Gentile- und Reichsadel am östlichen Rand des Karolingischen Reiches

At the eastern border of the Carolingian Empire two different groups of elite emerged. When referred to, the individuals in one of the groups were called either by personal names, or by the name of the area they governed; individuals in the other group were called by the name of their people. Members of the first group administered the territorial units of the central area of the former Avar Khaganate just like the Carolingian chief officials and royal vassals in the interior of the Empire. The members of the second group were (indirect) allies of the Avars and had their own tribal prince and gentile nobles. The administrative centres of the Carolingian province Pannoniae developed in synchrony with the inner centres of the Empire, while the centres of power outside the Empire had their own special settlement structures showing a conglomerate of the courts of the tribal nobility.

Edelmetallgegenstände als Quellen zu sozialen Prozessen der Spätawarenzeit (8.–9. Jahrhundert n. Chr.)

The present paper analyses the precious metal artefacts, scarcely known in the huge archaeological material of the “late Avar period” (eighth to early ninth centuries AD). Unlike in the previous era the majority of the gold and silver objects of the late Avar period are stray finds; in particular high-quality goldsmith's artefacts are absent in the grave assemblages of the eighth century. The significance of precious metal objects in grave assemblages reached its low ebb around the middle of the late Avar period; afterwards not only new object types appeared but a new grave-horizon emerged comprising precious metal objects. This paper, based on the quality and morphology of the objects, their archaeological contexts as well as their spatial distribution, draws a conclusion concerning the social and cultural changes in the early medieval Carpathian Basin.

Die Kriegergräber mit Schwertern des sog. Asiatischen Typs im Mitteldonauraum unter Berücksichtung des Neufundes von Horákov (Mähren, CZ)

The occurrence of foreign, more precisely eastern, cultural elements among local archaeological finds is commonly regarded as a characteristic feature of the cultural-historical development during the Early Migration Period in Central Europe. Such interpretations, which generate many questions and are sometimes accepted with scepticism, have gained some ground, but most of them indisputably demand verification and less strictly defined views. These foreign cultural elements usually represent objects, whose symbolic values made them, part of the new funerary customs connected with changes of social structures during the historical development of barbarian peoples on the Danube. The main attention in this regard is paid to a well-distinguished group of weapon graves, which contained both the so-called eastern weapon types and, on the other hand, clear acculturation traits. Within the group of eastern weapons, which influenced the armament of Danubian warriors, encompassed also various types of double-edged long swords – spathae. A conspicuous type is represented by long swords with relatively narrow blade and a massive iron cross guard, so-called swords of Asian type, which occupy a special position in the Danube region.

Correlation between military and domestic architecture: A tribune's house in Aquincum and its place in Roman architecture

The House of the Tribunus Laticlavius, a large building in the legionary fortress of Aquincum, has only been partially excavated, and this was in the 1970s. This short paper makes an attempt to understand its function and find its place in Roman architecture through a reconstruction of its floor plan and comparison with other prominent residential buildings of the period which share similar features. It appears very likely that the house is based on a loose adaptation of a Hellenistic model, tailored to the needs of high-ranking officers of the Roman army.

Das mittel- bis spätawarenzeitliche Gräberfeld von Edelstal/Nemesvölgy – Ein regionales Machtzentrum im nordwestlichen Karpatenbecken?

Although well known to the community of Avar Age archaeologists, the old excavated cemetery of Edelstal (Hung. Nemesvölgy) played a quiet limited role in the discussion about social structures and societies, even for the northwestern part of the Carparthian Basin. This circumstance was also linked to the lack of publication of all graves. Based on this and the complete analyses of this cemetery the author wants to illustrate how important the burial community might have been in the social system of the Late Avar Khaganate. A special focus lies hereby on prominent items like gilded boar belts, buckles with the emperor's image or golden earrings and hair clips indicating wealth, communication, relations and links to the top social elites and presuming a high elaborated prestige chain network.

The tradition of facet-cut bowls from Pannonia – New fragments from Brigetio

The method of facet-cutting was invented in the 1st century AD. The glass cutters began to create zoned facet-cut decoration to arrange the facets in horizontal zones divided by linear grooves mostly in Isings 96 bowl in the second half of 2nd century and first half of 3rd century AD. A look at the distribution and the major concentrations of sites reveals that they had been manufactured in four main regions: the Rhine region (perhaps at Cologne), Pannonia, Syria (possibly at Dura Europos) and the Pontic, at Tanais. Its popularity is best indicated by the fact that this elegant ornamental technique began to be applied on silverware which clearly imitated the glass bowls, as shown by the adoption of the Isings 96 hemispherical bowl form that was lacking from among silver vessels.

A 6th–7th century solitary burial of a warrior with his horse at Tiszagyenda

The site of Tiszagyenda-Búszerző dűlő became known during the archaeological and field surveys prior to the construction of the Tiszaroff Dam. The site covered the northern part of a large contiguous Migration Period settlement, the southern extents of which were discovered within the same project.The settlement occupying both banks of the Tisza River's backwater had been inhabited for centuries. The first settlers in the Bronze Age (leaving behind three burials) were followed by the Sarmatians (seven burials), Gepids (nineteen burials), Avars (seven burials) and finally tribes of Hungarian conquerors (81 burials). Besides of the linear graveyards of common people, solitary, richly-furnished graves of the Gepid and the Avar Periods were also found.The solitary grave of an armed man was unearthed on the west bank of the Tisza's backwater. His horse and his dog, cut in half and thrown over the horse, were buried a couple steps away in a separate grave. Grave No. 1660 is of especially outstanding archaeological value. Dated by the solidus of Byzantian Emperor Maurikios Tiberius (582–602), the grave held rich finds decorated with Early Christian symbols. The mounts of the swordbelt and his belt-set refer to Lombard and Merovingian connections. The Gepid-Germanic warrior of Gyenda was buried in the early Avar period after the collapse of the Gepid Kingdom in 567–568, in the first decade of the 7th century.