Folia archeologica 17.

Horváth Béla: Az Árpád-kori falusi ház a korabeli törvények tükrében

AN ARPAD PERIOD VILLAGE HOUSE AS REFLECTED IN THE CONTEMPORARY LAWS It is the primary task of research on the Middle Ages to fully reveal the socio-economic life of Hungary in the ioth to 14th centuries. In addition to archeological research and the excavation of contemporary settlements providing the material data for these studies, questions must be solved which are hardly or never mentioned in written historical documents, for example, the everyday life of the common people and the situation of the village serfs during the Árpád period. But since the planned and methodological study of Árpád period settlements has begun only in the last decade, presently certain important problems, mentioned above, have to be solved first. In order to provide a final solution to these and other similar important problems as many excavated Árpád period villages as possible have to be studied. Since such research is lacking, we have to make even more use of written historical data from the ioth to 14th centuries which — although they sometimes contain only indirect references — are still of help in solving the problematics of contemporary settlements. The use of early medieval written sources is hindered by such objective difficulties as the possible falseness of the documents, the scantiness of the data referring to settlements and the plan of a rural house and inaccurate translation. Despite of all these author believes that it is useful and necessary to employ all the pertinent written documents. According to the data of the chronicles and laws referring to the time of the Hungarian conquest and of that of the foundation of the state, in the mentioned period there was already known some sort of structure more fixed and permanent than a tent, the use and existence of which has not yet been proved by archaeology. The laws of László I and Kálmán I from the end of the 9th century mention that villages were frequently set afire. This is supported in the 12th century by the travelogue of Otto, the Bishop of Freising, and by the description of Rogerius in the 13th century, these prove the use of wood or other inflammable materials in the rural buildings of the Árpád period. On the other rand two laws passed by László IV in 1279 prove the use and popularity among tc village serfs of dwellings dug into the ground. The existence of this type of house is also proved by the unearthed dwellings from the 13th century. Thus the use of written historical documents is of great help in solving the problems of the settlements of the Hungarians during the Árpád period.