Naslov
O izvornoj funkciji križolikoga okova sa Ždrijaca u Ninu
(On the Original Function of the cross-like Brace from Ždrijacin Nin)

Autori
Milošević, Ante

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Poglavlja u knjigama, znanstveni

Knjiga
Munuscula in honorem Željko Rapanić

Urednik/ci
Jurković, Miljenko ; Milošević, Ante

Izdavač
Sveučilište u Zagrebu ; Međunarodni istraživački centar za kasnu antiku i srednji vijek (MICKAS)

Grad
Zagreb : Motovun : Split

Godina
2012

Raspon stranica
191-212

ISBN
978-953-6002-67-2

Ključne riječi
rani srednji vijek, predrkšćanske vjere, kršćanstvo
(Early Medieval)

Sažetak
The text analyses once again the cross-like application found in 1977 in the Grave 324 of the early medieval cemetery at Ždrijac in Nin. The analyses published so far claim the find to be an artefact proving the Christianisation of the Croats and other Slavs in their new land under the Carolingian influence. In doing this, attempts were made to compare the application of Nin with numerous cross-like fibulas found all over Western Europe. We hold such comparisons unacceptable, because of typological- morphological and functional differences and also because none of the early Carolingian fibulas found so far has figural images like those on the cross-like application of Nin. Following the analysis, we hold the cross-like application of Ždrijac in Nin originally to have been a functional horse harness brace that connected two mutually perpendicularly crossing belts. This is supported also by the distribution of a larger number of wholes for massive rivets that contributed to its strength. While assuming that the opposite stylised human masks and figures represent Svantevit who, as interpreted, was also a hypostasis of the old-Slavic god Perun, it is logical to conclude that this find comes from the times before the Slavs in Dalmatia accepted Christianity to a larger scale. Its subsequent use in a child grave, probably in the 9th century, can be reasonably interpreted as an object that, at that time, witnessed a Christened member of the early medieval community of Nin, at the time when the awareness of the old faith, brought by the Slavs to Dalmatia from their original lands, was gradually vanishing. This could certainly be supported also by the clear cross-like shape of the application, as a recognisable Christian symbol. It may further be assumed that the 9th century cross- like gilded artefact was interpreted also as a relict that was to prove the deceased person’s long time belonging to Christianity. This opinion can be further supported by a fragment of the already mentioned, very similar, also gilded cross-like application from Budeč in Czech Republic, that was subsequently used as a pendant, and, after most probably being interpreted as an older Christian relic, too, probably in pieces, distributed to the heirs. In a similar way can be interpreted also the previously mentioned find of a part of a probably cross-like application featuring a human mask, from Spodnja Hajdna in Slovenia, also found in a grave, together with some modest Bijelo Brdo culture artefacts. It is thus obvious that it changed its function. Such cases were recorded elsewhere as well, for instance in the well known Visigoth hoard in Torredonjiméno in the province of Jaén in Spain, where several dozens of pendants-relics, made provisionally from fragments of older gilded crosses, were found. The cross-like application from the child Grave 324 of Ždrijac in Nin, thus, cannot prove the Christianisation of the Croats in the Carolingian times, but only a long lasting process in which the newly arrived Slavs, in the area of the present day Dalmatia, in the later half of the 7th and during the 8th centuries, gradually abandoned their old faith and accepted Christianity. From its iconographical contents can also be concluded that it may have a deeper and more complex religious meaning than assumed so far, that significantly increases its cultural and historic importance, also indicating new possibilities in future studies of our early medieval history.

Izvorni jezik
Hrvatski

Znanstvena područja
Arheologija

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