Csilla Balogh

The so far known largest Avar period cemetery of the Carpathian Basin, covering a 5-5.5 hectare large area, is situated within the territory of the city of Zamárdi located on the southern bank of Lake Balaton. Nearly 2700 graves of the cemetery have been excavated until now, and almost the same amount is uncovered yet. Although onetime robbers ravaged and looted 95% of the graves, the cemetery is one of the richest find places of the period. Its various grave goods attest to the multi-rooted material culture of the community once using the cemetery, their ethnical complexity, and diverse commercial connections, as well as the cultural influences that arrived from various directions. Apart from eastern, nomadic cultural roots, local, Late Antique Byzantine and Germanic elements also formed the culture of this community.
The scientific processing and publication of the find material recovered from the 2368 graves until 1997 is finished already. However, only a few information have come to light so far regarding the results of the excavation restarted in 2015, since the restoration and the processing of the finds is still in progress. Even so, we decided to give a foretaste of our recent results by presenting some new phenomena and interesting find assemblages. Our observations fit well with the results of the earlier research, therefore we selected artefacts and groups of artefacts from the material of the previous excavations too, thus aiming to offer an overview of the most important characteristics of the cemetery. We infused life into our professional results by colourful reconstruction drawings.
The excavation of the cemetery continues, and we hope that the uncovering of each and every new grave contributes to our effort to show an even more precise and authentic image to laymen and professionals about the Avar period community that once used the cemetery in Zamárdi-Rétiföldek.

The so far known largest Avar period cemetery of the Carpathian Basin, covering a 5-5.5 hectare large area, is situated within the territory of the city of Zamárdi located on the southern bank of Lake Balaton. Nearly 2700 graves of the cemetery have been excavated until now, and almost the same amount is uncovered yet. Although onetime robbers ravaged and looted 95% of the graves, the cemetery is one of the richest find places of the period. Its various grave goods attest to the multi-rooted material culture of the community once using the cemetery, their ethnical complexity, and diverse commercial connections, as well as the cultural influences that arrived from various directions. Apart from eastern, nomadic cultural roots, local, Late Antique Byzantine and Germanic elements also formed the culture of this community.
The scientific processing and publication of the find material recovered from the 2368 graves until 1997 is finished already. However, only a few information have come to light so far regarding the results of the excavation restarted in 2015, since the restoration and the processing of the finds is still in progress. Even so, we decided to give a foretaste of our recent results by presenting some new phenomena and interesting find assemblages. Our observations fit well with the results of the earlier research, therefore we selected artefacts and groups of artefacts from the material of the previous excavations too, thus aiming to offer an overview of the most important characteristics of the cemetery. We infused life into our professional results by colourful reconstruction drawings.
The excavation of the cemetery continues, and we hope that the uncovering of each and every new grave contributes to our effort to show an even more precise and authentic image to laymen and professionals about the Avar period community that once used the cemetery in Zamárdi-Rétiföldek.

A regional landfill was set up at the border of Felgyő in 2006 that made excavations in the area necessary. In 2006 the excavation covered 103.000 m2, then in 2007 it included a further 10.444 m2 on the area of the access road and the drain to the establishment. Besides signs of settlements from the Bronz Age and the Sarmatian period, an Avar settlement was excavted on site abounding in archaeological features. The Avar features are scattered at the whole excavation site. The boundaries of the settlement was not found, it means that the size of the settlement was wider than 11 hectares. According to our present knowledge, this Avar settlement, excavated in Felgyő-Kettőshalmi dűlő at the Farago-tanya (homestead), is one of the largest among the settlements of similar age in the Carpathian Basin.
During the excavation 4.665 archaeological features were discovered, 1.280 features – 6 graves and 1.274 settlement features – derive certainly from the Avar period on the grounds of the superposition of the finds and the features. It is also likely that amongst the 1.364 as unknown and 136 as belonging to the Migration period classified features can be some that rather belong to the Avar period of the site.
By reason of the ceramic materials we can surely outline 2 phases of chronology: first phase can be dated from the three-third of the 7th century, on the basis of chronological place of the baking bells and earthen cauldrons we can date the second phase of the settlement to the 8th century, but if we take the wheel-made ceramics into consideration we can extend this date to the early 9th century.

