Attila Türk

Освещен опыт работы Российско-венгерской археологической школы, основанной на базе экспедиции Лаборатории археологии и этнографии Института социально-гуманитарных наук совместно с Католическим университетом им. Петера Пазманя, Академией наук Венгрии, Тюменским научным центром ИПОС СО РАН

Проблема розповсюдження арабських саманідських монет
на землях Карпато-Дунайського ареалу є однією з ключових в
сучасній гунгарології. Картографування показало їх кількісне
домінування на території Закарпатської області України, але ця, на
перший погляд, дивна статистика оманлива. Більшість номіналів, а
це сотні екземплярів, з найпізнішою емісією 934/936 рр., походять
з Мараморошського скарбу, який в науковій літературі ще отримав
назву Хустський. За його винятком в області відомі лише три
дирхеми з трьох місцезнаходжень (поховання № 3 ґрунтового
могильника Чома, поселення Буча та Малокопанське городище).

Під час проведення розвідок у 1985 р. в Берегівському
районі Закарпатської області України археологічна експедиція
Кемеровського державного університету (керівник Віктор Бобков)
отримала інформацію від місцевих жителів, що біля с. Чома в
ході будівництва колгоспного винного льоху в 1959 р. землекопи
виявили поховання кочівника. Знайдені залізні стремена, вудила,
«меч», наконечники стріл і цілий кістяк коня були передані в
місцевий шкільний музей, де з часом були загублені. У ході
подальших польових досліджень встановлено, що це було не
одиничне захоронення, а частина ґрунтового могильника Х ст. н.е.
(68 поховань).

В останні роки спостерігається стрімкий процес розвитку
археологічного технічного обладнання і суттєвий прогрес
інформаційних мереж, що призводить до значного розширення і
наповнення існуючих баз даних. Відповідно збільшуються вимоги
до аналітичної діяльності в сфері атрибуції накопичених матеріалів

During the most recent research of the Kiszombor 'E' (former farmstead of J. Kiss) site, first excavated in 1930 by Ferenc Móra, it was discovered in 2003 that the Avar and Hungarian Conquest period's cemeteries under investigation were established on the top of a prehistoric kurgan. Already in 1930, a prehistoric contracted burial was uncovered, and finally, in 2003, the central burial of the kurgan was found-unfortunately in a 'headless state' due to the disturbance by a later grave. The present study attempts to report on these two prehistoric burials associated with the construction of the kurgan based on the available data.

The article analyzes the early medieval grave Glinoe 13/2 investigated in 2008 on the left bank of the Lower Dniester. The burial was sunk into the Scythian barrow. The inventory included a knife, an earring, an awl and a fireflint. The sheep femur lay behind the skull of the buried. An analysis of the funerary rite and inventory made it possible to date the Glinoe 13/2 grave to the 9th—10th centuries. Radiocarbon dating of human and sheep bones made it possible to specify the time of the internment until the end of the 9th — the first half of the 10th century. An analysis of the peculiarities of the placement of sacrificial food remains and the composition of species in it in the medieval burials of the North Black Sea region confirms the Early Hungarian attribution of the published grave. This burial is included in the group of Early Hungarian graves near the Glinoe village, which reflects the presence of a large family in this microregion. These circumstances, together with the date of the Frumusica graves and evidence from the written sources, allow us to state the presence of the Early Hungarians in the Lower Dniester region at the beginning of the 10 th century.

A tanulmany egy 10. szazadi temető hitelesitő asatasa soran előkerult sirt ismertet, tovabba foglalkozik a sirbol előkerult, egy, a magyar kutatas altal mindeddig nem azonositott, agancsbol faragott targy funkcionalis meghatarozasaval. A szerzők attekintik es ertekelik az ijmarkolat reszekent meghatarozott targytipust, illetve Karpat-medencei parhuzamait, bemutatva annak kelet-europai kapcsolatrendszeret is.

