Avar period

An Avar grave recently discovered in 2012 in Velencefürdő inspired me to look into the region’s Avar sites that are partially or entirely unpublished to date. In this category is the cemetery of Kisvelence and Velence-Úttörőtábor (Velence-Tábor street for short), the graveyard excavated in the periphery of Sukoró-Gádé, single graves found on Velence-Bencehegy, and Kápolnásnyék-Bicskei Sándor’s plot as well as sporadic finds of Sukoró-Galagonya street, Sukoró-Homokbánya, and Velencefürdő. It is reasonable to publish these finds altogether and thus break the “dead silence” that encompasses Avar research with regard to Velence Lake. Since Avar graveyards turn up every one to two kilometers, there is reason to presume several settlements at the time. As for the chronology of the graves, it is difficult to come to conclusions as not only have the sites been only partially excavated but most of them have also perished. Nonetheless, the Velence-Tábor street cemetery likely dates back to the early Avar age, followed by the grave at Velencefürdő from the mid-Avar age, the burial field of Sukoró-Gádé from the late Avar age. Perhaps late Avar sites are Sukoró-Galagonya street, Sukoró-Homokbánya, Velence-Bencehegy, and Kápolnásnyék-Bicskei Sándor’s plot.

A tanulmány publikálatlan mezőföldi temetők rövid bemutatásával a térség avar korának kutatásához kíván mankóval szolgálni, valamint a legkésőbbi – 780–830/850 közé keltezhető – sírok közlésével a 9. századi avar továbbélés kérdéséhez kínál – a Mezőföldről eddig számon nem tartott – új adatokat.

A kötet a Bodajk város közigazgatási területén feltárt avar (6–9. század) és honfoglalás kori (10. század) temetőrészletek teljesség igényével történő közlésére vállalkozik. Az alapközlésen túlmenően számos tudományág kutatóinak bevonásával komplex elemzés is helyet kaphatott a könyvben. A kilenc fős szerzőgárdában találunk avar koros, honfoglalás koros, valamint az archeometria területén jártas régészeket, embertannal és régészeti állattannal foglalkozó szakembereket. A tudományos igényesség mellett minden fejezetben törekedtünk a közérthetőségre, hogy a szakmabelieken kívül a múltunk és őseink iránt érdeklődő kultúrakedvelő közönség, valamint a helytörténeti érdeklődésű olvasók is haszonnal forgathassák az egykoron Bodajkon élt avarokat és magyarokat megidéző monográfiát.

Mezőföldön is jól nyomon követhető, hogy a kora avar kori megtelepedésben és térszervezésben a 7. század elejéig szerepet játszottak az egykori késő római struktúrák, azaz a római utak, villák és belső erődök. A pontosan lokalizálható kora avar kori lelőhelyek közel 60%-át valamilyen római struktúra egy-két km-es körzetében találjuk.A római struktúrák közeléből ismert kora avar kori lelőhelyek többségének folyamatos használatáról beszélhetünk egészen a késő avar korig (tehát a közép és késő avar korban nincs változás a településszerkezet alapjaiban). A gyarapodó avar népesség a 7. század második felében és a 8. század elején újabb telepeket (és temetőket) hoz létre, melyeknél már nem az egykori római struktúrák léte és a természetföldrajzi okoknál fogva stratégiai átkelőhelyek (gázlók) a megtelepedést motiváló tényezők – mivel ezeknél továbbra is állnak a kora avar eredetű telepek –, hanem egyszerűen a vízfolyások közelsége.

