Ein Goldboot und sein Umfeld: die Miniaturenkette von Szilágysomlyó

Abstract

In 1797, a remarkable golden chain with miniature pendants was found in what was then Hungarian Szilágysomlyó, the present-day S¸imleul Silvaniei in Romania. This chain is today in the holdings of the Antiquities Department of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It was part of a treasure also including at least fourteen Roman medallions, set as pendants, as well as four pieces of Germanic-style jewellery and ring gold. The most prominent miniature is that of a manned boat, the largest object on the chain and attached at its centre. Altogether the chain’s extant miniatures, numbering fifty-two, form a unique ensemble mirroring the far-flung Germanic world of the Migration Period with its multifarious temporal and spatial interrelationships. This article is based on the book by the author entitled 'Die Miniaturenkette von Szilágysomlyó' (Bonn, 1994), containing black-and-white drawings of all of the chain's components on a scale of 2:1. The text appearing here is a strongly abridged version of that work, updated to reflect the current state of research. It has been supplemented with an expanded and exhaustively illustrated section on the boat miniature. The colour photos are here published in their entirety for the first time.