I've tried and translated that one :
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/ku...10127.html
(...phhhhhh, I'm getting out of practice -- a hard Piece of work :dizzy: .)
IMHO slightly the best press-Review on the press conference.
Asks th right questions. So we shall forgive minor shortcommings -- shouldn't we ?!
Here it is:
The Mainz pillaging hoard.
Is it the complete Barbarian Hoard ?
February 19th, 2014. Silver dishes, golden ornaments, silver statuettes : These are the parts presented of a late antique "Barbarian Hoard", which were secured at an illegal digger's. But how much did he really find ?
By Dieter Bartetzko
PIC
"Silver statuettes and fittings of a"Commanders Seat""
No question that the "Barbarian Horad" presented at Mainz this Tuesday had been buried in panic: Whoever buried
object of value during the rapacious times of the Great Migration wasn't to be satisfied by burying the 2 feet deep only. But as the golden ornaments and the silver statuettes, the silver dishes and the guilded fittings of the "commanders' seat" , pressed into a wooden chest have been found at exactly that depth, this pseaks volumes that
they "went under earth" during a rout.
And a rout was often enough the only thing left for roman landowners, merchants and officials in the years to follow 406AD. The Roman Empire having been a safe place for centuries collapsed under the onslaught of Germanics.
Borders fell, cities and villages were plundered, the administration annihilated.
So did a rich roman during a raid on what is todays Forward Palatines (Vorderpfalz)grab his goodies, hid them by the road, having hoped to come back later and never returned instead unvoluntarily ?
PIC (DPA)
Were this cruciform gold bucklets decorating the robe of a roman or that of a germanic prince ?
Certainty is only about the fact that it must have been fabricated during the 5th century AD -- and was diecored in the process of an illegal digging.
But this suggestive assumption is challenged by the state of some of the precious parts.
The statuettes have been hacked into parts, the largest silver platter sliced into 4 parts like a tart.
"Hacked silver" is a term coined by archeologists for such parts, which have been deformated for easier transportation, a way of state in which "looting depots" from the migration period are often found.
In this case of a "Barbarian Hoard" this "secure" assumption is literally surrounded by riddles.
Although all of the finds date into the 5th century AD, the statuettes point to a provincial roman background, whereas the silver platters do so in direction of eastern europe.
Eyelets seem to indicate, that the golden ornaments resembling oaks-leaves were stitched to a representational robe. Archeologist-in-chief Axel von Berg presumption therefore points towards a germanic prince having owned it.
Such warlords literally hanging full of gold would fit into today's common picture of our "barbarian" ancestors.
But, alas, the civilized romans, on whose prejudices against "primitive" germanics most of our today's imaginations are based, were by no means immune to representative snobbery: Late antique depictions show courtiers, nobility and officials of both the eastern and the western part of the roman empire wearing ornates blistering with gold and jewellery. So it is reasonable to assume, that this "Barbarian Hoards" in fact (once) contained the ornamental robe of a high roman official -- with only th golden ornaments left.
PIC (DPA) : A "hacked" silver dish
The same holds true for the foldable (commander's) seat. The fragments still have not been (re-)arranged to an explicit entity. But even now a clear statement can be made, that it has to be considered a a piece of furniture preciously ornated, lavishly carved and foldable. Seats like this were considered a sign of authority/dignity of high ranks during Antiquity.
In jurisdiction e.g. it was considered an equivalnet to a judge's robe.
Speaking "Ex Cathedra" were the highest-ranking judges, exercising judgement in the provinces by authority of the
Empire and the Emperor -- and even the travelling Emperors of the early Middle Ages were still carrying with them luxurious folding seats, on which they took seat when giving judgements at their palatines (Pfalzen) and travelling
accommodations.
The folding seat of the "Barbian Hoard" being the former property of an important roman official ??
Or was it part of the power-insignias of a chief --as the Mainz experts hold as probable ??
But what about the silver stautuettes ?? Corase in style, the lines blurred, clothing swollen as common with sacks,
bulbous wrinkles of cloth, stern faces. Roman provincials' , late -- one could say.
But beyond that there are nothing but questions: Are these clothed figures germanic goddesses, which have been
assimilated into the roman Pantheon ?? Or roman priestesses in their offerings ornate ?? Are these busts remains of Lares, the household gods, which every roman kept under his own roof ? Or portraits of ancestors ?? Or merely
ornamental parts of decorated furniture ??
PIC (DPA)
Golden decorational pieces of a ceremonial robe from Late Antiquity.
What except melting, could a germanic chief have done to them ??
In 1 1/2 years , after thorough scrutiny, they should be able to tell more, says the Chief Archeological Authority of
Rheinland-Pfalz. But one hting is for sure already, there will remain large blind-spots of knowledge, for the
"Barbarian Hoard" has been secured as part of the loot of illegal diggings. hastily torn from the ground and having
tried to conceal all the traces of doing so.
Therefore there will be no additional findings about what happened there in Late Antiquity can be drawn from the find-spot anymore : all traces, all indicators invisible to non-experts have been destroyed.
One can't even be sure that the pieces presented here were the whole of that hoard or just part of a larger one that has already vanished into the arts trade biz, they stated on Tuesday.
So this find is both a sensation and a scandal, for only a few days after the discovery of plundered medieval and antique pottery at Bingerbrück it has become clear for a second time, that illegal trade of art flourishing for real not only as far as in Afghanistan or Iraque, but also amongst us in our very country.
Which objects of value may such a roman official of tribal prince, who wore such a guilded robe, have possessed also ?
How many of them have been sold ? How many "Barbarian Hoards" like this have already been "lifted" secretly hereabouts ??
Questions like these have to be taken seriuosly in the near future by exhibiting both the "Barbarian Hoard" and the one from Bingerbrück -- not the one "is it part of the Nibelungenschatz" asked on this occasion. (Which has been
ridiculed slightly -- and rightfully)
Source : F.A.Z.
Greez
Siggi
As always : the finder of mistakes shall Keep them. 8+)
