Papers by Bianka Gina Kovács
MAGYAR RÉGÉSZET, 12 (3). pp. 35-45., 2023
Az ismertetés egy a győri piactéren talált, a magyarországi régészeti anyagban kivételes, különle... more Az ismertetés egy a győri piactéren talált, a magyarországi régészeti anyagban kivételes, különlegesen magas minőségű, lüszter-technikával és kék festéssel díszített majolikaedény töredékének eredetét, keltezését és kereskedelmi kapcsolatait tárja fel. A kerámia párhuzamait nagy múzeumok gyűjteményi anyagában (Metropolitan Museum, British Museum, Louvre, stb.) lehetett fellelni, mely alapján készítési helyét és idejét is sikerült visszavezetni a 15. századi Valenciába (ma Spanyolország). Az edény a Valencia melletti Manisesben készült, s az itt végzett régészeti feltárások alapján egészen pontosan az 1430-1450-es évek közé datálható. A hispániai mór hagyományokat ápoló manisesi kerámiaműhelyek az írásos források tanúsága szerint távolsági kereskedelemre és nagyobb megrendelésekre is készítettek lüszterezett kerámiaedényeket és épületkerámiákat, ezzel befolyásolva például az itáliai majolikaműhelyek termelését. Árujuk az Aragóniai Királyság terjeszkedésével V. Alfonz nápolyi udvarában is fontos szerepet kapott. Magyarországi megjelenésére az aragóniai-magyar diplomáciai kapcsolatok nyújthatnak magyarázatot.
HUNGARIAN ARCHAEOLOGY, 12 (3). pp. 35-45. ISSN 2416-0296, 2023
This paper explores the origin, chronology, and connections of a majolica vessel found during exc... more This paper explores the origin, chronology, and connections of a majolica vessel found during excavation in the marketplace of Győr. The piece is of exceptionally high quality and counts as exceptional in the archaeological record of Hungary. It is adorned with painted cobalt blue motifs and lustre decoration. Its analogies are known from major museums' collections, including the Metropolitan Museum, the British Museum, and the Louvre. Based on these, its place and time of origin could be identified as the 15th-century Valencia in today's Spain, more specifically, Manises (now a district of Valencia) and between the 1430s and 1450s (based on the detailed chronological framework established from excavation results in the area). According to written sources, ceramic vessels and architectural ceramics were produced in Manises, a workshop following Hispanic Moorish traditions, to be exported to distant lands and on the order by noble families and princely courts, thus influencing, for instance, the majolica production of Italy. Following the expansion of the Kingdom of Aragon during the reign of Alfonso V, the Manises ware also became important in the court in Naples. The diplomatic relations between the royal courts of Aragon and Hungary can be accounted for the appearance of such a vessel in the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary.
Communicationes Archaeologicae Hungariae 2023 (2023) 215-241.
Part of a graveyard was discovered under Nagykert Street in Tata during road construction in 1979... more Part of a graveyard was discovered under Nagykert Street in Tata during road construction in 1979. Based on the find material, the graveyard was established sometime in the 11th century. Almost a third of the unearthed burials was a constructed tomb, the preference of which was characteristic of the cemeteries of Benedictine abbeys. Albeit the current scientific consensus has settled with the Benedictine abbey of Tata being somewhere in the area of today’s Fürdő Street, the evidence is not conclusive, and the newly discovered graveyard cemetery raises the possibility that the abbey stood in the area of the Nagykert Street instead.
Keywords: Middle Ages, graveyard cemetery, Árpád Age grave finds, constructed tombs, cists, Benedictine abbey
In: Sawicki, Jakub - Lewis, Michael - Vargha, Mária (Eds.): A United Europe of Things : Portable Material Culture across Medieval Europe. Cham, 2023. 97-108.
Graphite ware was a common pottery type used in the western Danube Region during the Middle Ages.... more Graphite ware was a common pottery type used in the western Danube Region during the Middle Ages. This was used in large quantities in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, along with other non-graphitic ceramics fred in a reducing atmosphere from the second half of the thirteenth century. Previously it has been thought that both these products were imported from neighbouring Austrian provinces, but recent studies have suggested that some (at least) was produced locally; this is based primarily on the signifcant survival of these ceramics in the archaeological record. Nevertheless, the strong infuence of imported goods on local pottery is still evident. This chapter examines the distribution and infuence of these pottery types in late medieval central Transdanubia (Hungary), where they also had a particularly strong infuence on local potters.
