Abstract
This is a paper on a finger ring of gold, found at the site of Hrádek in Čáslav, central Bohemia. The ring itself came from a Longobard-oriented workshop datable between the late 6th and late 7th century, the products of which turned up in Italy and the Rhineland as far as the Netherlands.
The deposition context of the ring at Čáslav may be dated, with a considerable margin of uncertainty, around 800. Though contacts between early medieval Bohemia and Longobard Italy may be documented for the 6th-7th centuries, the pre-deposition history of the ring remains a mystery.
A family heirloom seems unlikely, as no cases of this kind are documented in the early Middle Ages of the Czech-speaking lands. The ring could have been robbed from a grave, but that, again remains a pure conjecture.
All things considered, the possibility that the ring entered Bohemian territory around 800, and was archaeologized very soon afterwards, may be closest to the truth. People of Longobard origin could have participated in the campaigns of Charlemagne's armies against the Avar kaganate of 791 and 796; indeed, a hypothesis may be advanced as to whether this might be one of the last vestiges of the immense booty taken by the Western troops at the hring center of the Avar kaganate