Slavs, Avars and Germans in the north of the Carpathian Basin

(second half of the 5^th - 8^th century AD)

Introduction

The region of Slovakia , the subject of this introduction, is situated in central Europe, bordered by the rivers Danube to the south and Moravia (or March) to the west, and by the Carpathian mountain range to the north and east. Human occupation in this area has in the past been determined by several factors. Population density was considerably influenced by the quality of local resources, among which water appears to be one of the most important. Further relevant features would have been soil quality, sun exposure, steepness of slopes and springs. Social and economic relations in particular societies as well as the general geopolitical situation obviously played very important roles. Beside these, the settlement process was strongly influenced by available sources of raw material (iron ore, stone and non-ferrous metal ores).

The 5^th and 6^th centuries AD on the Middle Danube were a period of huge cultural and certainly also ethnic changes. It was a time of migrations of whole ethnic communities as well as movements of individuals, of military mercenaries in various communities, and a period of flowering of trade that connected southern Europe with the north, and the west with the east. The migrations and wars of tribes and nations, as well as movements of individuals are recorded in written sources, but a lot of information can be obtained also from archaeological finds.

In this period many burial grounds characterised by certain features and a particular material culture are seen to be suddenly abandoned while simultaneously new ones with totally different characteristics are established. However, examples are known where attributes of two or even more communities gradually appear in the same cemetery. Identification of migration waves but also of integration and acculturation processes affecting communities and individuals is possible through an intensive study of the evidence from archaeological excavations, for which the territory of Slovakia offers many possibilities. This was the main purpose of involving Slovakia in this important EU project.

Historical situation

5^th century AD

East Germanic tribes – Huns - Alans

In the 4^th century a large part of Slovakia was inhabited mostly by a Germanic Suevian population; only the far east was probably settled by Germanic Vandals. The region south of the Vandal realm (now northeastern Hungary ) was populated by Germanic Gepids. The region south of the Vandal realm (now northeastern Hungary ) was populated by Germanic Gepids. In the early 5^th century, the Vandals, accompanied by Suevi and eastern nomadic Alans, moved westwards under the pressure of the nomadic Huns. In December 405 they reached the river Rhine and then in 409 they came to Spain (Hispania). Their former homeland in the northeastern Carpathian Basin (northern Rumania) was partially settled by Gepids. In eastern Slovakia , Gepidic finds are almost absent; it is therefore presumed that the exodus of the Vandal-Suevian-Alan communities did not entirely vacate the region and that remnants of the Suevian population survived here.

During the first two-thirds of the 5^th century, the southern part of Slovakia came into the political sphere of the Hunnic Empire. Only a few settlement sites of the mid-5^th century have been excavated so far. More frequent are cemeteries, which are characterised by just small numbers of graves. Settlements coalesced and slowly turned into extensive settlement agglomerations, particularly in the basins of the rivers Nitra and Hron. The most relevant cemeteries or single graves in southern Slovakia are those at Bešeňov, Čataj, Kapušany, Levice, Prša, Sikenica-Veľký Pesek and Šarovce, in which numerous ornaments made of bronze, silver and gold were found together with silver and bronze mirrors, warriors’ accoutrements and arms. The funeral rite and grave goods indicate connections with inhabitants of eastern nomadic character - Huns or groups (Suevi?, Ostrogoths?) under strong Hunnic influence (in several cases burials with horses and artificial skull deformations). Many settlement agglomerations, however, vanished as early as the first half of the 5^th century. The site of Nitra-Párovské Háje (western Slovakia ) is a good example, where in spite of extensive excavations no settlement surviving into the second half of the 5^th century was found. From the mid-5^th century we have a unique hoard, including gold coins, that was uncovered in southern Slovakia in the village of Bíňa . The youngest coin among the gold solidi deposited in a clay vessel was minted in 443. This find can be regarded as part of a payment to the Huns by the Eastern Roman Empire ( Byzantium ).