Early Hungarian burials, previously being unidentified in the North-West Black Sea region, were confidently localized in this territory over the past decade. Among them, there is a plane grave near the Frumuşica village, discovered occasionally on the right bank of the Middle Dniester in 1975 and published in 1981 as the Golden Horde burial. The inventory consisted of a knife, a firesteel with fire flint, bone plates on the bow, arrowheads, ornamented bone plates on the quiver, a bone end of the arrowhead. Analysis of the materials showed that the complex from Frumuşica is the burial of a warrior-archer from the early Hungarian migrations period. The commonality of the details of the funerary rite, the identity of the items of the inventory and the chronology of things make it possible to quite definitely attribute this site to the group of Hungarian graves of the first third of the 10th centuries, studied in the North-West Black Sea region).

The article presents the results of a multidisciplinary study of a unique artifact from burial 8 of the Krasnogorskiy ancient Mari burial ground of the X century – a leather purse/handbag with a metal plate on the cover. Handbags of this type are known in the Carpathian Basin, Eastern European region and even found on some Scandinavian burial grounds. Not only the metal plate has been preserved, but also large fragments of organic materials forming the details of the handbag, which allows us to restore the full appearance of the item. A comprehensive study of the handbag made it possible to make a complete reconstruction. At present, this is the only reconstruction of purses /handbags of the sabretache type from medieval burial grounds, made on the basis of analyses of organic and metal parts of the handbag obtained by specialists of various fields. The conservation of the object was carried out by applying the comprehensive study. A specialized study of the materials used in the ma...

The authors consider the easternmost finds of toreutics of the "Hungarian style" from the archaeological sites of the Yudino culture of the forest Trans-Urals. An analysis of the materials showed that these products appeared in the Trans-Urals after the ancient Hungarians had migrated to the territory of the Carpathian basin. The "Magyar" group of items occured in the closed complexes of the Trans-Urals together with the imported items from the Upper Irtysh River region, Altai, the Upper Kama River region and the Southern Urals. Therefore, the authors assumed that the products of the "Hungarian style" got in the Trans-Urals at the end of the 9th–10th centuries as a result of trade relations. Most likely, the transfer of imports was not carried out directly from the Carpathian groups to the Trans-Urals, but through the mediation of the Eastern European population.

In 2004, a tenth-century, Conquest Period isolated burial of a man was excavated in southeast Hungary, near Zsombó (Fig. 1; 2. 1). The burial contained elements of archery equipment and horse-harness as grave-goods (Fig. 2; Fig. 3. 1-6; Fig 4. 1-2; Fig. 5). Beside the latter, a rare object of unknown function, made of twisted wire with rectangular looped terminals, was discovered (Fig. 3. 4; Fig. 5. 5; 6. la -b ). The aim of the article is the analysis of this object and its analogies (Fig. 6). This rare object type was probably a fastening, clamping, stiffening or ornamental element of an object made of organic material. We have information about six more similar objects from the published material from Hungary (Table 1), one of which was found in a settlement, the others in burials. Similar, although formally somewhat different, objects are known from the Gépid and Avar periods as well (Fig. 8). Among Hungarian researchers only István Dienes analyzed this object type, and defined ...

В фондах Волынского краеведческого музея на хранении находится инвентарь (серебряные, бронзовые украшения и арабские монеты) из средневекового погребения, исследованного в 2014 г. у с. Рованцы Луцкого р-на Волынской обл. Украины экспедицией ГП «Волынские древности». Среди погребального инвентаря комплекса № 5 выделяются остатки налучья, представленные различными накладками. Они имеют аналогии на территории Венгрии и относятся к хорошо известным в Европе вещам «венгерского облика» Х в. Уточнение датировки этого погребения, обнаруженного к северо-востоку от Карпат, представляет особый интерес для анализа материалов из Карпатской котловины. Данное захоронение в очередной раз подтверждает, что наиболее яркие вещи «венгерского облика» из погребений, расположенных на якобы «северном пути продвижения венгров Алмоша», не выступают маркерами конца IX в.

