FLUORITE – A MARKETABLE MINERAL COMMODITY FROM THE CENTRAL REGION OF MEDIEVAL HUNGARY

: Several types of mineral beads can be found among the 11 th –12 th -century grave assemblages of the Carpathian Basin. This paper examines the distribution of fluorite beads representing one type in Central and Eastern Europe. The distribution patterns have enabled the identification of the source of the raw material and they also outline the period’s main trade routes.

mineralogist cited as "Erdélyi CSc" in the final report declared that the beads had in fact been made from fluorite, 7 the identification later quoted by Giesler, in stark contrast to Herbert Bach and Siegrid Dušek, whose oft-cited study first mentions the Halimba cemetery as yielding amethyst beads, 8 even though there was not one single bead made from this mineral either among the finds from the latest phase, or the assemblages of the earlier phases.
Similar beads from the early Árpádian Age had first been described by Béla Pósta at the end of the nineteenth century. His excavation of the cemetery at Rákospalota yielded twenty-one "stone" beads from two burials as well as seven similar beads that could not be associated with any of the graves. Ágoston Franzenau, the then custodian of the Department of Minerals of the Hungarian National Museum, who happened to live in Rákospalota, "broadly identified them as fluorite beads". 9 However, this identification was buried deep in Pósta's book, Régészeti tanulmányok Oroszföldön. II (Archäologische Studien auf russischem Boden. II) [Archaeological Studies in Russia] and in the entries of the 1892 Acquisitions register of the Hungarian National Museum, and thus escaped scholarly attention, 10 given that the excavation itself remained unpublished until the appearance of Katalin I. Melis's study in 1997. 11 The mineralogy of the beads must also be covered in this brief overview of previous research. Mineralogist Orsolya Kákay Szabó became interested in the beads of the Maroshegy cemetery in the wake of Kornél Bakay's studies on the burial grounds in the Székesfehérvár area. In her study published in 1974, she noted that archaeologists tended to identify the beads' material as amethyst based on their colour and she also drew attention to the grinding technique of the beads and the use of gimlets for drilling the perforations. However, these techniques could not be employed in the case of minerals with a similar hardness as amethyst, being only feasible for the much softer fluorite. The colour of the beads suggested a deposit in the Velence Hills, where raw material with a similar greenish-blue or purplish hue could be collected from surface outcrops. "It is noteworthy that the beads produced from fluorite occurring in the Velence Hills were highly sought-after because they can be found in grave assemblages across the entire county. Most archaeologists describe these finds as having been made from amethyst. It would be prudent have a mineralogist examine similar grave finds because this would shed light on the distribution range of the products of the 'workshop' active in the Székesfehérvár area. The bracelets and necklaces ground from fluorite of the Velence Hills are of outstanding significance because they represent the first known jewellery made from a mineral whose source lies in Hungary." 12 Kákay-Szabó's assertions and research proposals remained buried in the 1974 Report of the Hungarian Institute of Geology and Geophysics, a publication that rarely reached archaeologists, particularly ones engaged in medieval studies.
Iván Mrázek's book, Drahé kameny ve středověku Moravy a Slezska [Gemstones in medieval Moravia and Silesia], which also covers fluorite beads, appeared in 2000 as the second volume of a thematic series. The Moravian geologist discussed not only the finds from the regions indicated in the book's title (which include two fluorite beads from a single site in Bohemia), but also the similar finds brought to light in Poland and Slovakia. Citing the results of his own studies, he challenged the identification of the finds' material as amethyst, the usual case in the archaeological literature. His knowledge of the Hungarian sites is restricted to the data cited in Bach and Dušek's study. In his view, the appearance of the earliest pieces in Poland was followed by the spread of fluorite beads in Moravia and Slovakia after the final third of the tenth century, and the specimens from Hungary marked the southernmost boundary of the distribution. Examining the potential sources, he excluded the fluorite deposits known to him because the raw material from these was unsuitable for the manufacture of beads, but he also challenged a Scandinavian or Kievan origin because beads of this type are not attested there. "Ultimately, we can only assert that the origins of the early medieval fluorite beads remain shrouded in mystery. The source of the beads' raw material (and, by association, their production centre) should probably be sought beyond Central Europe." 