This book is a partly revised and updated version of my doctoral thesis, A Duna-Tisza köze avar kori betelepülésének problémái [The settlement of the Avars in the Danube–Tisza interfluve], defended in 2014. The main goal of the thesis was to address the issue of the occupation and settlement of the Danube–Tisza interfluve through the collection, classification and assessment of the region’s Avar-period finds, most of which were unpublished. The issues discussed in the thesis were not restricted to the region’s occupation, namely to the question of who had arrived to the region first and why, and how they took possession of the region; I also examined whether there is any evidence for the subsequent arrival and settlement of other groups and for internal migrations, and I also examined the responses of the communities living in the region to the various processes in the Avar Khaganate, how they reacted to environmental changes, the communication of the communities living in the region with other areas within and beyond the Avar Khaganate, and their “official” and interpersonal contacts.
The text of the thesis was slightly revised later, and a few new chapters were added which addressed in greater detail certain issues that had received less attention in the thesis. This book therefore offers a more comprehensive picture of the Avar-period archaeological relics of the Danube-Tisza interfluve known to date. Despite the roughly seventy thousand graves known from some two and half thousand sites in the Carpathian Basin, we still lack regional overviews of burial customs and find assemblages based on a systematic collection and comprehensive assessment of the relevant material, even though many questions can only be answered in general terms and, very often, but vaguely in the lack of such systemising works. This study seeks to offer a comprehensive overview of the Avar period in the Danube–Tisza interfluve, which can serve as a basis for further research in this region and as a comparative material for other regions in the Carpathian Basin.

Rec.: http://files.archaeolingua.hu/2017TA/recenzi%f3_balogh_eng_17ta.pdf

The archaeological research of the conquering Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin began in 1834, more than 180 years ago, with the excavation of the first conquering Hungarian burial in Hungary. Since then, we have been trying to get to know the earliest history of the Hungarian people lost in the distant past with the help of many disciplines, since it is a period that is poor in written sources. In addition to linguistic and historical research, archeology, and more recently, closely related archaeometry and archaeogenetic studies provide the most new data.
There is a long tradition of researching clothing in the archaeological research of the conquering Hungarians. Since neither contemporary depictions nor written sources with detailed descriptions are known in this regard, we can primarily form an image of the former clothing based on archaeological finds and excavation observations. In the climatic conditions of the Carpathian Basin, not much remains of the magnificent clothes of the past, so we can basically base it on the examination of the observed position of metal clothing ornaments in graves, and the few textile remains. In addition, we can use the clothing of the steppe peoples and, to a lesser extent, ethnographic data as a parallel for the oriental clothing of the conquering Hungarians.
The study aims to briefly summarize what we have learned so far about the clothing of the conquering Hungarians based on archaeological research. As part of this, what we have found out so far about the material, color, value, and cut of clothing will be briefly presented, and the data on overgarments and undergarments, headgear, belts, and footwear will be discussed in groups. Wearing jewelry was closely related to clothing, so we briefly present the most popular types of jewelry among the conquering Hungarians.

This article aims to briefly summarize the knowledge about the hairstyles and hair ornaments of men in the Avar period. Several of the contemporary sources mention long, braided hair of the Avar men, which they decorated with colorful ribbons. However, we only rarely find traces of this striking hairstyle in the Avar Period depictions. Therefore, at the examination of Avar hairstyles we must mainly rely on the richest and most important group of sources, which are archaeological finds and excavation observations.

