A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 32. Kunt Ernő emlékére. (1994)

TANULMÁNYOK - FODOR István: A magyar őstörténet vázlata (magyar és angol nyelven)

at grains, bronze sickles and grinding stones are unquestionable evidence of an economy involved in land cultivation and animal breeding. The ancient homeland of the Hungarians Proto-Hungarian population groups probably occupied the southern section of the Ugrian habitation area along the northern edge of the steppe, known to have been a parkland-steppe region. At the end of the Bronze Age (13th to 10th centuries B.C.) a warm and dry climatic period followed in this area. As a result, the borders of geographical zones shifted northwards. Under these new environmental circumstances it became increasingly difficult to pursue the former sedentary mode of animal keeping and cultivation. People of the Eurasian steppe adapted to the new circumstances mostly by changing their way of life. They switched to a mobile, grazing, i.e., nomadic pastoral style of animal husbandry. This had become widespread over the whole of this geographical region by the beginning of the Iron Age (around the 8th century B.C.). By continuously changing pastures these herders could ensure forage supplies for the animal stock and this subsequently contributed to the latter's increase. On the other hand, land cultivation assumed a secondary position and played a complementary role at the winter habitation sites. A segment of the people who lived in the proximity of the steppe's northern edge, however, reacted to this change of the geographical conditions in a different manner. They drifted in a northerly direction following the new borders of the geographical zones. As far as it is known, the Ugrian community did not react uniformly to this environmental challenge. Northern groups of the loose population complex (predecessors of the Ob-Ugrians) moved northwards towards the lower stretches of the Ob river. Later they merged there with local groups pursuing natural economy, who probably also belonged to the Uralic linguistic division. ProtoHungarian groups, on the other hand, who lived to the south, converted to pastoralism. Subsequently (at the beginning of the Iron Age) they probably moved even further to the south. It appears that this separation led to the final disintegration of the Ugrian community and resulted in the formation of the Hungarian people as an ethnic group. Between approximately 1000 and 500 B.C. the self-identification of this new ethnic group was "Magyar" as a people. The term means "speaking people". The initial element of this name may be recognized in a latent form in the self-nomination of the Ob-Ugrian Vogul people (Manysi), and in the name of one of the Ob-Ugrian fraternities (Mos). (Fig. 5.) Hungarians, who pursued a pastoral economy, operated within the environment of the Eurasian nomadic people from the beginning of their independent ethnic existence. Of these, the dominance of Scythians and related people may be considered characteristic. In the southern Ural region, early Sarmatians (Sauromate) were the direct southern neighbours of Hungarians. The similar economic systems of the steppe people resulted in comparable material and intellectual cultures, ways of life, customs and military organization. Thus, the ways of life and culture of the ancient Hungarians eventually displayed these traits while less and less of the ancient Finno-Ugric tradition was preserved. The ancient language of Finno-Ugrian origin is one of the few characteristics which resisted environmental influences. Magna Hungária Wars between the nomadic pastoralist groups resulted in significant migrations or population movements (Czeglédy 1983). Larger wars in the steppe region caused a chain reaction from the Altai to the Carpathian Mountains and forced many of 118