Name: Monomacos Crown
What it is: A series of enamel gold panels
Hometown: Ivanka Puri Nitre, village in Central Slovakia
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When it was made: between AD 1042 and 1050
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What it tells us about the past:
In 1860, as farmers were plowing fields in central Slovakia, he unearthed a spectacular panel of gold Byzantine crowns. For more than a century, experts have debated whether it belongs to the 11th century ruler Constantine IX Monomacus, and whether the crown belongs to the way that it reached the far north of the Byzantine Empire.
Constantine IX reigned from 1042 to 1055. His surname Monomakos – “a man who fights alone,” or the Greek word “gladiator” – set him apart as part of a noble family operating in Byzantine politics. However, he was not born into the royal family, but ruled as emperor only because he was Empress Zoe’s spouse, sharing the throne with Zoe’s sister Theodora.
The Monomacus crown, located in the collection of the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest, consists of seven gold plates, each with round tops and colorful enamel decorations. The plate is 4.5 inches (11.5 cm), with a cavalry standard in his right hand, and a purple silk rope to the left, a symbol of the empire of leadership. The Greek inscription on the central panel reads “Constantine,” which reads “Monomachus, the Roman emperor.”
The adjacent Constantine IX is a panel depicting Empress Zoe on his right and Empress Theodora on his left. Both are labeled “most respectful” in Greek. Finishing the crown is four panels decorated with dancers and anthropomorphism of two virtues: justice and humility.
According to the Hungarian National Museum, the symmetrical holes on the sides of the metal plates may mean that they were not originally secured to cloth hats, but to cloth hats.
But the meaning of the crown and the person who really owned it has been debated for decades.
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In 1994, Byzantine scholar Nikolaos Oikonomade argued that the crown was actually a 19th century counterfeit, and was based on the incorrect Greek inscription based on the unusual selection of imperial clothing.
However, art historian Etele Kiss rebutted these claims in a 2000 study, pointing to similarities between imperial clothing and other Byzantine art. The Greek error is an accent that suggests a simple change in pronunciation, and the fact that the crown may have ended in Nitra as a diplomatic gift from Constanti Ix.
Monomachus’ crowns are only three of the surviving Byzantine crowns, but it is currently impossible to draw final conclusions on many aspects of that, Kiss said. Additional research is needed to fully understand the importance of gold panel headwear.
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