The article deals with the bits from the early medieval period found in the cadastre of Bojná. It compares them with various exemplars found in the territory of current Slovakia. Bits were found mainly on the hillfort Valy, sporadic finds come from other two locations: II-Hradisko and III-Žihľavník. There they are represented almost all types of bits dated to the Early Middle Ages. From the typological viewpoint it is possible to divide them into three main groups, respectively to additional subgroups and variants. The exemplars were found complete, but mostly fragmentary preserved. Here the most frequent form was two-part bits with shanks, specifically variant with plastically profiled snaffle bars. We can find them also on other localities from Slovakia and Morava. They are often part of hoards. It is possible that they are domestic products, characteristic for investigated area in the 9th century. The set of bits from Bojná suggests the diversity of used types of this fundamental part of horse equipment.
This article is an interpretation of the inscription on one of the two precious gilded plaquettes, found on an archeological site of a Slavic settlement from before the Great Moravia period, located near the village of Bojná, Slovakia. The article is a reaction to P. Žigo’s interpretation of the inscription, which takes it as an abbreviation of the 1st verse of the 24th Psalm of David. Faced with another close reading accompanied by notes on historical grammar and paleography, such an interpretation becomes questionable. The text of the inscription does not have the same word order as the version of the psalm the Psalterium Sinaiticum manuscript. Moreover, Žigo fails to read correctly a preposition located here at the beginning of the 1st verse. Notes on historical grammar focus on the incorrect grammatical form used to convey a directional meaning. Two major paleographical problems of Žigo’s interpretation concern the characteristics of two reportedly Glagolitic graphemes. After taking these objective reservations into account, Žigo’s interpretation cannot be accepted.
The Valy hillfort is known especially for its finds associated with craftsmen, peasants and soldiers. The paper is devoted to objects related to work or costume attributed to women. Women in every period mainly performed and are performing a number of tasks related to the family and household. The main source of information about women’s life in the early medieval period is grave finds. In settlements were jewellery and clothing components are among the only lost finds, the presence of this gender group is documented by objects related to its characteristic work activity, especially textile production.
This article deals with the issue of form of an inscription on one of the precious gold-coated plaques from archaeological site in the village Bojná representing the original Slavic settlement from Great Moravian period, i.e. from the time of Principality of Nitra. P. Žigo interprets this inscription as a Glagolitic and sees in it an initial abbreviation of the first verse of 24th David’s Psalm. The author of this article comments this interpretation polemically relying on objective arguments from the view of textual criticism, historical grammar and palaeography. Together he introduces five fundamental problems of P. Žigo’s interpretation. The author points out two problems within text-critical notes. The first one is the discordance of the word order of discussed interpretation of the first verse of psalm in comparison to the word order of the same verse preserved in the monument known as Sinai Psalter. The second problem is an incorrect reading of the preposition at the beginning of that verse in photo type cutting from this Glagolitic monument. Historical-grammatical notes concern the problem of an incorrect grammatical form in case of use the structure „directional verb + preposition v + local“ to express the meaning of direction. The last two problems consist in an incorrect interpretation of palaeographic characteristics of the two expected Glagolitic grapheme characters. The author states that the interpretation of P. Žigo cannot be accepted based on the reasons listed above.
Alexander Ruttkay and Karol Pieta interpreted the graphemes on plaques as the Latin letters, which was confirmed also by Ľubomír Kralčák, contrary to Paul Žiga. They could deduce neither the importance of image nor text, since they did not watch the symbolic expression of the imaged situation. Just the connection between graphemes and figures leads to the interpretation of figures and text on a plaques from Bojná: Christ – plaques No. 1 and 4, Blessed Virgin – plaque No. 3, the Apostle Thomas – plaque No. 2, Seraphim – plaque No. 5 and cherub – plaque No. 6. The images correspond to the shape of the plagues, image of wings and lips, as well as the importance of plaque, which is highlighted in the Latin graphemes representing the text with a clear missionary message destined for Slavs of Great Moravia. The events just before and after the most important moments for humanity are imaged on a set of plaques, in terms of the life of Jesus Christ and his message. Pilate condemns Jesus to death and reanimated Christ shows himself to all eleven apostles. This also includes the graphemes: (E)VAVM – „Est ex eritate, Audit Vocem Meam“ (Jn 18, 37) and NDE – „Noster Dominus (or Deum) Est“. The plaques from Bojná are the authentic testimony of Christianisation of the Moravian Slavs before the arrival of the Byzantine mission led by Constantine-Cyril and Methodius. We admit that even our view of the content and hidden text of plaques may not be definite, but they cannot be even correctly deduced without the theological understanding. Just theological interpretation can stand closest to interpretation of imaged figural motifs and Latin graphemes on the plaques with full respect for knowledge summarized by archaeologists K. Pieta and A. Ruttkay. At the same time thus the arguments of Ľ. Kralčák about use of Latin graphemes as a basis for the biblical text are confirmed.
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