ABSTRACTRecent advancements in accelerator mass spectroscopic (AMS) radiocarbon (14C) analytical methods and instrumentation offer us reliable conventional 14C ages with highly reduced analytical uncertainty for archeological bone collagen. However, after calibration this may be still too high for archeologists in periods where archeochronology is capable of attaining a resolution of 25–30 yr. Furthermore, there are cases when wiggles in the calibration curve yield wider age ranges than initially expected. For the Avar Age in the Carpathian Basin (568 to early 9th century AD) reliable archeotypochronology is available for the 7th century AD alone. The date of Avar invasion (568 AD) is precisely known. Precise archeological dating for the late 6th and the 9th centuries is lacking, calling for other methods to be introduced. This paper reports the first 14C dates for an Early Avar Age cemetery, Makó-Mikócsa. According to archeotypochronology, the cemetery was in use for three generations until the mid-7th century AD. The imprecision in 14C chronology arising from wiggles in the IntCal13 curve was significantly reduced by relative stratigraphy-controlled Bayesian modeling. Introduction of further age constraints from archeotypochronology into the model reduces broad absolute age ranges providing more constraint ages.

A tanulmány egy Makó határában található, kis sírszámú, teljesen feltárt szarmata temetővel foglalkozik. A temetkezési szokások elemzésén túl bemutatjuk a temető külön-leges ékszeranyagát, a viseletre vonatkozó megfigyeléseinket. A leletanyag kiemelkedő darabjai, elsősorban a fibulák, az üveg orsógombok és a változatos gyöngyanyag alapján vizsgáljuk a temető leletanyagának kapcsolatrendszerét. A Kr. u. 2. század második fele és a 3. század első évtizedei közötti időszakban használt, a Maros közelében létesült temető egy olyan szarmata közösség tagjainak temetkezőhelye, akiknek emlékanyagában a Fekete-tenger melléki kapcsolatok mellett a felső-germaniai–raetiai limes menti és a dél-pannoniai, dalmatiai területekkel is szoros kapcsolatok tükröződnek.

This study presents the archaeological fieldwork carried out by the Rippl-Rónai Museum between 2018-2019. They included plan excavations, prevention excavations and ones performed during observation. Our biggest excavations were related to the expansion of road 67 into a 2x2 lane. Dur-ing the archaeological works we discovered phenomena, cem-eteries and settlements from the Neolithic to the Early Modern Age. Prehistoric Age: Late Neolithic quadruple rondel was dis-covered in Gamás-Vadépusztai mező site No. 2. Roman Age: Sites mainly from the Late Imperial Period (3-4. centuries) are to be mentioned: Gamás-Belső tanya, Mernye-Lótilos 1 és Balatonszentgyörgy-Kenderföldek. Migration Period: Two intact male graves with weaponry were found in a Lombard cemetery fraction outside Kaposfüred. The excavations of the Zamárdi Avar Age cemetery continued, and a new 8-9. c. Avar cem-etery was discovered at Gamás. Middle Ages-Early Modern Age: Plan excavations took place in the Mediaeval Mindszen...

In the Avar-age archaeological material, the various symbols of power belonging to men are very well known on the basis of objects made mostly of gold, primarily weapons decorated with gold plates, belts of weapons decorated with gold fittings, and gold rython from rich graves. Apart from these, the bow, staff, and whip covered with gold plates are known as the power symbols of the highest-ranking leader. However, the power representation of Avar women is not so spectacular and clear. The gold jewelry found in women’s graves is an indication of the wealth of the deceased and her immediate surroundings or her connection to distant lands (gifts, commercial luxury goods, etc.), but it cannot be considered a symbol of power. However, in two women's graves, long warknives decorated with metal fittings similar to men's symbols of power have been found. The study examines whether these ornate weapons can be considered men's symbols of power. In addition, we will briefly review other Avar-age female (and children) graves that contained weapons and shed light on the fact that the weapons placed in female and children graves were not because they were used by the woman and children, but because the weapons placed near the dead were given a defensive force against evil (apotropaic).