The Ural region had an important role in ancient Hungarians’ ethnogenesis based on archaeological, linguistic
and historical sources, although the results of these research fields exhibit differences of chronological and
cultural aspects. The new mitogenome, Y-chromosome and shallow shotgun autosomal DNA sequence data
from the South-Urals presented here confirms the region’s relevance from population genetic perspective too.
The overall maternal makeup of the investigated 36 samples from the Ural region in a phylogenetic and phylogeographic
point of view suggests a mixed characteristic of rather western and rather eastern components,
although the paternal lineages are more homogenous with Y-haplogroups typical for the Volga-Ural region.
The exact assignment of each mitochondrial haplotype of the Trans-Uralic Uyelgi population to the Eastern
and Western Eurasian components is impossible, but comprehensive representatives are present. Mitochondrial
haplogroups of European origin N1a1a1a1a and H40b provide a horizon-through success of maternal
lineages with inner diversification, which suggests a base population of a rather western characteristics. On
the other hand, identical (C4a1a6) or single (A, A12a, C4a2a1) haplotypes with strong eastern phylogeography,
highly pronounced in the third horizon, suggest a relatively recent admixture to this population. The
apparent co-occurrence of genetic and archaeological shift is however contradicted by the homogeneity of
ancestry components, nuclear genomic PCA positions, homogeneity of paternal makeup (although this one
itself can be explained by patrilocality), and presence of eastern component (C4a1a6) in all horizons. Despite
the fact that the genetic contribution of a population related to the Srostki culture cannot be excluded at this
level, it is more likely that the majority of eastern components admixed before the usage of the Uyelgi cemetery.
The uniparental genetic composition of Uyelgi population signals them as a chronologically and/or geographically
related population to the possible genetic source of the Hungarian conquerors. Furthermore, their
preliminary autosomal results show that they shared their allele frequency makeup with modern Uralic and
West Siberian populations that are linguistically or historically related to Hungarians, which provide a good
standpoint for future studies. The maternal phylogenetic connections of Uyelgi with Hungarian conquerors
can be divided to indirect (monophyletic but not successive) and direct (identical or one-step neighbour) relationships.
Interestingly, indirect connections can be genetically assigned to the western-characteristic base
population, whereas direct connections are almost exclusive to the admixed eastern component. One possible
explanation for this phenomenon is that Hungarian conquerors and Uyelgi shared common ancestry in the
past that separated prior eastern admixture, latter which provided genetic components subsequently to both
groups. The exact origin or identification of the eastern component yet to be described, however, nuclear
admixture proportions and loose phylogenetic connections points towards Central Asia. The phylogenetic
makeup of Cis-Ural region questions their compactness or successiveness; however, the scarce data does not
allow extensive analysis for this group. Hungarian conqueror lineage-based connections here are sporadic,
but regional affinity is observable, which is more pronounced in MDS and PCA. Earlier studies based solely
on the genetic makeup of Hungarian conquerors tend to connect the non-European lineages to various eastern
regions, but especially the presence of rare Eastern Eurasian haplotypes in the Late Iron Age and Early
Medieval Cis-Ural group may reshape these conclusions in the future. In subsequent studies, we plan to
extend the presented dataset with high coverage genomic analyses and including samples from further East
European cemeteries of ancient Hungarians and their neighbouring communities.

