A “Limoges" Mount in Eastern Croatia?

Abstract

Archaeologists are often surprised by things that come to light out of the earth, showing us that people in the past lived a life that was much more intense than we could ever imagine. Unusual finds that step out of frames limited by our imagination often make us search more and dig deeper. Such a find was recently donated to the Vinkovci Municipal Museum (Eastern Croatia). On an unexplored field in the village of Karadzicevo little less than 200 medieval coins and an anthropomorphic mount were found by a local metal-detector operator. Coins were easily identified as nominals of the Hungarian kingdom, dated to early 15th century. After examining the mount most similar objects to our item are described asproducts of medieval manufactures in Limoges, France. During High Middle Ages workshops there produced, in the service of the church, numerous religious objects. What such an object, of prestige for this part of Europe, is doing in Croatia and whether it is a Limoges Mount will be discussed in this paper.

Keywords: Limoges mount, coins, hoard, Croatia, High Middle Ages, survey find.