An isolated rich female grave was found during a house building at Cibakháza (Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Country, Hungary) in 1937. The 40-45 year old noblewoman was buried in secret wore vesment decorated with gold ribbons, gold jewelry, a knife and a dagger adorned with gold fittings. Among his finds, the most remarkable are the three palm-sized gold plates that appeared on her skull and adorned the headdress of the noblewoman. Research to date has considered the plates to be the work of Byzantine goldsmiths or workshops and has interpreted them as a depiction of a tree of life with a Christian content.
However, the three-pronged crown as a symbol of power has long been known mainly in depictions of Turkic archaeological material from 7th-8th century. They also provide a sufficient basis for the reconstruction of the noblewoman’s headdress. We can find the answer to the contradiction between the nomadic headdress and the ornaments with the alleged Christian symbolism by detaily analyzing the representation and examining the composition. Contrary to previous opinions, the bird figures on the ornaments are not thought to be pigeons but phoenix birds, and analogies of the composition have been found in the Turkic relics of Inner Asia.
In this article will be presented the Inner Asian analogies that can be related to the headdress of the Avar princess and the depiction on it, and through these we place the special Avar Period crown in a new context.

In the article, combs from 6th-8th centuries will be examined. During this period, combs are visible only in the Avar-age material of the Carpathian Basin and in the ancient Turkic archaeological finds of the Altai region; but they never occur in the large areas between these two extreme regions of the Eurasian steppes.
Among the Avars, combs appear in both female, child and male burials; between combs there are single- and double side types and types consisting of one or more pieces. The double side comb type is of antique-Germanic origin, and the Avars probably took it from the German communities living together in the Carpathian Basin. The one side comb type is one of the objects of Inner Asian archaeological heritage of the Avars. In Turks, the combs are found male and female graves and are similar to the single side type of combs of Avars. It is likely that these male combs were used to maintain plaited hair braids typical of Eurasian nomads which well-known based on contemporary Byzantine sources and especially pictorial representations.
In the article, the combs found in the Avar and Turkic graves, their types and habits of wear will be presented. We will approach the question of their origin with a brief introduction the antecedents of the Scythian and Hun-Sarmatian periods.

Based on ethnographic parallels, Hungarian and international scholarship consider Avar-Age spheres made of bone, sometimes of metal, whip-ends although no remains of leather belts were found near these objects. In the undisturbed male grave 42 of the Kiskundorozsma-Subasa (HU) cemetery, two bone objects came to light: an acorn-shaped one with scratched braided decoration on its cylindrical handle and a truncated cone-shaped object determined by the author of the publication as leather bottle’s end. Based on the recently published ancient Turkic parallels in Altai and 6th–8th-century depictions, we think that these could be decorations of a long baton. In the Avar-Age find material, there are few similar batons with two mountings. However, we suggest that most of the single bone spheres and short bone tubes also belonged not to whips or flogs, but to batons or, perhaps, riding crops.
In the Turkic archaeological material of the Altai-Sayan Mountains, analogies of the bone spheres and tubes of the Carpathian Basin are well-known. In three recently published and well-recorded burials, spherical and tube-shaped objects were situated in line, 60–75 cm from each other. They did not belong directly to horse harness, being found not by horse skeletons, but beside human bones separated in space from the horse. So, we think, that these were batons with bone decorations.
Besides archaeological data, contemporary depictions (stone sculptures, stone carvings, wall paintings from Afrasiab) also attest to the presence of some kind of batons or sticks in the Turkic heritage. Besides Turks, we meet several depictions of long batons frequently supplied with a pherical end in the Sogdian environment. Judging from the depictions, these objects served not only as symbols of power at Sogdians but
had also sacral semantics. Probably, (parade) batons with bone ending could have appeared at the Turks in the 6th–7th century under the Sogdian influence, as the symbol of the elite or the officials. During their history, Avars stood in touch both with the Sogdians and the Turks, so they, with a great probability, could know these objects and their role as symbols of rank. For the time being, we are not able to answer the question of whether batons with bone end got into the Avar culture due to Sogdian-Avar or Turkic-Avar connections, but we can, probably, include the bone mounted pole from Subasa and similar pieces into the group of objects of Central or Inner Asian origin of the Avar Age finding material.