A késő avar kori (8. század eleje – 9. század eleje) Kárpát-medencében egy speciális kerámiatípus jelent meg, mely csak az avar szállásterületről ismert. A sárga kerámia különlegessége, hogy a korban általánosan használt kézzel formált vagy lassú korongon készített, rossz minőségű edényektől mind készítésében, mind kivitelében jelentősen eltér (1. kép). Az anyag teljes körű feldolgozásával 3 képet alkothatunk arról, hogy a sárga kerámiát egy rövid időszakon belül hol, hogyan, kiknek és milyen előképek alapján készítették. 4

The appearance of the Avars, a political-military power (political ethnos) with non-Roman roots and the military conquest of the Carpathian Basin turned the evolution of the system of political institutions in this region into a different direction for a few centuries. The Avar conquest of Transylvania was the result of the conquest of the central territories of the Basin. The direction of the Avar conquest and migration can only be defined relatively, due to the lack of data. However, reconstructing the complicated sociological and socio-psychological phenomena generated by the political-military elite after the conquest is an even more difficult task. It especially holds for the Transylvanian Basin. When occupying the regions of the Carpathian Basin, the Avars occupied the older centres, the former Roman settlements and the strategic point at the crossroads of the old road network. In this aspect, the old Roman roads built in the Transylvanian Basin clearly affected the military occupation. As can be seen on our maps, these sites are not only concentrated on the Middle reaches of the River Mureș, but the finds, the rituals and rites documented in this region are testimonies to a heterogeneity (Avar type horse burials, partial horse burials with one-edged swords, graves with swords furnishings without horse, Germanic or other non-Avar women etc), which allows assuming some organised communities (with political-military-economic purposes).
The various populations of the Carpathian Basin were quickly integrated (partly through structural assimilation) and organised into a political structure by the Avar elite conquering the central region of the basin. Analysing the complicated
political, group sociological and social-psychological phenomena (acculturation, assimilation, structural integration) (based upon the cemeteries that have been excavated) only by archaeological means is very relative and can lead to doubtful conclusions. The various theoretical constructions (ours is among them) can only be better founded (and not just hypothetical) if the archaeological publication of the excavated finds is accompanied by their anthropological, archaeozoological, DNA, strontium isotope, etc. analyses.
Syntheses of greater dimensions on acculturation, integration and assimilation with more exact and credible observations can only be written after these tasks are done!

Published in: Jörg Drauschke – Ewald Kislinger – Karin Kühtreiber – Thomas Kühltreiber – Gabriele Scharrer-Liška – Tivadar Vida (eds.), Lebenswelten zwischen Archäologie und Geschichte. Festschrift für Falko Daim zu seinem 65. Geburtstag (Monographien des RGZM, Band 150). Mainz 2018, pp. 311-324.


Based on palaeoenvironmental, historical and archaeological data, the paper proposes possible climatic impacts on the history of the Avar Khaganate, which comprised the Carpathian Basin between the late 6 th and the early 9 th century AD. While the establishment of the Avars in East Central Europe took place within a period characterised by cold and dry climatic conditions (recently identified as " Late Antique Little Ice Age "), more stable climatic parameters may have favoured the stabilisation of Avar rule after a crisis in the aftermath of 626 AD. Data indicates growth of settlement and agricultural activity up to the mid-8 th century. These developments did not necessarily strengthen central power, but may have contributed to a greater autonomy of various groups on the basis of increased resources. The Khaganate quickly disintegrated faced by the Carolingian advance of the 790s; the last decades of documented Avar presence were again accompanied by environmental vicissitudes.

The study provides a brief summary and comparison of the knowledge on settlements existing during the time of the so-called Avar Khaganate, with the focus being the territory of Slovakia and the eighth century, but to a great extent including also the research of settlements in Hungary and in the areas of the extended khaganate. The study does not intend to be a complete and exhaustive list of the proved phenomena but attempts to define the framework in which Central European national archaeologies have interpreted some selected questions of settlement archaeology. It compares the residential buildings and the material culture, predominantly ceramics, along with the location of the settlements in the landscape, microregional and macroregional settlement research. Archaeological knowledge is to a great extent confronted with the written sources and historical research. The final part of the study is devoted to the ethnic interpretation of the archaeological findings in terms of the settlements in the areas of the interpretation of residential buildings, ceramics and the hypothesis of the Slavic language of the khaganate. The study includes the reasons why the Avar Khaganate should be considered as one of the inspirational sources for the formation, emergence and existence of (Great) Moravia in the ninth century.

