A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyve 48. (Nyíregyháza, 2006)

Régészet - Istvánovits Eszter–Kulcsár Valéria: The first Sarmatians in the Great Hungarian Plain (Some notes on the Jazygian immigration into the Carpathian Basin)

Istvánovits Eszter Kulcsár Valéria The first Sarmatians in the Great Hungarian Plain (Some notes on the Jazygian immigration into the Carpathian Basin) One of the most discussed problems of the Sarmatian research of the Carpathian Basin, is the time and direction of the arrival of Jazygians to the Great Hungarian Plain. The Sarmatians reached the Carpathian Basin in several different waves. In this article we deal with the events of the 1

st century, preceding Traian's Dacián wars. The main methodological problem of the research is the discrepancy between literary evidence and archaeological material. Our main sources are Tacit's (Annál. XII.29-30) information about Quadian king Vannius' Jazygian mercenaries and Pliny the Elder's note on the Jazygian occupation of the vicinities of Carnuntum (NH IV.80). On the basis of these data and some conclusions made from the analysis of Pliny's locus (FEHÉR-KOVÁCS 2003. 50-53, 276-277.) and that of other sources (MÓCSY 1977. 439.) we can assume that Sarmatian Jazygians appeared in the Carpathian Basin around 17-20 A.D. According to András Alföldi's idea, Sarmatians were invited by the Romans to make a „buffer-zone" between the newly formed province Pannónia and the Dacians, the eternal enemies of Rome. (Like it happened in the case of Marcomannic-Quadian state of Vannius). However, we think that there are no good arguments to support this theory. The settling of a hardly known Eastern nomadic tribe in the heart of Europe would be rather unusual in Roman foreign policy. At the same time, if we compare the archaeological material of the Germanic Barbaricum - the so called regnum Vannianum - with that of the Sarmatian Barbaricum, we'll find that Germans received plenty of Roman goods. Sarmatians at the same time hardly had any trade contacts with the Empire in the 1

st century. Considering the direction of Jazygian immigration there are two main theories. One of them marks the valley of the Danube as the possible route for their move. According to another idea, Jazygians arrived through the north-eastern passes of the Carpathians, similarly to the Early Hungarians in the 9th century. In this case, their route would lead through the Upper Tisza region. Neither of these theories can be supported sufficiently. The so called „golden horizon", considered to be the earliest Sarmatian material in the Hungarian Plain, has the following main characteristic features: golden jewellery including earrings, pendants, beads, flitters. Granulated or pseudo-granulated ornamentation, blue or bluish black glass insets are especially characteristic. Since Mihály Párducz it is a commonplace in Sarmatian archaeology, that this jewellery was made in the Greek workshops of the North Pontic Region. However, up to know, the researchers did not succeed in determining a territory and period that can serve as a good antecedent for the material of the Carpathian Basin. Several elements of the golden horizon do not have any or have only single analogies from the eastern steppe. Among them we have to mention the horseshoe shaped pendants, earrings decorated with granulation and/or glass insets, the prototypes of which we do not find either among North Pontic Greek, or among Sarmatian antiquities. No antecedents are known in Hellenistic jewellery. At the same time several types of the golden horizon (earrings, spherical carnelian beads etc.) find analogies in the Crimean Late Scythian cemeteries.