The Avar Khaganate was essentially modelled on the Eurasian nomadic empires and can best be characterized as an intricate network of different groups organised along kinship and ethnic lines or on a regional, cultural and social basis, all integrated into a federal-hierarchic organisation. Contemporaries commemorate the Kagan, who had exclusive central power, and later other dignities who shared power with him (Tudun and Yugurrush), but there is little mention of anything other than names of dignity and brief references to wealth and a luxurious lifestyle. The sources make no mention of the location of the Kagan’s centre or of where the fortitied centre (hring) referred to in the 8th century Western sources actually lay. In the absence of written sources, archeological research used its own tools of the discipline to try to determine the Kagan’s seat and to outline it on the basis of the richest Avar finds. Despite the fact that so far neither a palace or other structure referring to the Kagan’s center, nor certainly the grave of the Kagan has been found, but based on the concentration of gold and silver ornamented weapons and prestige objects, the centre of Avar power elite can be located in the area of Danube–Tisza Interfluve in the 7th century. However, there are still several ideas about the location of the earliest (6th century) and late Avar (8th century) center of power, but none of them have been sufficiently substantiated so far.
Based on the twelve outstandingly rich graves with weapons (so-called leader graves) found so far in the northern part of the Danube-Tisza Interfluve, we can draw a relatively accurate picture of the 7th-century Avar power elite (Fig. 1).
The Avar elite was of Inner Asian origin; their skulls showed Mongoloid morphological traits. Their ethnic origin is unclear, some think they are Heftalites (Central Asian Hun), others are Rourans (who ruled the region of today’s Mongolia and North Chinea in the 4th-6th centuries AD). Genetic studies in recent years support the latter idea.
The graves of rich men belonging to the Avar power elite were dug in wet-swampy places far from their community. These prestigious men were buried with gold earrings, decorated clothes, belts adorned with gold mounts and sword with gold fittings. The symbols of power of the richest (Bócsa, Kunbábony) were the cast gold pseudo-buckles (bucke-shaped mount) decorating their belts, the sword decorated with triple -arched suspension loops made of gold plate and the rython (drinking horn) made of gold plate (Fig. 2). In addition, gold and silver vessels were placed into their graves.
The by far still most magnificent princely burial came to light in area known as Bábony on the outskirts of Kunszentmiklós (County Bács-Kiskun). The man, who died between the ages of 60 and 70 – from whose grave a gold object weighing nearly 2.4 kg was found – was buried in a bed converted into a coffin decorated with gold plates. His shroud was also decorated with gold foils and plates, and gold-clawed gloves and gold rings were put on his hands. His dignity was expressed not only by his belts decorated with gold mounts and weapons, but also by his golden bird-head stick and his gold-plated whip.
In the social hierarchy the highest-ranking leaders were followed by lower-ranking regional leaders, who also wore a rank-bearing belt decorated with pressed pseudo-buckles or other types of gold mounts (Fig. 3-4) embossed next to their swords with triple-arched suspension loops made of silver or gold plate frame false buckles.
The Avar elite wished to resemble Byzantium in appearance.  Byzantine-style belt ornaments appeared on their belts, but this was mostly superficial and formal, preserving in many respects (e.g. wearing earrings, funeral customs) their Central Asian nomadic traditions. That is, the Avar leadership was not culturally transformed by Byzantine civilization.
Surrounded by the supposed leader accommodation area drawn by the graves of the power elite, there are rich, also armed graves that can be defined as burials of the military elite. The symbol of their lower dignity was the sword decorated with P or D shaped loops made of gold and silver (Fig. 5). Their graves are solitary (Szalkszentmárton) or appear in smaller groups of family graves (Kunpeszér, Grave 3, Grave 8, Grave 9, Grave 30/A, Fajsz-Garadomb, Grave C, Bačko Petrovo Selo-Čik, Grave 28, Mali Iđoš, Grave 70 etc.). Based on the location of their burials, it is likely that their task may have been to protect the most important strategic sites around the center of power (along former roads and river crossings).
The concentric structure of the center of power (the accommodation area of the power elite, surrounded by the accommodation of the military elite and other armed communities) lasted until the end of the 7th century. In the 8th century, according to the sources, the power structure of the Khaganate was transformed, and other dignities appearing besides the Kagan in all probability developed their own center of power. However, the seat of Tudun located in the northern part of the Danube (Komarno and its surround) and the alleged seat of Yugurrush in the vicinity of the upper Tisza River (Hortobágy-Árkus district) require further research.