It hаs long been known that after the year 568 parts of the Germanic population were to be left within the limits of the newly-formed Avar Khaganate. This is best confirmed on large and thoroughly excavated sites, particularly in the cemeteries and the settlement at Kölked-Feketekapu. In the south of the Avar Khaganate, present-day northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, there is only a limited number of finds to testify to that effect. In this article, we are going to discuss a group of very interesting finds from Aradac (Aradka), and to list other finds of Germanic origin from this territory, coming from Bečej (Óbecse) and Bogojevo (Gombos). A special emphasis will be placed on the dating of these grave-finds.

In the late Avar period (from the beginning of the 8 th to the beginning of the 9 th century) there was a special ceramic type in the Carpathian basin which is only known from the Avar area. 3 The production technology and the quality of this pottery are different from those of the typical Avar handmade and slow-wheel potteries (Fig. 1). By processing the whole material, 4 we shall be able to identify where and how, for whom and on what models the yellow pottery was made. 5

Dietoften plays a vital rolein definingsocialdivisions within and between social groupsand thus can beusedto understandthe social paradigms of archeological cultures. During the Early Avar period (568–630 A.D.), burial evidence indicates that there were strong demarcations of social stratification and divisions between sexes and age groups; however, the symbols of intrapopulation heterogeneity become increasingly rare during the Late Avar period (680–822 A.D.). In this study, we investigate socialdifferences expressed throughdietinthe cemeterypopulationfromNuštar, eastern Croatia (eighthtoearly ninth century), todeterminewhetherdietarysocialdisparitiesexistedduringtheLateAvarperiodinthisregion.Stableisotopeanalysisofcarbon (δ13C) and nitrogen(δ15N) fromboneand dentinecollagenshows nodietary differences, neitherbetween high, middle, and low status individuals, nor between males, females, and juveniles. These results likely reflect the outcome of the social homogenization process that began after the failedAvar attack onConstantinople in 626 A.D. Geographical patterningis visible when the data from Nuštar is compared to data from other Middle and Late Avar sites. While Avar sites in the southern and south-eastern frontiers ofthe Avar qaganatedonot display dietary differencesbetween sexes,previousisotopicworkonpopulations inLower Austria shows that males consumed a higher proportion of animal protein than females. This is likely the result of Frankish influence and reflects diversity in social practices within the Avar qaganate itself during the Middle and Late Avar periods.

Conclusions drawn from the examination of burials with horse or horse-harness of the Avarian Age in the territory between
rivers Danube and Tisza are the following:
Burials with horse or horse-harness are not characteristic for this territory. Among Early Avarian sites Csepel-Háros should
be mentioned as a cemetery with an outstanding number of graves containing horse. Among Late Avarian ones the Szeged-
Makkoserdő cemetery is to be dealt with. The former is related to Transdanubia (Western Hungary) (W-E orientation,
graves with posts, Germanic connections of the finds), the latter to the territory east of Tisza (W-E orientation, niche-graves
of late type, more animal sacrifices).
Both in the Early and Late Avarian Age, graves containing horse are usually found in the narrow zone along the Danube
and Tisza. They are situated in one group in the cemetery and all the elements of the burial rite (orientation, shape of the
grave, sacrificial animals) suit well to the order of the cemetery. Practice of burying with a complete horse or part of it
accompanied only men all along the Avarian Age.
Judging from our data, at the territory in question, horse and equestrian graves were in custom only for a short time and
only in small, local communities. The earliest graves with horse come from among the early burials of cemeteries Gátér,
Csepel-Háros (second quarter of the 7th century) and Ürbőpuszta (mid-third of the 7th century). This custom continued to
exist after the mid-7th century in the Csepel-Háros and Ürbőpuszta community. It also appeared in several cemeteries that
started at that time: in Apostag, Dunavecse and Szabadszállás (in the western part of the territory between Danube and
Tisza), and in the Szeged-Makkoserdő cemetery in the southern part of the Great Hungarian Plain. At the end of the 7th
century, the practice of the burial with horse suddenly ceased. We still do not know what was the reason, but the Szeged-
Makkoserdő community returned to this tradition together with the niche-grave custom at the end of the 8th century.
Territorial distribution of the burials with horse-harness is similar to that of the graves with horse. The appearance of
the custom coincided with the earliest graves containing horse in the second quarter of the 7th century. In some of the
cemeteries started after the middle of the 7th century this custom sometimes appeared at the end of the century, when in the
territory between rivers Körös-Tisza-Maros, Avarians returned to the tradition of burying a complete horse.
Early burials with horse-harness, with the exception of the Szeghegy grave, can be connected with male burials. However, in
the second half of the Avarian Age this custom was practised mainly in the case of women.