Keywords: Central Transdanubia (Hungary), Graphite ceramics, Late medieval pottery, Local pottery, Material culture, Trade networks
In: Catarina Tente - Claudia Theune (Eds.): Household goods in the European Medieval and Early Modern Countryside. Leiden, 2023. 245-257.
The Ottoman conquest of the middle part of the Hungarian Kingdom (1526-1698) brought dramatic cha... more The Ottoman conquest of the middle part of the Hungarian Kingdom (1526-1698) brought dramatic changes to the region. Part of the original population had been replaced by settlers arriving from the Balkans and the Ottoman garrisons were also mainly manned from the Balkan peninsula. Due to the empire’s declining economic situation, the smaller, rural castles had to become more or less self-sufficient, village-like settlements during the 17th century.
This paper is the first to examine some of the better-known fortresses in the rural areas of the conquered territory from a household archaeology point of view. It aims to explore the components of the households of the peasant-soldiers and their families, their functions and the archaeological remains of the objects used in various activities. Its focus is on VisegrádLower Castle (Alsóvár in Hungarian), a medieval royal seat that became an Ottoman fortified settlement and that displays typical rural characteristics. At this site, a project has just started to evaluate the finds material from the extensive excavations of the 1960s.
Keywords: Early modern period, Ottoman period in Hungary, Ottoman fortified settlements, household goods, material culture.
Magyar Régészet 2023 Tavasz (2023) 59-66.
A csókakői vár, amelyet az évszázadok során több főnemesi család, illetve hosszabb időre az uralk... more A csókakői vár, amelyet az évszázadok során több főnemesi család, illetve hosszabb időre az uralkodó is birtokolt, Árpád-kori eredetű erősségeink közé tartozik. A várban folyó mintegy két évtizedes kutatómunkának köszönhetően az épületegyüttes régészetileg szinte teljesen feltártnak tekinthető. 2022-ben egy pályázat keretében megkezdődhetett a várban előkerült óriási mennyiségű leletanyag feldolgozása. Jelen tanulmány az alsóvár egykori belső udvarán előkerült kerámiaanyag egy kisebb részét mutatja be, amely a 15. század közepére–második felére, a Rozgonyi család birtoklásának idejére keltezhető.
Kulcsszavak: csókakői vár, késő középkor, kerámia, anyagi kultúra, 15. század, petrográfia
Hungarian Archaeology 2023 Spring (2023), 58-66.
The Castle of Csókakő is one of the Hungarian forts with Árpádian Age roots. It was owned by seve... more The Castle of Csókakő is one of the Hungarian forts with Árpádian Age roots. It was owned by several prominent noble families and even the king himself for a pretty long period. In the course of the two decades of field research, the relics of the building complex have been almost entirely excavated. In 2022, a new project created an opportunity to start processing the recovered vast find material. This paper presents a minor part of the pottery found in the one-time inner courtyard of the lower castle, dating to the 15th century when the building complex was the property of the Rozgonyi family.
Keywords: Castle of Csókakő, Late Middle Ages, pottery, material culture, 15th century, petrography
In: Benkő Elek - Berta Adrián - Bondár Mária (szerk.): Hódmezővásárhely északi határa. Magyarország Régészeti Topográfiája 12. Budapest, 2022. 173-180.
Laczkó Dezső Múzeum Évkönyve 30 (2022), 269-286.
Imre Holl has already noticed that some shape attributions are connected to the colour of the pot... more Imre Holl has already noticed that some shape attributions are connected to the colour of the pottery, while he was researching the ceramic finds from Buda castle. So he classified the locally produced ceramics based on their colours. He could divide a yellow coloured group of late medieval ceramics, which imitates the forms of Austrian ceramics. This group was also identified in ceramic materials of other archaeological sites (e.g. Ozora castle, Felsőnyék castle, Székesfehérvár). Still it happens that this yellow type is identified as white ceramic. The white pottery was supposably produced on northeastern region of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. In my opinion the production area of the yellow pottery was not here. Recently I had the chance to take a look at several finds from the northeastern Transdanubia. (Most of these ceramics dated to thesecond half of the 15th century and the first half of the 16th century, so my statements concern this period.) The high proportion of this yellow pottery in this region suggest local production. This is supported by excavated pottery kilns and spoiled ceramics from surrounding area of Bajna and Kecskéd. Based on these data I think we could say that is an independent pottery region (separated from the white pottery region). The workshops of the region used the same type of clay, and produced similar shaped pottery on similar technological level. In this region I could separate minimum three workshop areas. My workshop area definition contains workshops that influenced each other and they have some typical shape variations which weren’t use by other workshops of the region. It looks like that the Vértes and Gerecse mountains had separation functions in this regard. The three workshop areas are the following: Tata-Kecskéd area (west from Gerecse, north from Vértes), Székesfehérvár-Csákvár area (south from Vértes) and Bajna area (east from Vértes). This latter could be also two individual workshop areas which need further researches. The market area of the region was much bigger than the production area.