Huns, Avars and conquering Hungarians were Migration Period nomadic groups which arrived in three successive waves in the Carpathian Basin between the 5 th and 9 th centuries. Based on historical data each of these groups are thought to have arrived from Asia, although their exact origin and relation to other ancient and modern populations has been debated. In this study we have sequenced 9 Hun, 143 Avar and 113 Hungarian conquest period samples, and identified three core populations, representing immigrants from each period, with no recent European ancestry. Our results suggest that this "immigrant core" of both Huns and Avars originated in present day Mongolia, and their origin can be traced back to Xiongnus. On the other hand, the "immigrant core" of the conquering Hungarians derived from an earlier admixture of Mansis, early Sarmatians and descendants of late Xiongnus. In addition, we detected shared Hun-related ancestry in numerous Avar and Hungarian conquest period genetic outliers indicating a genetic link between these successive nomadic groups. Aside from the immigrant core groups we identified that the majority of the individuals from each period were local residents, harboring “native European” ancestry.

The aim of this study is to briefly introduce the types of horse graves of the Avar Period, the parallels of their variants in the steppes of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and the different cultural origins behind the different equestrian burial customs.

At the founding of the Avar Khaganate, a large number of Germanic origin communities (Langobards and Gepids) also lived in the western regions of the Carpathian Basin. In the beginning they lived with their own leader, but under the rule of the Avar Khagan. Based on the mixed culture cemeteries of the Early Avar Period, the Germans and Avars really lived together from the beginning of the 7th century.
In this study, these Avar-Germanic relations will be discussed based on the largest and richest Avar cemetery at Zamárdi-Rétiföldek (Hungary) where the excavations began in 1970s have been continue today with some more or less pauses. We will present the specific local material culture that developed as a result of the interaction of cultures and the fusion of Avars origin of Inner Asia and Germans.

Avarlar Orta Asya'daki kültürel kökenlerini tamamen korumakla birlikte, Göktürk hakimiyetindeki halklarla da dahil olmak üzere Avrasya steplerinin çeşitli göçebe halkları ve imparatorluklarıyla sürekli temas halindeydiler. Avar-Türk ilişkileri hakkındaki bildiklerimizin oldukça sınırlı olduğu herkesçe malum. Bu ilişkiler hakkında bildiğimiz en önemli şey, I. Türk Kağanlığı’nın kuruluşuyla Avarların batıya kaçmak zorunda kaldığıdır.  Bunun dışında Bizans kaynaklarındaki Avarlar ve Türkler arasındaki hasmane ilişkilerin devam ettiğini gösteren sınırlı bilgiler  dışında Avar-Türk, yani Avarlar ve Avrasya bozkırlarındaki Türk topluluklar ilişkilerine dair kayda değer yazılı başka bilgilerimiz maalesef yok.
Avarlardan kalan arkeolojik materyalin analizi, Avarların hakimiyeti sırasında Avar Kağanlığı ile Türk Kağanlıklar hakimiyeti altındakı bölgeler arasında başka bağlantıların da varsayılabileceğini açıkça göstermektedir: üstelik Göktürk yönetimi altındaki Orta Asya’dan küçük ve büyük topluluklar birden fazla vesileyle Avar Kağanlığı’na göç etmiş olabilirdi.

