Tarsal plates

The tarsoly was a typical piece of clothing worn by men carrying weapons during the Hungarian Conquest, in which they kept their everyday objects. The lid of the tarsolys, which were typically made of leather, was sometimes decorated with bronze or gilded silver inlays, and sometimes with a continuous precious metal tarsoly plate. According to some opinions, the tarsoly decorations were badges of honor for the nobles in the service of the princely family. Only a few dozen of this special 10th-century group of objects are known to archaeology, most of them were found in the Upper Tisza region, Transdanubia, and the Upper Highlands. Our volume contains the catalogue of the 2022 exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum entitled Tarsolylemezek - A honfogláló elit kincsei and summary studies written about the finds. The authors of the volume outline the historical and social context of the tarsoly ornaments, reconstruct the time and manner of use of the objects, their territorial distribution, and their art historical motifs and parallels. A separate study is devoted to two sensational new finds, which were discovered during the excavations at Páty-Malom-dűlő in January-February 2022.