Zalai Múzeum 15. Horváth László 60 éves (Zalaegerszeg, 2006)

Mitja Guštin: Between the Slavs and the Madyars

ZALAI MÚZEUM 15 2006 249 Mitja Gustin Between the Slavs and the Madyars The famous colloquium in Székesfehérvár was one of the turning points in the knowledge of Celtic settlements in Central Europe. It was also important personally, since it was there that I had the pleasure of meeting László Horváth. Our friendship has been imbued with the Celts, those in southern Pannónia and those between the eastern Alps and the Adriatic, which constituted the main topic of many of our conversations throughout the years. Though it would be appropriate to publish in these proceedings one of the numerous newly-found Celtic sites in the vicinity of Murska Sobota (MOTORWAY 2004), it is my opinion that our friendship and work would best be illustrated with an article on the early medieval settlement from the same vicinity. The construction of the highway route from Budapest to Maribor in the last decade brought about, on both sides of the border, numerous archaeological excavations on the previously unexplored plains along the Mura River. This systematic research on vast uninhabited and intensely farmed plains thereby provided completely new and, most importantly, materially well-documented historical picture for the time from the prehistoric to the medieval periods. In the abundance of valuable data and material, the future museum exhibits, that illuminate more than 5000 years of history, this article focuses particularly on the events after AD 568, when the Germanic Langobards left the fringes of the eastern Alps and western Pannónia and moved to Italy. Tied to the departure of the political and military elite of the Langobards and to the first wave of the Slavs in the second half of the 6

th century is the immigration of the latter to the abovementioned area. The Slavs entered an administratively empty and sparsely-populated area. The population that they did encounter, far from the former Roman communication routes, city centres and vast farming areas between Poetovio and Emona, was the old Roman population intermingled with Germanic inhabitants, who settled in the area after the Langobard movements and lived in remote hilly areas and poorly accessible fortified stations on the hills of Kozjansko (GRAFENAUER 1988; CIGLENECKI 2000). The Slavs that came to the Pomurje and Podravje regions and further south to the lowland area of Friuli and the hinterland of the Istrian coast in the second half of the 6th century, are known in literature under the established name of the Alpine Slavs. Until recently, only written sources spoke of them: the political and military records of the battles of Samo's Tribal Union (623-658) with the Franks and the Avars, and the existence of Carantania (664-772) that forged alliances with the Bavarians and thereby indirectly also with the Frankish king and the Christian Church in the fear of the Avar overrule (see GUSTIN 2002 and 2004 with further literature). Extensive archaeological excavations on the plains of the highway in north-eastern Slovenia, on the plain of Dravsko polje and in Prekmurje, brought to light tangible archaeological traces of the first Slavic immigrants. This well-documented material evidence strongly supports the brief remarks in the ancient texts and enabled the recognition and good understanding of the settlement picture and life of the population at the end of the 6

th and in the 7

th and 8

th centuries between the Alps and the Adriatic. The archaeological excavation at Slivnica near Maribor, conducted in 1996, revealed the first oval pits, up to 0.80 metres deep, recognized as early medieval semi-subterranean huts, the characteristic dwellings of Continental Europe of the time. The huts were later joined by similar structures found on several locations around Murska Sobota (Fig. 1). They were particularly numerous at the site of Nova tabla, where they represent the earliest and the most extensively documented early medieval settlement on the southern fringes of the Alps (GUSTIN 2002; MOTORWAY 2004). The ethnic determination of the population near