Exact origin and migration route of Early Hungarians remained an open question to this day, while a number of hypotheses exist to address this issue. We collected hundred samples from the Volga-Ural region
covering 18 sites of wide chronological distribution from 3rd to 14th centuries AD. Our intention was to provide genetic evidences to this topic and also to give access to this genetically sparsely explored area.
Our analyses covered all parts of the genome, and while we are able to bring preliminary results concerning uniparental (mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome) markers, the sampling and the research on the
nuclear genome is still an ongoing process. Our sampling was mainly driven by archaeological and linguistic evidences, where we tend to choose bone material from graves with Early Hungarian connections
in material culture. One site, called Uyelgi, which particularly attracted our interest is a large cemetery of the late Kushnarenkovo culture from the Trans-Ural region. This archaeological culture had extensive
material connections to Early Hungarians, and our mitochondrial DNA results indicate considerable relationship between them. Compare with maternal lineages their paternal makeup was more homogeneous
lineage-wise, comprising almost exclusively of paternal lineage, N1a-M46, that proven to be an indicator for Uralic language family connections, and is particularly specific to certain Ugric groups, including
Hungarians, but also to Bashkirs. Another site, called Bolshie Tigany can be classified as the most western extension of Kushnarenkovo/Karayakupovo culture, and similarly to Uyelgi, it shows intensive relations to Early Hungarians. One group consisting a number of sites in the Western side of the Ural Mountains is
the Cis-Ural group with considerable archaeological connections to Early Hungarians, is proven to be phylogenetically poorly connected to the 10th century Carpathian Basin. However, the small number of samples
and the mitochondrial lineage proportions keep space for revealing further affinities. Unfortunately, due to weak DNA preservation, further study of these samples is challenging. Another site, called Gulyukovo
represents the so called Chiyalikskaya culture in our dataset. These people could be identified with those Eastern Hungarians that Friar Julian found during his expedition in the 13th century, which was mostly supported by our preliminary results through the connections of the preceding population of Bolshie Tigany. Following historical, archaeological and linguistic references, we analysed samples from cemeteries of the Baraba steppes that can be classified as proto-obi-ugric. These people are the closest linguistic relatives of Hungarians, which raises the possibility of biological relationships as well. Our current results indicate a rather loose genetic relationship between Early Hungarians and these population, which is in accordance
with the linguistic and historical evidences.
We also included a so-called Samara group that consist of cemeteries from the borderlands of Early Hungarians
and the Khazar Khaganate. As expected, we found only limited relations between the two groups either regarding the paternal or maternal makeup. Our preliminary results are a doorway to further understanding
of the regions’ population movements, which according to literature and our data, experienced an outstandingly extensive migration history, that produced immense challenges for archaeogenetics.

В работе обсуждаются самые восточные находки торевтики «мадьярского круга», происходящие из памятников юдинской культуры лесного Зауралья. Анализ материалов показал, что данные изделия появляются на восточных склонах Урала уже после
того, как древние венгры мигрировали на территорию Карпатского бассейна. В закрытых комплексах Зауралья «мадьярская» группа вещей залегает совместно с импортными изделиями из Верхнего Прииртишья и Алтая, Верхнего Прикамья и Южного Урала,
не представляя собой чистых комплексов. В связи с этим выдвинуто предположение, что изделия «мадьярского круга» попадали на территорию Зауралья в конце IX–X вв. в результате торговых связей. При этом передача импорта, скорее всего, осуществля-
лась не напрямую – от карпатских коллективов зауральским, а при посредничестве восточноевропейского населения.

Статья посвящена обзору итогов IV Международного Мадьярского симпозиума, состоявшегося 15–19 октября 2018 г. в Казани–Болгаре. Анализируя содержание докладов, прочитанных участниками симпозиу-ма, авторы выделяют наиболее существенные аспекты в современных взглядах на уральскую прародину древ-них мадьяр-венгров и делают вывод о том, что сама по себе проблема уральской прародины древних венгров уже перестает быть таковой. Все имеющиеся на сегодняшний день археологические материалы свидетельству-ют о том, что первоначальные границы угро-мадьярского ареала (до исхода венгров), охватывали обширную область, включающую районы Среднего и Южного Урала.

The article analyzes the early medieval grave Glinoe 13/2 investigated in 2008 on the left bank of the Lower Dniester. The burial was sunk into the Scythian barrow. The inventory included a knife, an earring, an awl and a fireflint. The sheep femur lay behind the skull of the buried. An analysis of the funerary rite and inventory made it possible to date the Glinoe 13/2 grave to the 9th—10th centuries. Radiocarbon dating of human and sheep bones made it possible to specify the time of the internment until the end of the 9th — the first half of the 10th century. An analysis of the peculiarities of the placement of sacrificial food remains and the composition of species in it in the medieval burials of the North Black Sea region confirms the Early Hungarian attribution of the published grave. This burial is included in the group of Early Hungarian graves near the Glinoe village, which reflects the presence of a large family in this microregion. These circumstances, together with the d...

