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The Monomakos Crown depicts Constantine IX and his co-participants Zoe and Theodora, surrounded by vineyards and birds. | Credit: Alami
Name: Monomachis crown
What is: A series of enamel gold panels
Where is it from: Ivanka near Nitra and village in Central Slovakia
When done: Between 1042 and 1050 AD.
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What tells us about the past:
In 1860, a farmer cultivated a field in Central Slovakia when he discovered a grand gold crown on the panel. For more than a century, experts claim whether it belongs to the ruler of the 11th century ruler Constantine IX Monomamas and how the crown ended up on the far north of Byzantine EmpireS
Constantine IX reigns from 1042 to 1055. His family name Monomakos – which means “the one who fights alone”, or essentially the “gladiator” of Greek – distinguishes him as part of an aristocratic family that is active in the policy of the Byzantine Empire. But he was not born in the royal family and ruled as an emperor only because he was the husband of Empress Zoya and they share the throne with Zoya Theodora’s sister.
The crown of monochis, in the collection of Hungarian National Museum in Budapestconsists of seven gold plates, each with a rounded tip and colorful decorations of the enamel. The largest of the plates is 4.5 inches tall (11.5 centimeters) and depicts Constantine IX, which holds a cavalry standard in its right hand and a purple silk roll in its left, which were also imperial symbols of leadership. The inscription in Greek on the central panel states: “Constantine, emperor of the Romans, monomacos”.
Flanking Constantine IX are panels depicting Empress Zoya on the right and Empress Theodora on the left. Both are labeled as “most pious” in Greek. The rounding of the crown is four panels, decorated with dancers and the embodiment of two virtues: justice and humility.
According to the Hungarian National Museum, the symmetrical holes from the sides of the gold plates may mean that they were originally attached to a cap of fabric rather than attached together in a separate crown.
But the meaning of the crown and the person who really possessed it has been discussed for decades.
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In 1994Byzantine Scholar Nikolaos Oikonomides argued that the crown wat actual a 19th-center forgery, Basing this claim on unusual choices in the Imperial stud in present-day Slovakia, Far from the Seat of Imperial Byzantine Power in IstanbulS
But a historian of art Edel have denied these claims in a 2000 surveyPointing out the similarities between imperial clothing and other Byzantine art, the fact that Greek mistakes are largely accents that suggest simply shifting the pronunciation and noting that the crown may have found itself in Nitra as a diplomatic gift from Constantine IX to a local ruler.
Monomakos’ crown is one of only three surviving Byzantine crowns, but it is impossible to draw conclusions about many aspects of it at the moment, KIS said. Further studies are needed to fully understand the importance of gold clothing.