The reconstruction of the Gesteréd golden saber was presented last Thursday during the media gathering@ the National Museum. A real curiosity was introduced after the authentic reconstruction of the Geszteréd golden saber.
The press conference stated with a question “Should we insist on fragmentation when presenting artefacts?” – asked and gave the answer at the same time by László L. Simon – the director general of the Hungarian National Museum … “Indeed worth showing what the fragmentary find was like in its original state. Moreover, the authentic reconstruction becomes an art object in itself.”
Then after, just as in a fairy tale, János Rácz – chairman of the board of trustees of the Geszteréd Golden Sable Society, brought the tale come alive… “Balázs János Kondas was guarding livestock at the border of the Nyírség settlement in May 1927, when he suddenly noticed that the pigs were gnawing on some shiny, shiny object. They dug the saber out of the sandy ground, chewed up bones and tarsal plates, and if that wasn’t enough, the people from the surrounding farms flocked to the place when they heard about the treasure and fell on it with hoes and spades, destroying the grave.”
It is a great loss that no archaeologist excavated the site said Péter Németh – titular museum director of the Józsa András Museum, said so “Landowner László Goldstein went to the site to investigate the 10th century jewels and found: buckles, belt ends, belt buckles and also for horse tools. It is thanks to Goldstein’s presence of mind that the badly damaged golden saber, together with more than a hundred gold, silver, bronze and iron objects, was finally put in the András Jósa Museum in Nyíregyháza.”
Who could have owned the golden saber from Geszteréd? This is a question which most probably never have the answer. Many questions came upon surface … Who the golden saber from Geszteréd belong to? Who was buried in the grave? The unknown person has already been called a noble warrior, a clan head, a relative of the prince, a tribal chief. Who knows!?! but one thing is for sure … the person buried was not an ordinary individual, he was a high-ranking person and an excellent warrior, the latter of which can also be seen in his use of the saber. According to László Révész, the saber could certainly have been worn by a high-ranking man who was part of the conquest.
Beginning in 2019, titular museum director Péter Németh, László Révész, associate professor of the University of Szeged, and István Fodor, former director general of the Hungarian National Museum, who passed away two years ago, subjected the find to archaeological investigation. At the same time, the Geszteréd Golden Saber Society contacted the traditional gunsmith István Szabó and the goldsmith and chiseler Ádám Strohmayer, who prepared a reconstruction of the ornate saber based on the research results. The work of the past years is summarized in the study volume Reconstruction of the Geszteréd Golden Saber 2019–2023.
Based on the archaeologists’ description, the NGO asked István Szabó, a traditionalist gunsmith and folk craftsman, to make the blade of the saber, and goldsmith Ádám Strohmayer to decorate it. As János Rácz pointed out, in order for this golden saber to be completed, the support of many companies, institutions and private individuals was necessary, to whom he thanked for their contribution. Was also told, that thorough preparatory work preceded the forging of the weapon, which required the knowledge and experience of archaeologists to make the reconstruction as authentic as possible.
The Gesteréd golden saber with its decorated golden verets can be seen by the public for a month in the museum’s Kandálló Hall.
Riport by Aggie Reiter
Rolling in Budapest 