Antaeus 37 (2021), 249-282.
LATE MEDIEVAL CERAMICS WITH STAMPED DECORATION IN CENTRAL TRANSDANUBIA Zusammenfassung: Die mitte... more LATE MEDIEVAL CERAMICS WITH STAMPED DECORATION IN CENTRAL TRANSDANUBIA Zusammenfassung: Die mitteltransdanubischen, auf der Schulter mit Rundstempeln verzierten Töpfe aus dem Zentralgebiet des einstigen Ungarischen Königreiches gehörten in erster Linie zu den charakteristischen Produkten jener Töpferei, die im Spätmittelalter gelbliche Keramik herstellten. In der Region des Vértes-Gebirges ist auf jeden Fall mit ihrer Produktion zu rechnen, allerdings könnten sie auch in der Umgebung von Buda hergestellt worden sein. Anhand der bisherigen Daten sind sie um Buda seit der zweiten Hälfte des 14. Jahrhunderts und im Vértes-Gebirge seit der ersten Hälfte des 15. Jahrhunderts belegbar. Ihre Produktion kann bis zur Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts nachgewiesen werden. Anhand der Stempelmuster sind Kontakte zwischen mehreren Fundorten belegen zu können. Auf dem Untersuchungsgebiet kommen Exemplare aus rotgebranntem Ton in weitaus geringerer Zahl zum Vorschein, bei denen es sich womöglich um die minderwertigeren Nachahmungen der gelben Stücke handelt. Das stempelverzierte Tafelgeschirr wurde allerdings auf einem weitaus größeren Gebiet produziert: Die Budaer Zierkeramik und ihre Nachahmungen waren in Nordost-Transdanubien, während die roten Exemplare in der Region Nordwest-Transdanubiens verbreitetet, ihre Herstellungsorte sind ebenfalls auf diesem Territorium zu suchen. Darüber hinaus geht man bei den wenigen grauen Stücken von österreichischem Ursprung aus.
Várak, kastélyok, templomok. Évkönyv 2021 (2021), 68-72.
In: Löffler Zsuzsanna - Molnár Csilla (szerk.): "...járni csak együtt tudnak". Régészet és néprajz összefüggései. Szeged, 2021. 145-159.
In the modern period, the famous pottery centres were all settled around the sites of better qual... more In the modern period, the famous pottery centres were all settled around the sites of better quality, so-called fire resistant clay. One of these pottery centres can be connected to Csákvár and its surroundings at the foot of the Vértes Mountains. The clays of the area which burn to light yellowish colour were already used in earlier periods, including the late Middle Ages. Archaeological finds show that by the 15th century a pottery region could have formed in the area, consisting of workshops producing pots of a similar design. According to the shapes, the manufactured products cannot be connected with the typical Csákvár ceramics of the modern age, which can be attributed to the nature of ethnographic collections (lack of everyday ceramics), but perhaps also to the destruction due to the Ottoman-Hungarian wars of the early modern period. However, among the pots of the area in the 16th-17th centuries, a group showing similarity in form and material to the late Middle Ages appears, but its local production has not yet been proven. The possible link between the late Middle Ages, the early modern period and the modern period may will be confirmed in the future by further material processing and scientific testing. In any case, it is certain that when examining the spread and market area of the late medieval pieces, there is a striking similarity with the data recorded by the ethnographic research, which may also mean that the modern Csákvár pottery centre had a late medieval antecedent with similar importance.
"Lendület" Középkori Magyar Gazdaságtörténet - Havi Színes, 2021
Communicationes Archaeologicae Hungariae 2019 (2021), 183-205.
