetition of creation, the counterpoint between two opposing forces representing the central act of cosmogonic and fertility myth. The scene of the snake devouring the frog-like creature, in which Veles is represented by the snake and Mokosh by the frog, could represent such an act.
The researchers also found some other interesting details about the buckles:
The article, “Copper-alloy belt fittings and elite networking in Early Medieval Central Europe,” by Jiří Macháček, Stefan Eichert, Vojtěch Nosek and Ernst Pernicka, appears in the Journal of Archaeological Science. Click here to read it.
Top Image: 3D Scan Comparison of two of the buckles – image courtesy Journal of Archaeological Science / CC BY 4.0 DEED
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