During the Merovingian Age the women’s toolkit included those wood-handled iron tools which were used for breaking the hamper and flex in Western- and Eastern Europe. This type of object is also well known from the 6th century Gepid graves from the Tisza Region and the Transylvanian Basin, i.e. Maros Valley. In addition to them they occurred in 104 Avar Age graves of 14 sites (Table 1). These finds in the cultures of the East Transdanubia, Tisza Valley and Maros Valley can be connected with Avar Age communities of German origin (Picture 1). They were found in the highest number at the site of Zamárdi-Rétiföldek. Concerning the origin of the tool a consensus was reached: their use and the tradition of their placement into the graves reflect the presence of local German (for all probability Gepid) population in the Avar Age.
The scutching knives were formed by hammering. At the two ends of the elongated rectangular or more rarely: trapezoid blade two shafts were formed (and in case of some pieces of the Zamárdi cemetery they were extended with a third shaft at the middle of the blade (Picture 3, 1.d). Based on the wood-fibre remains of the shafts, we can infer wooden shafts parallel with the blade (Picture 2).
According to the rate and form of the blades, the different rounding of the edges of the blade and the different position of the shafts several groups of form can be distinguished (Picture 3), which could be con¬sidered as the individual product marks of the different smiths having been operated at the different sites. The inner side of most of the scutching knives is even (Picture 3, 2.1.), but there are also pieces with curved (Picture 3, 2.2.) or jagged (Picture 3, 2.3.) inner side.
Most of the scutching knives (84) are from the graves of young girls and little girls – this tool was neverplaced into mature women’s graves neither in
Western nor in Central Europe – including the Carpathian Basin. Five of such scutching knives were found in male graves, while among the women’s graves there are some with rich grave-goods, where these iron tools might have been placed as symbolical objects.
These tools appear in young female and girl’s graves containing special items of women’s attire, such as – most specifically, the western origin women’s belt of floppy ornaments and the connected habit of the use of filigrane bronze discs. Other late Antique and Merovingian attire pieces also regularly appear in these graves, such as the hair and breast pins, or the small buckles, used for the closing of the ankle-strap sandals and/or fixing the knee-high leggings, iron mountings, belt ends, amulet capsules, iron keys, plate needle-holders, etc.
Formerly, the scutching knives were known only from the early Avar Age burials. Later, the objects from the Tiszafüred cemetery demonstrated that this type of finds might occur even in graves of the second half of the 7th century. According to our present knowledge the habit of placing the scutching knives into the graves survived the longest in the community using the cemetery of the Zamárdi-Rétiföldek. Most of the 61 graves containing breaking knives are dated to the middle and last thirds of the 7th century, but the latest type of punched strip plait and cast sarmentose and fleury belt decorations and belt-ends reflect that they were placed into the graves until the middle of the 8th century.

The article makes a detailed typological analysis of the headdress fittings of the Avar age, the construction of the headdresses, the age of the headdress wearing and we make states – based on new data – the chronological position of the trend of the headdress wearing more precisely.

Examined in this study is possible survival of the early Avar power centre as reflected by the location of the sites that can be linked to the ruling elite and the military elite relative to each other, which in turn can also yield new insights regarding the territorial organisation of the Avar Khaganate.
The presence of a not particularly large armed group can be posited in the Danube-Tisza interfluve during the second and final third of the seventh century, whose sole weapons were bows and arrows. They settled in a small area in the early Avar period, while during the middle Avar period, they appear as isolated communities living far apart from each other. Their grave goods include articles that have no antecedents in the khaganate, whose analogies can be traced to Central Asia, suggesting that they represent smaller armed groups from that region. Their appearance can be linked to the practice of nomadic empires that when the power of the elite began to crumble for one reason or another, it “sent for” armed reinforcements to maintain and secure its position. The three case studies cited here suggest that these groups were armed communities skilled in archery tactics.