In this period, settlement in the mountainous northern regions of Slovakia gradually became sparser. After the breakup of the Skirian Kingdom in 469 and the Sarmatian Kingdom in 472, the Gepidic Kingdom had extended its area up to the banks of the Danube to the west, reaching the border of Ostrogothic Pannonia (now western Hungary ). Some authors link this with pressure of the Slavs from the east, but so far no archaeological finds have corroborated this hypothesis.

Subsequently, in 473, the Ostrogothic king Thiudimer at the head of his tribe left Pannonia and moved to the Byzantine province of Moesia (between the Danube and the Balkans). His younger brother Vidimer with a smaller part of the Ostrogoths moved through Noricum (eastern Austria ) and Italy to southern Gaul (southern France ), where he joined up with Visigoths. In 488 the main group of Ostrogoths, headed by Thiudimer´s son Theodoric, moved from Moesia to Italy . Around this time, the Germanic Heruli began gradually to gain dominance in the Middle Danube region.

Comparison of settlements in the first and second halves of the 5^th century (or the early 6^th century) unambiguously shows a gradual disintegration, a literal breakdown of the Germanic settlement structure. Parts of settlement sites clearly dating from the second half of the 5^th century have been uncovered in the last decade at Cífer-Pác, Vinodol, and Zemianske Sady (southwestern Slovakia).

6^th - 8^th century AD

Langobards – Slavs – Avars

At the beginning of the 6^th century the Langobards, defeating the Heruli, occupied the area of southern Moravia (eastern Czech Republic ), a part of northern Austria , northern Pannonia (northwestern Hungary ) and the westernmost rim of Slovakia . So it is obvious that they did not occupy the original Suevian homeland settled in the 5^th century by the Germanic-Hunnic population.

The first half or first two-thirds of the 6^th century in the Carpathian Basin were marked mainly by conflicts between the Gepids and Langobards. In 550, after several armed conflicts, they made peace, which did not persist for long. These wars culminated in 567. When the ultimate victory seemed to be within the Gepids’ grasp, the Langobardian king Alboin concluded an alliance with the nomadic Avars and with their aid he defeated the Gepids. In this way the Avars may have gained too much power and so in 568 Alboin with his people left their original settlements and moved to Italy . The eastern nomadic Avars, who in 567 had settled in the basin of the river Tisza (eastern Hungary), after the Langobards’ departure occupied their Pannonian possessions (western Hungary) as well, and became one of the decisive powers in the Carpathian Basin, which they were to remain for more than two centuries.

For many decades, the thesis about a complete Langobardian departure seemed to be incontestable. However, several studies have clearly shown that the use of some Langobardian-style cemeteries does not end around AD 568, but that burials there continued also in subsequent decades. The cemetery at Bratislava-Rusovce (western Slovakia ) was without doubt used up to around AD 600. The insight that the Langobards did not leave Pannonian territory altogether, but that Langobardian households, including representatives of the higher social strata, remained resident at several important sites, probably in Avarian service (integrated in Avarian society, protecting key points on the western border of their empire?), is one of the interesting results of the current project.

Evidence of the presence of Slavs in the Middle Danube region has been taken mostly from historical and archaeological sources. It has to be stressed that both of the mentioned sources have their limitations. References to an ethnic group that may already be considered Slavic are made by the authors of Antiquity since the 1^st century AD. They are called by various names – the Antes, Sclavines, Veneti; though in many cases the linkage is doubtful.

This evidence is often very unclear, as are the references to their original homelands. In spite of this, analysis of the sources proves beyond doubt that the Slavs settled the northern regions of the Carpathian Basin before 568 and that they can be connected with the historical Sclavines.

As to the question concerning the origin of the Slavs living on the Middle Danube, two groups of researchers presenting diametrically opposed opinions have emerged. Supporters of the ‘autochthonous theory’ (smaller group of researchers) presume the presence of the Slavs’ ethnic predecessors on this territory since prehistoric times (usually since the Aeneolithic) or since Antiquity. In fact, there is little to support this view. Advocates of the ‘migration theory’ (most researchers) support the opinion that the Slavs came to the Middle Danubian region at the close of the Roman period, during the Migration period or the Early Middle Ages. Among the arguments supporting the migration theory is first of all the fact that modern research has so far not documented any continuity between the protohistoric and early medieval settlements. Of course, the possibility that certain small pockets of population inhabited this territory continuously cannot be excluded. These, however, played no decisive role in the country’s settlement history, and in the archaeological record they are indiscernible.