The paper is devoted to a large group of Turkic-speaking Bulgarians who migrated to Bavaria, Carinthia and Italy in the 7th century. The author cites information from written sources about the Bulgarians led by Alzek and considers the correlation of these data with modern archaeological data.

Статья посвящена большой группе тюркоязычных болгар, мигрировавшей в VII веке в Баварию, Карантанию и Италию. Автор приводит сведения письменных источников о болгарах, предводительствуемых Алзеком, и рассматривает корреляцию этих сведений с современными археологическими данными.

A Special Burial Custom: ’Empty’ Graves in the Avar period. In the past decades researchers examining burial customs have recognised local phenomena pointing to the cultural diversity of the Avar population inhabiting the Carpathian Basin. Thus it has been proposed that several groups of different traditions and cultures may have coexisted in the territory of the Avars. In the recently excavated 7th–8th-century Avar cemeteries near Szekszárd (Szekszárd–Tószegi dűlő, Tolna–Mözs–Fehérvize-dűlő) another – already known (Szekszárd–Bogyiszlói út és Gyönk–Vásártér út cemetery) – characteristic phenomenon was observed that can now be regarded as a regional feature. The paper discusses this burial type – which has recently also been found in great numbers in the cemetery of Tolna–Mözs –, namely the empty graves containing no human remains. Empty burials have been known in cemeteries of the Avar Age, however, their number is usually insignificant compared to the total number of graves. The aim of this paper is to analyse the possible reasons for empty graves and to show that they were the result of a conscious custom, most probably intended as symbolic burials.

"The features dated to the Early Mediaeval Period were found during the excavations of the site Cífer, admin. part Pác (district Trnava). The site is situated on the slight elevation on the right bank of the brook Gidra, 140 metres over the sea level. The paper deals with the Early Mediaeval settlement of this poly-cultural site, well-known because of its Roman buildings. The catalogue of settlement features and finds is contained in the first part of paper (two sunken-floor houses, one oven, 5 storage pits with the pear-shaped section, 22 pits of other shape). The analysis, evaluation and interpretation of the facts is contained in the second part of paper. The burial ground with 119 graves was excavated nearby, with the evidence of continuity from 8th to 9th century. This might be probable indication of the Slavic ethnicity of inhabitants, settled here in the period of Avar Khaganate. The publication of the finds from Cífer-Pác widens our knowledge about the settlement structure of the area. Another approached topic is the Early Mediaeval settlement over the remains of the
Late Roman buildings."