13 In the case of the fluorite beads found in Devín cemetery, Miloš Gregor et alii (2012) suppose that the raw material is probably of Bavarian origin. 14 In 2013, Ewa Lisowska completed her doctoral thesis, Wydobycie i dystrybucja surowców kamiennych we wczesnym średniowieczu na Dolnym Śląsku [The mining and distribution of mineral raw material in Lower Silesia during the early Middle Ages], in which she sought to identify the origins of the raw material of the fluorite beads known from four sites in the study region. "Fluorite beads are one of the most rarely discussed find types. To the best of this author's knowledge, there are no studies in the foreign scholarly literature that raise or address issues concerning the processing and origins of this raw material. Only G. Rapp mentions fluorite beads from Predynastic Egypt." 15 Based on Polish data, she suggested two possibilities, 16 either that the raw material was imported from the Near or Far East through the mediation of the Kievan Rus, or, given the frequency of the finds, that the raw material had been mined locally in the Kaczawskie Mountains. However, she conceded that the latter option found little support either among archaeologists or gemmologists. 17 My own research began with the purpose of updating the list of known sites based on the findings of research conducted during the decades after the publication of B. M. Szőke's monograph in 1987 and to refine, if necessary, the chronology and socio-economic contexts of these finds. 18

THE SELECTION OF THE SITES
Initially, the most important issue was how to determine the beads' raw material, even if tentatively, based on the descriptions in the publications, according to which the beads shimmering in translucent greenish, greyish, pinkish, pale or dark purplish hues -although sometimes they faded when exposed to light -were all of the longish, multi-faceted barrel-shaped variety. The facets are blunt-edged, rounded and often barely visible. Several bead strands included broken pieces. (The abrasion of the facets and the beads' fragility can be attributed to the mineral's property, its low hardness.) The identifications appearing in the descriptions -amethyst/fluorite or, using a more careful wording, simply mineral raw material -and the accompanying illustrations indicated that fluorite beads have been attested in 79 cemeteries of the early Árpádian Age. Nevertheless, the list of sites can only be conclusively finalised following the mineralogical examination of the finds.
The 79 sites did not modify the chronological framework set up by B. M. Szőke: the beads first attested in the late tenth-century cemetery investigated at Sárbogárd attained their greatest popularity during the final third of the eleventh century, although their use can be noted up to mid-twelfth century in the burials of girls and younger women. 19 (This broad chronology is valid not only for fluorite beads, but also for beads made from other minerals, and not solely in Hungary, but in the cemeteries uncovered in Moravia and Poland, too. 20 ) New insights regarding the socio-economic contexts can be expected once the usage and distribution of beads made from rock crystal, carnelian and other minerals has been mapped, given that it was the mapping of the sites yielding fluorite beads that ultimately yielded new results. THE SITES The regional distribution of cemeteries yielding fluorite beads is uneven and this imbalance can no longer be explained by a differential research coverage or the lack of publications (see the Appendix).
The prominence of Transdanubia is obvious in terms of the number of sites and quantity of finds, followed by the regions north of the Danube, although the number of finds in the latter is much lower. Only a handful of 14 GreGor et al. 2012, 165. 15 liSowSka 2013, 145. 16 liSowSka 2013, 225. 17 liSowSka 2013 This research was inspired by an e-mail that I received at Christmas 2015. Dr. Jürgen Vollbrecht uncovered a grave containing fluorite beads in Bautzen and asked questions about them, which made me realize the need for detailed research on the topic. 19 A later date has been proposed in two instances: Grave 96 at Zagreb-Stenjevec, containing ten basket earrings and two unperforated "ornaments", was assigned to the later twelfth century in view of the earrings: cemeteries east of the Danube yielded fluorite beads. This uneven distribution provided important clues for the source of the beads' raw material, although it also called for an explanation for the imbalances in distribution.