Near the castle of Gesztes a smaller medieval building is located, which is called Kisvár (small ... more Near the castle of Gesztes a smaller medieval building is located, which is called Kisvár (small castle). According to the presumptions, this could have been the castle of the Csák family built in the late 13th century as a predecessor of today’s castle of Gesztes. The excavations led by István Feld in 2003, and 2005–2006 uncovered almost the whole site, produced different results from what was expected. A 15th-century building was unearthed, which had three rooms and had two stoves made of stove tiles. The study aims to publish the find assemblage of the excavations.
Élet és Tudomány 76/19. szám (2021) 591-593.
In: Ringer, István (szerk.): A Fiatal Középkoros Régészek VIII. konferenciájának tanulmánykötete. Sátoraljaújhely 2018, 29-50.
Kuny Domokos Múzeum Közleményei 23 (2017) 293.
Várak, kastélyok, templomok. Évkönyv 2016 (2016), 110-113.
Királyi vadászkastélyból török határvár-A gesztesi vár A gesztesi vár a Vértes erdeiben megbújva,... more Királyi vadászkastélyból török határvár-A gesztesi vár A gesztesi vár a Vértes erdeiben megbújva, egy közel 400 méteres magaslatról tekint le a tőle északra elterülő Várgesztes településre. A kicsi, szerény, szabályos épület ránézésre kevéssé felel meg a romantikus elképzelések vár fogalmának, aligha gondolná az ember, hogy falai között egykor királyok szálltak meg. Pedig késő középkori uralkodóink gyakran felkeresték Gesztest, egyik kedvenc szórakozásuknak, a vadászatnak hódolva. Maga az épület is arra a célra épült, hogy be tudja fogadni a királyt és kíséretét vértesi vadászataik alkalmával.
Castrum - A Castrum Bene Egyesület Hírlevele 19/1-2 (2016) 172-174.
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Papers by Bianka Gina Kovács
Keywords: Middle Ages, graveyard cemetery, Árpád Age grave finds, constructed tombs, cists, Benedictine abbey
Keywords: Central Transdanubia (Hungary), Graphite ceramics, Late medieval pottery, Local pottery, Material culture, Trade networks
This paper is the first to examine some of the better-known fortresses in the rural areas of the conquered territory from a household archaeology point of view. It aims to explore the components of the households of the peasant-soldiers and their families, their functions and the archaeological remains of the objects used in various activities. Its focus is on VisegrádLower Castle (Alsóvár in Hungarian), a medieval royal seat that became an Ottoman fortified settlement and that displays typical rural characteristics. At this site, a project has just started to evaluate the finds material from the extensive excavations of the 1960s.
Keywords: Early modern period, Ottoman period in Hungary, Ottoman fortified settlements, household goods, material culture.
Kulcsszavak: csókakői vár, késő középkor, kerámia, anyagi kultúra, 15. század, petrográfia
Keywords: Castle of Csókakő, Late Middle Ages, pottery, material culture, 15th century, petrography
https://abtk.hu/ismerettar/ismeretterjesztes/1480-a-pince-rejtelye-kozepkori-leletek-a-tatai-var-pincejebol
Keywords: Middle Ages, graveyard cemetery, Árpád Age grave finds, constructed tombs, cists, Benedictine abbey
Keywords: Central Transdanubia (Hungary), Graphite ceramics, Late medieval pottery, Local pottery, Material culture, Trade networks
This paper is the first to examine some of the better-known fortresses in the rural areas of the conquered territory from a household archaeology point of view. It aims to explore the components of the households of the peasant-soldiers and their families, their functions and the archaeological remains of the objects used in various activities. Its focus is on VisegrádLower Castle (Alsóvár in Hungarian), a medieval royal seat that became an Ottoman fortified settlement and that displays typical rural characteristics. At this site, a project has just started to evaluate the finds material from the extensive excavations of the 1960s.
Keywords: Early modern period, Ottoman period in Hungary, Ottoman fortified settlements, household goods, material culture.
Kulcsszavak: csókakői vár, késő középkor, kerámia, anyagi kultúra, 15. század, petrográfia
Keywords: Castle of Csókakő, Late Middle Ages, pottery, material culture, 15th century, petrography
https://abtk.hu/ismerettar/ismeretterjesztes/1480-a-pince-rejtelye-kozepkori-leletek-a-tatai-var-pincejebol