The long-standing hypothesis about absence or low number of the settlements comparing them with burial grounds from the period of Avar Khaganate is no longer acceptable regarding the results of recent research and excavations. While the settlement of the Avar Khaganate period in Slovakia was the sole case in the 1930’s, number of new settlements has increased during the course of three or four decades by archaeological excavations. Ten settlement sites were known in 1988. Currently, the corpus of settlements from Slovakia contains 28 items with excavated features from the period of Avar Khaganate; other seven sites were found by surveys. Large corpuses are the most important. The aim of the present study is publication of features and material culture from the sites of Šaľa III (district of Šaľa), Úľany nad Žitavou and Pavlová (both in the Nové Zámky district). The study is also a general introduction to other two texts in the volume of Študijné zvesti AÚ SAV , focused on other two settlements of the Avar Khaganate period from Cífer, admin. part of Pác II and Kubáňovo II . The analysis and evaluation of the material is identical in all cases. Publication of the corpuses widens the archaeological sources for the period of 8th century AD. The settlements had no convincing traits of the status differences among the features or indications of their hierarchy, although the social stratification is observed in the Avar burial grounds. Sites with higher number of habitable features appear to be a dispersed form of settlement with several clusters of features. The thus far excavated settlements have shown that settlement forms in the period of Avar Khaganate do not differ significantly from Slavic rural settlements. This is not the evidence of the “Slavic ethnicity” of the forms of settlements (probably only the evidence of origin of some phenomena in Slavic milieu), but only a confirmation of similar or identical economic interrelations in the rural settlement structure. The traits from the settlement sites are evidence of the identical economic basis for the existence of Avar and Great Moravian ruling elite. The overview of other sites from the south-western Slovakia shows that there was no general rule for the establishment or abandonment of the settlements in the break of the 8th and 9th centuries. The diachronic differences between the horizons of the 8th and 9th century’s pottery are not yet well defined and regional differences possibly occur.

A fiatalon elhunyt Bende Lívia 2006-ban védett doktori disszertációjából megjelentetett kötet az avar kor második felére jellemző temetkezési szokásokat dolgozza fel egy jól körülhatárolható földrajzi régióban, a Körös-Tisza-Maros közén. 
Recenzió.

Studie byla publikována roku 1995 v Sborníku prací Filozofické fakulty brněnské univerzity. E, Řada archeologicko-klasická,1995, roč. 44, č. E 40 / The study was published in 1995 in the Acta of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Brno. E, Archaeological-Classical Series, roč. 44, č. E 40.

The grave 8 of the Avar cemetery from Mokrin was described about first by Gyula László in 1946. From among the finds, he reconstructed the two bone plates with meander ornaments as belt mounts. However, in my opinion, they did not belong to a belt but decorated a quiver. No similar bone slat ornamentation can be found among the Avar bone objects, the best parallels can be found between their meander band ornamentation and that of the rectangular slat hair-grips characteristic of the middle Avar Age finds and the incrusted chairs of the cemetery in Zamárdi.
The two bone plates lay across the waist, in more or less one axis. The former position of the slats of the Mokrin find resembles that of the bone slats on the birch-bark quiver found in kurgan 58 in the Mongun Tajga. The quiver unbound of the belt was placed on the abdomen of the dead body. The hook mount at the end of the left plate was used for hanging the quiver.
Narrow, ornamented bone slats are known from further six graves in the Avar age finds of the Carpathian Basis, which may have ornamented quivers similarly to the ones in Mokrin.The typical feature of these quivers is that none of them had curved brim plates, they were hung up by the support of looped hooks, no rectangle belt end or animal-head-shaped fittings belonged to them and there are no quiver belts ornamented with rosettes either.
For the time being, there is no data about the form and shaping of the brim of these quivers. The available data are not yet enough to decide whether the quivers ornamented with narrow slats, based on their from belong to the group of so called “collared” quivers, the top of which was truncated-cone-shaped, often with a lid, and only the system of their ornamentation differed from or were related to other quiver forms.
Among the ornamentation of quivers with bones, there are motifs which did not belong to the earliest types but appeared in the early Avar as well as in the middle Avar Age. Most of the discovery places of the quiver group are in a small geographical area, about 120 km along the Lower Tisza, they stretch close to the river between Csengele and Óbecse. Several types of quivers were discovered among the Avar Age finds. Most of them are “collared” quivers (type 1), which have been found in different varieties: ornamented with metal (Bócsa-type quivers) and carved bone plates (quivers with curved brim plates). The ornamentation of quivers with narrow, curved brims is an invention in the Carpathian Basis, it is not known whether they were used in the East.
Quivers ornamented with narrow slats supposedly belong to the group of “collared” quivers. Often only hanging hooks and mounts, rarely iron props seem to prove the one-time existence of quivers. Quivers of this type were not ornamented with carved slats (type 2). Most of them were typical for graves of high-rank men buried with swords decorated with gold and silver fittings and were outlined on the edge of the chieftains’ quarters in the central part of the region between the Danube and the Tisza Interflue in the middle third of the 7th century. Rarely, they had iron props. These quivers had a downward steadily widening form with a closed brim by eastern analogy (e.g. from Avilovka and Belozerka kurgan 31.).
Hopefully, quiver ornaments will later be found in Avar surroundings, which will clearly prove the former existence of quivers decorated with short bone slats, and will also provide data that will contribute to the reconstruction these quivers.

