Szőllősy Csilla - Pokrovenszki Krisztián (szerk.): Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis - Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei. C. sorozat 45. (Székesfehérvár, 2017)

Tanulmányok/közlemények - Régészet - M. Lezsák Gabriella: Beszámoló a Kaukázus északi előterébe vezetett régészeti kutatóutakról (2016 - 2017)

M. Leprák Gabriella: Beszámoló a Kaukázus északi előterébe vezetett régészeti kutatóutakról (2016-2017)

Gabriella M. Lezsák

A Report on Archaeological Research Expeditions Conducted at the Northern Foothills of the Caucasus

This report contains a brief summary and the outcome of two archaeological research expeditions conducted in the area of the northern foothills of the Caucasus (in 2016 and 2017)

The Southern Urals and the West-Siberian areas, which are located east of the Urals, have again come into the focus of current Hungarian archaeological researches because of the finds related to ancient Hungarians before the conquest of the Carpathian Basin (in Hungarian: Honfoglalás, meaning ‘conquest of the homeland’) that were unearthed there some years ago. Although the number of similar finds discovered at the northern foothills of the Caucasus keeps growing, yet this area belongs to the ‘informational dead zone’ of the majority of Hungarian experts. Archaeologist Gabriella M. Lezsák (Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), Humanities Research Centre (ВТК), Institute of History (ТП)), Archaeologist Erwin Gáli (Romanian Academy of Sciences, Vasile Párvan Archaeology Institute), Orientalist Dávid Somfai Kara (MTA ВТК Institute of Ethnography) and Ákos Avar (Eötvös Lóránt University, Department of Inner Asia), members of the research team established in the spring of 2016, aimed to eliminate this shortcoming by relaunching research in this region, focusing on the northern foothills of the Caucasus.

The objective of the archaeological expeditions conducted between 15 and 30 October 2016 and between 20 May and 3 June 2017 was to the study 9-10th century artefacts exhibited in museums situated at the northern foothills of the Caucasus, collect and document artefacts related to ancient Hungarians before the conquest of the Carpathian Basin, and build contacts with local archaeologists. During these two research expeditions, team members visited the major museums of the eastern shores of the Black Sea, Kuban, the Stavropol Ridge, Kabardino-Balkaria, The Republic of Adygea (Cherkessia), North Ossetia, Ingushetia and Chechnya, took approximately two thousand photos of artefacts, made nearly thousand pages of copies of documents and purchased, or received as a gift, more than fifty local archaeological publications. Collection work was carried out in the museums of a total of 14 towns, with the effective assistance of local museum managers, archaeologists and historians. Among the collected finds there are very significant artefacts related to ancient Hungarians before the conquest of the Carpathian Basin, which have remained unpublished to date. Although illicit art trafficking is a serious problem in this region (a high proportion of the most interesting finds documented in 2016 ended up in a museum after being seized by the authorities on the black market in works of art), there is an increasing number of sites where professional archaeological excavations take place. Finds related to ancient Hungarians before the conquest of the Carpathian Basin that were documented during the two expeditions also confirm that the northern foothills of the Caucasus and Kuban might be important areas for the research of Hungarian prehistory, and therefore, in parallel with the publication of the collected finds, the team intends to continue to conduct field research.

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