Istvánovits Eszter (szerk.): A nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum Évkönyve 55. (Nyíregyháza, 2013)

A 2010. október 11-14. között Nyíregyházán és Szatmárnémetiben megtartott Vándorló és letelepült barbárok a kárpáti régióban és a szomszédos területeken (I-V. század) Új leletek, új értelmezések című nemzetközi régészeti konferencia anyagai - Marcin Biborski - Piotr Kaczanowski: Mágikus kardcsüngők

The Huns on Polish lands — an attempt to summarise

basins but even present the routes supposedly followed by their armies. According to B. Anke (2007. 40), the Hunnic invasion came to encompass the eastern part of Polish territory, reaching as far north as the Niemen river. The route taken by the Hunnic forces is presented differently by I. Bóna (1991. map I). In the years 400-405, Hunnic invasions penetrated the east and south of Poland, including the territory where the burials from Jakuszowice and Przem^czany, and the deposit from J^drzychowice were found. The next raid to the Oder and Vistula basins Bóna dates to the years 435-438, i.e. to the times when the Huns were ruled by Attila and Bleda. This time, the Huns were to march through Silesia, the territories between the Oder and Elbe rivers, Pomerania and Podlasie region. Thus, the expedition to the Polish territories could have been connected with the Hunnic expansion to East Europe, with the subordination of peoples of Scythia mentioned by Jordanes and with the war against the little known Sorosgoi, dated to the times of common reign of Attila and Bleda (Lowmianski 1963. 235). Both Anke and Bóna believe that the first Hunnic raids on Polish soil took place in the first decade of the 5th century, when the western Huns were led by Uldin. Such a dating for these hypothetical raids on the territories between the Oder and Vistula rivers seems to be justified to some extent. One can assume that these events should precede the period when the Huns, initially inspired by Аёtius, started wars in West Europe followed by subsequent invasions that ravaged the Balkans and reached as far west as Gaul and North Italy. However, the Huns started their raids on the Balkan provinces as early as in 395, and in the times of Uldin were engaged in further events which took place to the south of their territories, like a struggle with the leader of the Goths named Ganais or a support they gave to Stilicho when he defended Italy against the Radagais’ invasion. There is no clue as to what would be the aim of this alleged Hunnic expansion towards the areas north of the Carpathians and Sudetes at the time when they already had the possibility to invade much richer and more attractive Roman territories. It has been proposed that traces of contacts with the Huns discovered on the discussed territory reflect Hunnic attempts to control the trade in amber (Tejral 2000. 161-162). There is not enough data to estimate the importance of amber trade in the early phase of the Migration Period. Amber was surely not a particularly typical raw material in craftsmanship of the broadly understood Hunnic state environment, although some artefacts made of this material are known (Tejral 2000., Kazanski 2007. 79). One can also suppose that, in the analysed period, this trade might have been impaired by some destabilisation within the community representing the final stages of the Przeworsk Culture, manifested by a sparser settlement network and population movements from the northern parts of this culture area to the south (Godeowski 1985. 115, Maczynska 2005. 157, Kaczanowski 2005.). Moreover, the intensity of amber inflow to the Roman provinces must have been influenced by the altered political situation on the Middle Danube after the Huns had settled there. Their raids into the Vistula and Oder basins might

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Fig. 6

Przem^czany, Proszowice district (after Godeowski 1995.)

6. kép

Przem^czany, Proszowice járás (Godeowski 1995. alapján)

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