Nikos CHAUSIDIS

ПАТРИМОНИУМ.МК, година 12, брoj 17 / 2019 УДК: 94(495.02)“653“(049.3) (Fig. 1) Nikos CHAUSIDIS DOES THE HOARD FROM VELESTINO IN THESSALY BELONG TO THE PAGAN-SLAVIC OR CHRISTIAN-BYZANTINE CULTURE? Discussion on the occasion of the book by F. Curta and B. S. Szmoniewski, The Velestino Hoard. Casting Light on the Byzantine ‘Dark Ages’ (palgrave macmillan, 2019. pp. 237). In the year 1924, in the antiquity shops in Ath- publications - more specifically - in the area of the hill ens came about a larger number of metal plaques on Kara-Dagh/Mavro-Vouni (today known as Chalkod- whose front side depicted in relief were various an- onion). As early as the following year, Charles Vigni- thropomorphic, zoomorphic and hybrid figures, some er, a Swiss poet and collector of Asian art, presented of them with an apparent mythical character. Short- his collection of 36 such items, from which he only ly afterwards, Frank Jewett Mather, director of the put forward photographs for the bronze ones that Princeton University Art Museum, managed to buy numbered 21 specimens (Vignier 1925). Although 19 specimens of them that up to the present day are it is not known how he acquired these objects, there being kept in the same institution. According to the is no doubt that they belonged to the same group as seller’s information, these objects were discovered in those from Princeton, since they are almost identi- Thessaly, in the vicinity of Velestino (17 km north- cal to them. Ever since then, the finds from both col- west of Volos), while according to some of the first lections have been continuously followed by doubt 364 regarding their authenticity i.e. a suspicion of being research literally during my whole professional ca- falsified artifacts. In the following decades, some of reer (bibliography: Čausidis 2005, 454). The second them were published in several articles that made reason is that my articles i.e. the interpretations pre- an attempt to define the place and context of their sented within them take on a prominent place in this discovery and determine their chronological and cul- publication, with the authors repeatedly mentioning tural background. The group of twenty-one bronze them, discussing them and giving their own thoughts plaques published by Vignier in his article, was in- and opinions. In this article I will try to express my corporated in the study of Joachim Werner - a prom- thought and remarks on this book and the insights inent specialist in Early Medieval archeology, who presented within it, which, given the breadth and im- dated the objects to the 7th century AD, also linking portance of the topic, will certainly not be the last. I them to the Slavs and specifically to the Slavic tribe hope that my research so far on the specific objects of the Belegezites which in the given period, judging from this hoard, presented in different separate pub- by written sources, was settled in Thessaly (Werner lications, will soon be rounded up in one monograph, 1953). The same year, Carlo Cecchèlli published an directed primarily towards their mythological-reli- article presenting photographs of some of the plaques gious aspects. An important part of it will certainly be obtained in 1924 by Roberto Paribeni, director of the the new and very valuable information and thoughts National Roman Museum, who was in fact the first by Curta and Szmoniewski presented in this book. informant to disclose the presence of the Velesti- The remarks I direct towards them will also be ex- no finds in the antiquities market (Cecchèlli 1953). plained and argumented in more detail within it, but Among them were speciments that were not recorded also my own interperations on the content and mean- in either of the two previously mentioned collections. ing of the objects that comprise the Velestino hoard. It is not known what happened to Vignier’s collection I decided to organize the observations on this after his death in 1934. It is clear that at the end of publication not by their order within in, but according the last and the beginning of this century, a part of it, to the aspects and topics which they relate to. alongside several other up till then unknown plaques, resurfaced on the antiquities market. With that, some of the objects were bought by major world museums, Appearance and technical solutions while others were sold to unindentified private col- The monograph “The Velestino Hoard. Casting lectors. Meanwhile, objects close in form and style, Light on the Byzantine ‘Dark Ages’” has a volume were also discovered in other sites on the territory of 237 pages, organized in 10 chapters each ending of the Balkan Penninsula, Central and Eastern Eu- with footnotes and a list of used literature. The text rope, which further increased the professional pub- is accompanied by about fifty black