THE RAW MATERIAL SOURCE
In Alexander Ruttkay's view, published in a study written in 1979, the source of the raw material used for the "amethyst" beads from the Ducó cemetery (Ducové-Moravany nad Váhom, SK), which still lacks a detailed publication, and from the other Slovakian burial grounds was Selmecbánya (Banska Štiavnica, SK). 21 His claim was seemingly supported by the series of sites located north of the Danube and by the fact that Selmecbánya appears among the roughly twenty locations where fluorite deposits have been identified. 22 The first mention of the mine in the written sources dates from 1226; however, Zoltán Batizi suggested that the denarii of King István I (997-1038) were minted in Esztergom-Kovácsi from silver mined at Selmecbánya. 23 Yet, the fluorite beads known from sites north of the Danube could hardly have originated from this deposit since the fluorite crystals from Selm ecbánya are small, barely 1 cm large. 24 (As a matter of fact, the countless gemstone beads from the Kovácsi cemetery excavated during the past years did not include a single specimen made of fluorite, as kindly mentioned by Edit Tari, the site's excavator.) A suitable raw material could have been obtained from Gyöngyösoroszi, a village in northern Hungary, on the southern slope of the Mátra Mountains, given that the crystals in this deposit are considerably larger (3 cm). However, there are no burial grounds in the broader area whose finds included fluorite beads. Large crystals suitable for bead manufacture can be solely found in the Velence Hills. The distribution of archaeological sites likewise points to this region. There are no written sources on this deposit. The rediscovery of this fluorite deposit in 1951 reads like a grotesque fairy tale: one fine August day, while working on Mt. Üveghegy [Glass mountain] at Pákozd, "geologist Béla Jantsky […] was almost blinded by the dazzling light reflected from a palm-sized cleavage surface in one of the rocks crushed by Soviet tanks that had previously partaken in a military exercise in the area." 25

DISTRIBUTION OF SITES IN THE CARPATHIAN BASIN
A closer look at the distribution of sites reveals certain concentrations even within one or another region (Figs 2-3). The cemeteries yielding a rich array of beads are located on the northern shoreline of Lake Balaton, along the "military road", a major artery of communication, whose existence and use is mentioned in the sources from the early Árpádian Age onward. The road turned slightly southward in the Lower Zala Valley, probably in the Zalavár area. The southernmost point in the bead finds strung out along the road is marked by Grave 96 of the Zagreb-Stenjevec cemetery, used in the eleventh-thirteenth centuries. In addition to ten basket earrings, this burial yielded a dark purple and a translucent "ornament", the former described as a polygonal amethyst, the latter as a polygonal or barrel-shaped amethyst or rock crystal. 26 In the case of fluorite beads, the Croatian terminology employs the term "amethyst and fluorite" ("ametist i fluorit"), but purplish pieces are consistently described as amethyst. 27 Given this general usage, the uncertainties in the description prompted the tentative inclusion of these two beads among the ones made of fluorite.
From Székesfehérvár, the road led north-eastward to the Pest ferry. 28 The "bead route" then ran along the Danube's northern bank north-and westward along the river's left bank tributaries, principally in the Nyitra /Nitra Valley. The concentration of sites around Nyitra (Nitra, SK) and in the city's broader area is particularly striking (even if the number of beads is low because the cemeteries have only been partially excavated). However, the by far the highest number of fluorite beads came to light not in this area, but along the Vág/Váh in the region lying 21 Ruttkay, A. 1979 north of the Danube, specifically in the Ducó cemetery lying in the "border zone". A tolling station (Banka) on the Vág/Váh is mentioned this area in 1270, 29 which, judging from the bead finds, had already been active in the eleventh-twelfth centuries, which can in all likelihood be associated with the relative proximity of the road leading to Brno through Holics (Holič, SK). Looking at the region between the Transdanubian road and the right Danube bank, the lack of fluorite beads in the settlements lying in the northern third of Transdanubia is striking. The fluorite beads do not outline a route along the right Danube bank, confirming Károly Mesterházy's contention regarding the findspots of tenth-century imports for a broader time period too: "The major trade route was not the limes road along the right Danube bank, but the former military road along the northern bank." 30 In all likelihood, the three fluorite beads known from Győr-Pósdomb reached that site along the water route of the Rába, while the exemplar from Kesztölc can be explained by the connections maintained with Garamszentbenedek Abbey; 31 seven fluorite beads have also been reported from Visegrád, from the cemetery uncovered in the area of the resort of the Hungarian National Bank.
A smaller concentration can be noted in County Vas; the westernmost occurrence at Középpulya (Mittelpullendorf, A) can be assigned to this group.
Similarly to the Ducó cemetery, the remarkably high number of beads in the Pusztaszentlászló burial ground (129 pieces in all) can be explained by the site's geopolitical location, even if the exact line of the road leading to Slavonia remains controversial. 32 Flowing from Székesfehérvár into the Danube, the Sárvíz, which could be navigated before its regulation in the eighteenth century, probably acted as the communications route south towards Pécs. The sites at Sellye and Josipovo (HR) south-west of Pécs probably mark the location of the ferry across the Drava.
South of the Pest ferry, the next crossing-place across the Danube at Solt is indicated by the fluorite beads from the cemeteries at Solt-Tételhegy and Solt-Kalimajor. Further downstream, the beads from Vajska and two suburbs of Belgrade, Mirijevo and Karaburma, mark the series of finds along the Danube, which in all likelihood also reflect the location of ferries.
The sites east of the Danube can be divided into two typical groups. Early Árpádian Age cemeteries with fluorite beads have been uncovered near the ferries across the Tisza (predominantly along the river's upper reaches), 33 a chain that extends into the Bodrogköz region (Karcsa, Szomotor, Lelesz). The other group of sites probably lay along or near the roads passing through the Danube-Tisza interfluve. The sites making up the two groups are not haphazard: the sites outline a route that coincides with the salt transportation routes recently mapped by Beatrix F. Romhányi 34 and provide a fine illustration of the use of the Tisza ferries already during the early Árpádian Age.