Im Jahre 2009 und 2010 wurden 251 Gräber eines frühawarenzeitlichen Gräberfeldes bei Makó freigelegt.
In der vorliegenden Studie wird das Grab 61 von den drei, sich an die Ordnung des Gräberfeldes
anpassenden, Gerätbeigaben beinhaltenden Bestattungen kurz vorgestellt. Dieses Grab bietet Anlass, den
Herstellungsprozess der Kompositbögen und den Gerätbedarf der Fertigung aufgrund eines geschlossenen
Fundverbandes zu überlegen.
Im Grab lag das Skelett eines 40–49 Jahre alten Mannes. Der Verstorbene wurde in die, in die nördliche
Seite des Grabes eingegrabene Nische gelegt. Der Mann trug einen beschlagverzierten Gürtel und ein
solches Schuhwerk. Ihm wurden ein Schwert, ein Bogen und ein Köcher voll mit Pfeilspitzen beigegeben.
An seinem rechten Unterschenkel befanden sich Geräte, unter ihnen gab es Feilen, Messer, Zwerchäxte,
ein Hammer, verschiedene Markiergeräte und Kratzer, ein Klauenhammer, usw., ferner ein Gusstiegel aus
Eisenblech. Der Gusstiegel war voll mit verarbeiteten Tierknochen und Hornstücken. Hinsichtlich der
halbfertigen Bogenplatten gilt dieser Fundverband für einen Ausnahmefall in Eurasien, kein Ähnliches ist
bisher bekannt.
Der Bestattete könnte ein auch Bögen herstellender Meister gewesen sein, aber die Gerätbeigaben
können nicht nur an einen Beruf geknüpft werden: Außer den Geräten der Holz- und Beinverarbeitung
gelangten auch die der Metallverarbeitung, ferner Schmiede- und Goldschmiedegeräte ins Grab.
Mit Hilfe des Typs der Gürtelbeschläge (biskuitförmige gepresste Pferdegeschirrbeschläge, symmetrische
Schuhwerkbeschläge, Riemenzungen mit Maske und gepresste Pseudoschnallen) ist diese Bestattung
ganz an das Ende des 6. und den Anfang des 7. Jahrhundert zu datieren.

This presentation provides an overview of subsistence patterns of an Early Avar Age community inhabiting the Maros valley of SE Hungary during the 6-7 th centuries A.D. via comparative analysis of the archeology complemented by results of natural scientific investigations. A settlement of this community is unknown, but 251 graves of their cemetery near the Makó-Mikócsa halom (Makó-Mikócsa pile) have been excavated. A stunning feature is the exceptionally high number of animal burials, which appear in three forms: as food, attachment or sacrifice. The sheer number of animal bones is a clear indication of a dominantly nomadic agropastoral economic system. 37% had animal bones representing food remains with a prevalence of lamb. Sacrificial remains include dominantly cattle, sheep with a highly subordinate number of horse. Horn and bone tools made of red deer ribs and antlers highlight the importance of hunting. No tools indicating plant cultivation are known in the records. Yet detailed analysis of textile remains attached to some iron tools attest the use and cultivation of flax and hemp. To confirm and widen knowledge gained regarding subsistence archeological data was complemented with information on bone geochemistry (trace elements of Mn, Zn, Cu; C, N, O isotopes). Wheat and other cereal produce have high manganese content resulting high concentrations of this element stored in the body and the bones. Values below 500 pp generally indicate a meat & dairy based diet. In Makó the average Mn concentrations ranged between 160-400 ppm. Zn is above 200 ppm, again indicating meat consumption. Cu ranged between 20-40 ppm.The δ 15 N stable isotope values for the Avars at Makó ranged from 9.2-14.6 ‰. The general range is lower than that indicating freshwater fish in the diet congruently with the lack of fishbones at all sites. However, the δ 15 N values indicate the use of secondary products of domesticated livestock. Individuals characterized by δ 15 N values of a mixed diet or dominantly plant carb diet were missing from Makó. The Early Avar community at Makó had dominantly C4 plants in their diet (millet). This clearly corroborates the emplacement of millet porridge into the burial jars. As other Central European populations occupying the region utilized wheat and barley, both C3 plants, as staple crops the Avars of Makó were non-locals to the area. Geochemical, sedimentological analysis of soil (Corg, inorg, pH, EC, MS, grain-size, color, 8 elements) retrieved from jars of the Makó cemetery also aided elucidation of the nature of organic matter emplaced into jars. Spatial distribution of marker elements connected to the presence of flesh and cereal meals (Mn, Cu, Zn) in the pots were highly correlated with the amount of Corg. Elevated values of K, Mg helped identification of wood ash and burnt flesh, bone remains. Others (Ca, Mg) may indicate the burial of water bank plants (reed, bulrush).