and white and lic’s interest in the subject. During the 2010s, on the color photographs, several drawings and maps, while website of the Princeton Museum and on Wikime- its closing pages include a catalogue of the plaques, dia Commons were published photographs and basic the index and two documents relating to the chemical catalogue data on the Princeton collection (Prince- analysis of some of them. ton 2019; Velestino 2019). In one of his articles from I think that the form i.e. the appearance and differ- 2013, Florin Curta published several photographs of ent technical aspects of a monographic publication, the plaques from this collection, apparently taken though seemingly peripheral, often know to reflect during his research work in the mentioned institution the most essential and subtle features of the profes- (Curta 2013, Fig. 6 – Fig. 9).1 sional profile of the authors, but also their scientific In such a historic constellation, this spring came and cultural sensibility, as well as the motives, goals about the first monograph on the Velestino hoard and priorities set by them in relation to the particular which is the occasion and subject of this article. It is publication. And this is why I start my presentations signed by authors Florin Curta and Bartłomiej Szy- on this level of the book. mon Szmoniewski, who today are regarded as prom- From the first glance at its cover (Fig. 1) and the inent archaeologists - researchers of the Late Antique superficial leafing of the pages, the first ambiguities and Early Medieval period. and disappointments in regards to it start appearing. The motive for a detailed presentation of this The Velestino hoard is comprised of several dozen book comes as a necessity for me, first because the relief figures that are still fascinating today for their finds from the Velestino hoard have been a subject of striking archaic appearance. Almost any of them could serve as an emblem or logo of a company, in- 1 The facts stated are mainly based on the information stitution or event. That is why it remains a mystery contained in the article by Cecchèlli (Cecchèlli 1953) and to why the authors did not decide, on the cover page the second chapter of the monograph that we present here of the monograph dedicated to this hoard, place any (Curta and Szmoniewski 2019, 14-38). of its objects, but a sub-average photograph showing 365 the hands of some modern caster in the process of bronze, while others in lead. The procedure is even creating wax models for casting metal objects. Judg- further complicated by the fact that the differences ing by its cover, one would think that it is a book ded- between these “duplicates” often consist of barely icated to casting technologies, which, by the way, are noticeable inconsistencies in the contour or interior really present in the book, but just with one chapter details, some of which are mirror-shaped in regards that has a volume of about twenty pages which does to each other. But, unfortunately, I have to state here not even comprise 10 percent of the book’s contents. that, from the perspective of a reader, the authors The situation is not even better inside the book in have failed to successfully complete this attempt, at which the hoard is presented through extremely poor the very least, because of the technical flaws in the quality amateur photographs, pale, without contrast publication. All of these complex and tangled details and inadequate lighting of the plaques. This kind of can not be followed and verified due to the absece quality of theirs reduces the ability to follow and ver- in this monograph of adequate illustrative material. ify the information and interpretations undertaken in We think that for such a publication that strives for the text, as well as to experience the specific aesthet- comprehensiveness, comparative tables had to be ics, style and technique of modeling of their relief attached at all costs, which would show the differ- surfaces. Much better photographs of part of the Ve- ent variants of each particular type of plaque, albe- lestino hoard, collected in the Princeton Museum, are it being represented by old photographs taken from available today on the institution’s website (Prince- existing publications. If the obstacle to this was the ton 2019). Even more problematic is the location of purchase of rights to these photographs, the defect the illustrations in the book, that is, their absence ex- could be compensated by drawings or at least sketch- actly in the places where they are really needed. Here es of those objects. This wandering through the book we primarily have in mind the catalogue placed at the is additionally complicated with the several incorrect end of the publication where, besides the basic data signatures (p.

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