Salt was one of the most important commodities of inland trade from the very beginning 35 and other commodities were also transported along the roads and waterways used in its trade. There can be no doubt that these roads played a prominent role in the far-ranging contacts of the settlements associated with the Transdanubian cemeteries yielding fluorite beads, either because the settlement lay along or in the immediate proximity of the transportation route, as Rábasömjén and Mesteri-Intapuszta, 36 or because its occupants, or at least some of them, were active participants of the inland trade conducted along them. 37 Whichever the case, this issue can only be resolved through the detailed study of the road network using both archival sources and the archaeological record as well as of the diachronic changes in geographic conditions since there were major shifts in this network in Transdanubia during the Árpádian Age. 38 Studies along these lines would incidentally also shed light on the intriguing issue of why some cemeteries with an abundance of fluorite beads were also remarkably rich in tin/lead ring jewellery.
On the testimony of the current archaeological record, the "treasure of the medium regni" did not reach the region beyond the Tisza and Transylvania, 39 while, at the same time, the beads attest to intense contacts between 29 huSár-iVanič 2019, 714 and obr. Fluorite beads have been reported from thirty-one sites in the region beyond the Carpathians (Figs 2-3): two beads from a cemetery in Bohemia (Otmiče), 41 forty-eight beads from eight cemeteries in Moravia and possibly similar beads (whose number remains unknown) have been mentioned from another cemetery. 42 These nine sites lie in the region's south-easterly area near the Hungarian border, in the foreland of the Holics ferry.
A substantial number of Hungarian coins were deposited in burials during the eleventh century, the latest of which were mostly minted by András I (1043-1060). Disregarding a few years in the first third of the eleventh century, minting in Moravia began in the 1060s. 43   rite beads reveals that the latter can be found along the medieval trade routes as far as Brno (four cemeteries did not contain a single Hungarian coin), while Hungarian coins can be found across the entire region (Fig. 4). In other words, the two find types have a differential distribution, similarly as in Hungary. Twenty sites are known from Poland, 44 most of which lie along the main trade routes that generally follow the rivers (Fig. 5). The Kiev-Meissen route traverses the country's southerly region in a west to east direction. Twelve of the twenty sites lie along or near this route and the overwhelming majority of the known Polish beads came to light on these settlements. The Opole site, lying in the foreland of the Moravian Gate, yielded an outstandingly high number of thirty-five fluorite beads. The route passes through Bautzen in Germany, where a girl's grave uncovered in 2015 contained ten fluorite beads.
The various glass beads from the settlements at Wrocław-Ostrów Tumski and Opole-Ostrówek were in use during roughly the same period as the beads manufactured from minerals: the trade in glass beads was most intense during the period spanning the third fourth of the eleventh century and the earlier twelfth century, corresponding to their greatest popularity as costume accessories. 45 44 I would like to thank Kalina Skóra for her kind help in collecting the Polish sites.  This brief overview clearly demonstrates that the number of sites yielding fluorite beads as well as the number of finds from Moravia and Poland is much lower than in the Carpathian Basin, both in terms of sites and fluorite beads. CONCLUSION 1. The distribution of the finds and the data on the raw material suitable for the manufacture of beads clearly show that the eleventh-twelfth-century fluorite beads of the Carpathian Basin were made from fluorite originating from the Velence Hills.
2. Most studies on articles of foreign origin focused on one or another artefact type and their distribution as well as on demonstrating possible contacts between certain regions, but -with very few exceptions -failed to address the physical dimensions of, or routes whereby, these connections were established. The distribution of the fluorite beads originating from the Carpathian Basin dating from the period between the late tenth and the midtwelfth century has provided important data for the reconstruction of the medieval medium regni and of the inland trade connections and trade routes of the Carpathian Basin during the early Árpádian Age, furnishing additional support for the line of the early salt transportation routes as outlined in more recent studies. The fluorite bead distribution patterns are also an indication of the intensity of the communication between macro-and micro-regions as well as of some of their boundaries during a period for which there is a scarcity of written sources.
3. The distribution of sites and the number of finds from regions beyond the Carpathians confirms the Hungarian origins of the fluorite beads that were hitherto identified as being of "indeterminate origin". Although an export commodity of little value, these beads nevertheless played a role in foreign trade. On the testimony of the sites, the route leading to Poland through the Moravian Gate played a particularly important role in the early Árpádian Age. The well-identifiable Polish imports, including lead that was largely neglected in previous studies, arrived to the Carpathian Basin along this route during this period.

Buko 2008
Jeršek Open Access. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited, a link to the CC License is provided, and changes -if any -are indicated. (SID_1)