A Zápolya utca (néhai Dosztojevszkij utca) név alatt ismert lelőhely Kolozsvár főterétől mintegy 1430 m-re DK-re található, Szamos III., alsó Kövespadnak nevezett teraszának É-i peremén. Mivel a legtöbbet idézett 10. századi erdélyi lelőhelyről van szó, számos elemzés tárgya volt már korábban is, elsősorban abban a kontextusban, hogy mikor és milyen körülmények között szállták meg a honfoglaló magyarok Erdélyt. Mivel 2017-ben a múzeumi revízió során előkerült a temető antropológiai anyaga, illetve újabb tárgyak (köztük egy szablya) is, kutatócsoportot hoztunk létre az újra leltározott és rendbe tett temető hagyatékának teljes feldolgozására. A munkába a napjainkban már nélkülözhetetlen természettudományos vizsgálatokat is bevontuk, így összetett elemzésre volt módunk, amely elsősorban a temetkezések pontosabb keltezését érinti. Ennek eredményeként ma már elmondhatjuk, hogy a temető egyetlen sírjának megásását sem keltezhetjük 925‒930 elé, míg a temető felső időhatárát 970‒980 körül ...

A tanulmány a 10–13. századi Észak- és Kelet-Európa egy jellegzetes tárgytípusának, a balta alakú amuletteknek a magyarországi leleteit, illetve azok kapcsolatrendszerét mutatja be. A lelettípusnak sokáig csak egy Kárpát-medencei példányát ismertük, az utóbbi években azonban ugrásszerűen megnőtt a hazánkban előkerült darabok száma, ami a legfrissebb kelet-európai elterjedési térképek alapján várható volt. A miniatürizált tárgyak, köztük a balta alakú amulettek használatának hagyománya valószínűleg Skandináviából indult ki a korai középkorban, de széles körű kelet-európai elterjedésük a 11. században egyértelműen a Rusz aktivitásához köthető. A tárgytípust a Kárpát-medence kora Árpád-kori hagyatékában a magyar kutatás eddig a Ruszból érkező zsoldosokhoz kötötte, mint importleletet. Jelen tanulmány minden eddiginél nagyobb adatbázis és nemzetközi szakirodalom alapján foglalja össze ismereteinket erről a korábban kissé egyoldalúan értékelt tárgyról. Az új darabok részletes közlése mell...

The Stara Bulgaria Collection (Varna) consists mainly of small metal objects (belt and horse harness mounts, buckles and lead moulds for such pieces) dating from the 7th–11th centuries and originating from Northeast Bulgaria. The present article deals only with those pieces of the collection which show strong similarities with the Vrap–Erseke-group and seeks to consider the wider context of these finds. The significance of the objects presented here lies first of all in the fact that they show some features of the Vrap–Velino-group, but in most cases only in a simplified form. The Stara Bulgaria collection of Varna seems to corroborate the conclusion that the elite culture represented by the Vrap find was present in a certain way in Bulgaria as well, but cannot be regarded as a widespread phenomenon, since the ornaments of the Vrap group were applied to simple bronze imitations only in a quite simplified form. The impact of the Vrap–Velino-group is most clearly discernible in the ch...

В статье анализируется раннесредневековый погребальный комплекс Плавни-II 1/2, исследованный в 1990 г. на левобережье Нижнего Дуная. Погребение было впущено в курган раннего бронзового века. В состав инвен-таря входили пара боевых ножей, костяные накладки на лук, колчан со стрелами, золотая фольга. На одном из фрагментов фольги находится изображение мужского лица. Анализ погребального обряда и инвентаря по-зволил датировать захоронение Плавни-II 1/2 второй половиной IX – первыми десятилетиями X в. и связать его с древними венграми. Исследованный комплекс дополняет список погребальных памятников, маркирую-щих территорию обитания венгерских племен перед обретением родины.