Modern archaeological research has been unable to demonstrate clearly the presence of Slavs in the 5^th century; instead, it suggests that they arrived here at some time during the first half of the 6^th century. The first wave of settlers probably occupied the basin of the river Váh (western Slovakia ); the most important sites here are Žilina, Potvorice, Beckov and Trenčín. Then Slavic settlement expanded eastward – to the rivers Nitra and Hron, where groups of Germanic-Hunnic population had survived for a long time. By the mid-6^th century the Slavs were living throughout western Slovakia, along the rivers Váh, Nitra , Žitava and Hron. They came close to the Langobardian settlements only in the region of Bratislava and Záhorie (near the Austrian border). Farther to the east they observed some kind of a buffer zone between themselves and the Danube, 20- 30 km wide, which was to remain intact even after the Avars came to the Carpathian Basin towards the mid-7^th century. The hypothesis that the Slavs during their migration to a new home had no notable contacts with the original or preceding population is supported by the fact that among the Slavic material cultural elements of previous inhabitants in the Middle-Danubian region are virtually absent.

As mentioned above, the Avars became masters of the Carpathian Basin’s central region in 568. In this period, their northernmost settlement sites reached the Danube, so that in Slovakia we only rarely record Avarian finds from the second half of the 6^th and early 7^th centuries and only at sites situated on the banks of the Danube or in its close vicinity. The Avars probably respected the unoccupied buffer zone separating them from the Slavic world to the north of the Danube .

At the end of the 6^th century, the so-called second wave moved through the Danube basin, in which Slavic peoples migrated together with Avars. This was an eastward flow that was to conquer the Balkans and that subsequently also influenced developments in the Carpathian Basin. Its route was directed east of the Carpathian arch through Moldavia to the Danube . Its subsequent westward movement occurred after the fall of Sirmium (the Pannonian capital, now in northern Serbia ) in 582, together with invasions of Langobards and Avars. Contacts of the Avarian khaganate with Slavic settlement before the mid-7^th century came about probably in the region south and south-west of Slovakia .

An important phenomenon in the early medieval period is the rise, development and collapse of the Slavic Empire of the Frankish merchant Samo (623-658). Tens of different theories about this mysterious empire were summarised by M. Kučera (in 1979), who at the same time resurrected the theory locating Samo’s legendary palace Vogastisburg in the region of Vienna or the Bratislava Gate (the lowland between Bratislava and Vienna). It is clear that Samo´s Empire arose somewhere in the zone of active contacts between the Slavs and Avars. The unoccupied zone north of the Danube indicates that the contact zone was not southwestern Slovakia . The only possibility within Slovakia could be the regions of Bratislava and Záhorie (Austrian border). The warlike interests of the Avarian khaganate in the first half of the 7^th century seem to have been directed further west, up along the Danube towards the richer western world. So presumably it is just here (Burgenland, Lower Austria, Záhorie and Moravia, i.e. northeastern Austria, western Slovakia, eastern Czech Republic) that the heartland of Samo´s Empire should be located. What now is southwestern Slovakia may have joined up with it later.

In the second half of the 7^th century a gradual penetration of Avarian settlement northward from the Danube can be observed clearly and in detail. Here an interesting situation arose when step by step the differences between the Avarian and Slavic worlds disappeared (mainly in the settlement material) through a mutual acculturation process, and in general there is no way of determining the ethnic origin of the inhabitants through the archaeological finds. We can only define the frontiers of the Avarian khaganate’s political and cultural sphere. The earlier ‘no-man’s land’ filled up with settlement sites associated with inhumation cemeteries, which are usually connected with the Avars. Beyond it, the relatively open network of established Slavic settlement sites was not directly violated and the Avarian penetration does not seem to have been of a destructive nature. In this way, southwestern and part of southeastern Slovakia became part of the Avarian khaganate, which they were to remain up till the end of the 8^th century. In the area north of this, Slavic habitation continued.