Abstract: Two graves, identical through their “funerary construction”, were discovered in the cemetery
from Șpălnaca/Șugud (Alba County), i.e. with mortuary pits that contained human bodies buried together
with horses. Through their constructive characteristics and through the position and orientation of the human
skeleton, different from that of the horse skeletons, the tow graves in Șpălnaca/Șugud are as yet unique finds
among the archaeological discoveries from Transylvania dated to the 7th – 8th centuries.
The two graves with entire horse skeletons from Șpălnaca/Șugud are not an isolated phenomenon among the
burials from the Carpathian Basin during the period of the Avar Khaganate. Graves of this type from Pannonia
and West of the Danube, just like the ones in Șpălnaca/Șugud, are not very numerous in Avar cemeteries as
compared to other types of graves with horses, but they did exist in the Carpathian Basin and became generalized during the 18th century.

Aleksinačko Pomoravlje i Sokobanjska kotlina jedno od centralnih područja Srbija, kud prolaze komunikacije kako  magistralnim pravcem sever-jug, tako i uporedničkim pravcima istok-zapad. Na ovom terenu nalazimo brojne arheološke ostatke.Касноантичке археолошке локалитете Алексинца и Соко Бање налазимо на низинским положајима у  моравској долини, док су рановизантијска налазишта углавном на висовима.

The subject of this contribution are two bronze Avar belt mounts discovered at the locality Pełczyska during an excavation made by the author and M. Trzeciecki in 2005. They are the first small finds recovered in the area associated with Slav occupation during the early tribal period (8th-10th c.?). The fieldwork was part of the Celtic Expedition from Institute of Archaeology University of Warsaw, in progress since 2000.The locality Pełczyska (distr. Pińczów, voi. świętokrzyskie) harbours a series of sites, of which possibly the best known is a Celtic settlement (investigated 1959-1973, 2000-2006) which when excavated yielded a truly impressive quantity of small finds dating from the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Early Iron Age, Pre-Roman and Roman Period, but no evidence to document occupation during later stages of the Migration Period and the Early Medieval Period. A recent aerial investigation (with kind cooperation from the K.Wieczorek, pilot) of the site of a late-medieval earthwork on Mt Olbrych (alternately, Mt Zawinnica) detected the remains of a filled-in 106 x 80 m ring ditch laid on a rectangular plan. While the back-fill of the ditch produced no stratigraphic sequence useful for dating it contained early medieval material: pottery and two remarkable Avar belt mounts which add to our understanding of the Avar connection in Małopolska. More research is needed for a fuller interpretation of Avar finds from Małopolska and for a more conclusive dating of the earthwork at Pełczyska.

The paper proposes a basis of theory with the aim of clarifying the casual nature of the relationship between the West Slavic and non-West Slavic Proto-Slavic base of the Slovak language. The paper links the absolute chronology of the Proto-Slavic language changes to historical and archaeological information about Slavs and Avars. The theory connects the ancient West Slavic core of the Proto-Slavic base of the Slovak language with Sclaveni, and non-West Slavic core with Antes, which are connected to the later population in the middle Danube region. It presumes emergence and further expansion of the Slavic koiné, originally based on the non- West Slavic dialects, with subsequent influence on language of the western Slavic tribes settled in the north edge of the Avar Khaganate. The paper also contains a periodization of particular language changes related to the situation in the Khaganate of that time.