The study describes the finds uncovered in Grave 33 of the burial ground investigated at Sárbogárd-Tringer-tanya and offers a new assessment of the grave goods, with a particular focus on the remains of a leather belt and leather purse as well as the remnants of a leather garment, whose 10th-century use could thus be conclusively demonstrated in the period’s archaeological legacy. The examination of the archaeological finds by a conservator specialising in leather provides many new insights into the leatherworking of the ancient Hungarians of the 10th century. 10th-century leatherworking was practiced on a much higher level than earlier believed. The finds from Sárbogárd provide evidence that the tanners of the 10th century were familiar with alum tawing and, also, that the various leather articles whose workmanship surpassed the more simple objects made as part of a home craft industry were created by highly skilled leatherworkers.

Наше исследование показывает распространение одного из характерных для Северной и Восточной Европы предметов XI–XIII вв. – амулетов-топориков. Долгое время был известен лишь один экземпляр из Венгрии, но в последние годы их количество резко возрасло, что ожидаемо, так как подобные предметы – не редкость для Центральной и Восточной Европы. Использование миниатюрных предметов, в том числе амулетов-топориков, началось в Скандинавии в раннем средневековье, но их широкое распространение с XI в. в Восточной Европе однозначно связано с Русью. Венгерские исследователи обычно предполагали, что они распространялись вместе с наемниками из Руси. В данной статье мы используем широкую базу данных и объемный корпус западноевропейской литературы для освещения нового аспекта о происхождении данного артефакта в Карпатском бассейне в XI–XIII вв.

In researching the archaeology of the Hungarian Conquest period, the analysis of organic remains with modern scientific techniques has sparked increasing interest in the past decades.1 Despite being a rare find – and mostly only fragmentarily preserved – organic remains are an immensely rich source of data. Among them, textile fragments are to be mentioned in the first place. In regard to materials from the 10th century, two categories of textiles could be identified thus far. Linen, of which there was a more dense (better quality), and another, of inferior quality. On the other hand, there has been also a number of silk finds found (a textile often associated with the Hungarians in the written sources), moreover, their different knitting patterns could be also identified. Most of the silk finds recovered thus far were samite (samitum), almost without exception, demonstrating that this was a generally widespread type of fabric in this period. A different type of silk (taqueté) was d...

Early Hungarian history, better known as Hungarian prehistory, is a research area with scarce written sources. Consequently, archaeology, as a scientifi c discipline boasting a rapidly increasing number of sources, may acquire signifi cant importance in this area. This is a fact even if from a methodological perspective, the historical and ethnic assessment of archaeological fi ndings must satisfy much stricter criteria than before. To arrive at a reliable historical interpretation, we would need to be familiar with the ethnic identity of the original owners of the archaeological fi ndings as well as with their political affi liation, which obviously surpasses the scope of archaeology. Nevertheless, thorough knowledge about the contemporary, signifi cant archaeological diff erences between the Eastern European grassy and forest steppes, forest regions, and the microregions of the former makes it possible to research migration with traditional archaeological methods. Completing our i...

A honfoglalás kori hagyaték régészeti kutatásában az utóbbi évtizedben egyre nagyobb szerepet kaptak a szervesanyag-maradványok1 és azok modern vizsgálati módszerei. A ritka lelettípus ugyanis töredékessége ellenére hatalmas információs bázisnak bizonyult. Közöttük első helyen a textiltöredékeket említhetjük, amelyekről összefoglalóan elmondhatjuk, hogy a 10. századi hagyatékban ma már azonosíthatunk egy jobb (sűrűbb), és egy gyengébb minőségű lenvászon textilt. Ugyanakkor folyamatosan bővült a magyarokkal kapcsolatos írott forrásokból jól ismert selyemleletek száma is, sőt kötéstani szempontból már itt is több változatot tudunk elkülöníteni. Korábban a selyemmaradványok között szinte kivétel nélkül csak samitokat ismertünk, amely általánosan elterjedt típus volt a vizsgált korszakban. A 2012-es tarpai megfigyelést2 követően azonban 2016-ban, szintén Kelet-Magyarországon, Derecske határában egy újabb taqueté szövésű selyemlelet került elő. Az itt bemutatásra kerülő derecskei lelet r...