Material culture

One of the project’s aims is to identify different ethnic groups or interactions among them by studying their material culture, funerary practices and ways of living and housing.

Linking people’s material culture and various customs directly with particular ethnic groups through archaeological material is quite problematic. In principle, one may say that a newly arriving population is at its most clearly identifiable immediately after its arrival in a certain territory. It is very hard to distinguish what are common fashion trends adopted by various ethnic groups and what are artefacts/attributes/characteristics typical of one group only.

We can relatively explicitly define the culture of vanishing Germanic habitation in the second half of the 5^th or in the early 6^th century (inhumation burial grounds with typical jewellery and pottery). It is very hard, however, to link these finds with a specific people. A somewhat different matter is that of defining Langobardian settlement in the western border region of Slovakia during the first and occasionally also the second half of the 6^th century (ornate brooches and other personal ornaments, weapons, etc.). Very clearly distinguishable is also the earliest, 6^th-century wave of Slavic settlement, represented by pottery of the ‘ Prague ’ type, sunken-floored shelters with stone fireplaces or ovens in a corner, and cremation burials. These are features that differ diametrically from those typical of the previous inhabitants. Still, problems arise when it comes to the precise dating of the movements of Slavic groups.

In the material culture of the Early Middle Ages also the archaeological remains of equestrian-nomadic Avarian communities are clearly definable. Rich wrought or cast garnitures are masterpieces of early medieval metalwork, in which also various impulses from the Byzantine world are observable. Since the middle of the 7^th century the Avarian and Slavic worlds were gradually coming closer and merging in the southern regions of Slovakia . In this period, these areas, including part of the Slavic settlement space, came to be under the direct political power of the Avars. Although the material remains from burial grounds include ‘Avarian’ artefacts, it still is hard or even impossible to unambiguously identify their owners’ ethnicity. The coalescence – integration or acculturation – of these two population groups is even more noticeable at settlement sites, where in contrast to the cemeteries the elements of a Slavic character (pottery, house construction and sunken-floored huts) prevail, but again it is very hard to identify the ethnic group that used them. Moreover, the settlement finds are almost identical with those uncovered in the Slavic regions north of the Avarian khaganate. This suggests that both ethnic groups gradually adopted the Avarian style of dressing, as well as using and decorating their horses, but also that both groups came to employ the Slavic way of house building and probably also of making a living (agriculture).

Cemeteries are the interesting phenomenon here. Within the Avarian khaganate inhumation burial was typical, while for the Slavic area cremation burials are characteristic. At the interface of these two worlds, mixed-rite burial grounds appear from the middle of the 7^th century and in regions of northern Slovakia inhumation burials are seen, often connected with burial in mounds. The question of whether this influence was direct (population movement) or one of ideas, coming from the sphere of the Avarian khaganate, or resulted from yet other processes, cannot be definitively answered yet. Moreover, in eastern Slovakia as well as in some regions of eastern Europe, territories exist from which so far no burial grounds at all are known.

A similarly complicated problem is that of the identification of travelling individuals – strangers in a certain environment. Maybe we may explain the sporadic cremation burials in large Avarian cemeteries (e.g. at Želovce) as graves of persons from a Slavic region who for various reasons (for instance, marriage partners or artisans) settled in the Avarian realm. The sojourn of individual foreigners on Slovakian territory has been documented only sporadically. The best example is a hoard of silver coins and jewellery from Zemiansky Vrbovok that was most probably hidden in the ground by a Byzantine merchant or silversmith.

The team involved in the project:

PhDr. Matej Ruttkay, CSc. – The Archaeological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Nitra (further AI SAS)

Mgr. Mário Bielich – AI SAS

Mgr. Jozef Ďuriš – AI SAS

PhDr. Jaroslava Ruttkayová – Nitra Museum , Nitra

PhDr. Jaroslava Schmidtová – City Museum Bratislava

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