Early Hungarian history is a research area with scarce written sources. Archaeology, as a scientific discipline boasting a rapidly increasing number of sources, may acquire significant importance in this area. Nevertheless, thorough knowledge about the contemporary, significant archaeological differences between the Eastern European grassy and forest steppes, forest regions, and the microregions of the former makes it possible to research migration with traditional archaeological methods. For archaeology, the fundamental question about early Hungarian history has been the same to this day: from the archaeological finds of the territory stretching from the Urals to the Carpathian Basin. One of them proceeds from the Urals towards the Carpathians, referred to as the linear method, while the other takes the 10th-century heritage of the Carpathian Basin as a point of departure and looks for the Eastern European antecedents – this is the retrospective method

Aiming to better understand the early Hungarians’ origin and migration, our research group analyse medieval populations from the principal sites of the supposed migration. These populations are from diverse geographic locations (Ural region, Volga-Kama region) and represent different periods (6-12th AD) and cultures, but they have archaeological connection with each other and with the early Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin.
At the center of our ongoing investigations is the mitochondrial DNA. Our work ranges from sampling from archaic bones to the determination of the whole mitochondrial genomes by next generation sequencing and to the statistically and phylogenetically analysis of the data.

From Esztergom to the Urals and Syria.
From the Early History of the Hungarians
to the Crusaders

LECTORI SALUTEM!

“ Let us gather and preserve our relics,
lest they be lost forever,
lest our past be a void,
our present poorer,
and our future dubious.”
Arnold Ipolyi (1823–1886)
Bishop of Nagyvárad


Introduction and the history of the Institute of Archaeology
Christianity and Christian beliefs were among the perhaps most signifi cant elements of Late Antiquity and of the
Hungarian and universal Middle Ages, as attested by countless relics throughout Europe and the Near East. These
relics are part of the shared cultural heritage of modern societies, irrespective of whether or not their populations
profess Christianity.
The Hungarian Catholic Church and its members have played a prominent role in the birth of this discipline
in Hungary, in raising interest in archaeology and in the elaboration of appropriate fi eld techniques. Interest in
the early Christian period can be strongly felt in the writings of Péter Pázmány and the university founded by
him was the fi rst Hungarian institution which in 1777 established a Department of Coins and Antiquities under
the directorship of István Schönvisner, the later canon of Nagyvárad. This department conducted the very fi rst
excavation in Hungary in 1778 in Óbuda, the location of Roman Aquincum, in the area now called Flórián Square.
The driving spirits of modern archaeological scholarship in Hungary were two high-ranking Catholic priests
active in the 19th century: Arnold Ipolyi, bishop of Besztercebánya and later of Nagyvárad, who launched and
edited the archaeological journal Archaeologiai Közlemények in 1860, and Flóris Rómer, canon of Nagyvárad, who
in recognition of his outstanding work and achievements has been honoured with the title “Father of Hungarian
Archaeology”.
Being a university maintained by the Hungarian Catholic Church, which is in possession of historic buildings
and other cultural treasures of inestimable value, the archaeological education and training undertaken at the
university’s Faculty of Humanities is conducted with the purpose of serving both ecclesiastic and social needs.

ARCHÄOLOGISCHE DATEN UND NATURWISSENSCHAFTLICHE ERGEBNISSE
ZUR GESCHICHTE DES 10. JAHRHUNDERTS DES WESTLICHEN UFERS
DER MURESCH-MÜNDUNg

Während der vergangenen zwei Jahrzehnten kamen
auf der Westseite der Marosch-Mündung im Rahmen
von Rettungsgrabungen zahlreiche neue landnahmezeitlichen
Gräbergruppen und Gräberfeldern
zu Vorschein (Abb. 1). Diese Funde und Befunde
aktuell und modern dokumentiert, lieferten auch
Grabungsbeobachtungen, die eine zeitgemäße Neubearbeitung
und -bewertung der Altfunde in den
Sammlungen der Museen ermöglichen. Gleichzeitig
bieten sie Gelegenheit zur Überprüfung früherer
Synthesen sowie zur Untersuchung einiger archäologischer
und historischer Fragen, wie bspw. die
Umstrukturierung der Machtverhältnisse, welches
das Thema des vorliegenden Aufsatzes bildet.