Garam Éva szerk.: Between East and West - History of the peoples living in hungarian lands (Guide to the Archaeological Exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum; Budapest, 2005)

HALL 6 - Barbarians of the Roman Age (turn of the millennium-early 5th century A.D.) (Eszter Istvánovits, Valéria Kulcsár)

nomadism to sedentism and an economy based both on crop cultivation and stockbreeding, and in part to the cultural impact of their Roman, Germanic and Dacian neighbours, and of the Celtic groups still living in this region. The Sarmatians used the pottery produced in the Greek towns in their homeland; after consolidating their presence in the Great Hungarian Plain, their own simple, hand-thrown vessels were soon replaced by sophisticated, wheel-turned wares adopted from their Pannonian neighbours and from the surviving Celtic and Dacian communities (the pottery of the Germanic peoples at this time was made up of hand-thrown wares). A new batch of immigrants arriving in the late 1st and the early 2nd century, bringing with them the changed costume, weapons and horse harness of the steppe, too played a role in the transformation of the Sarmatians' material culture. The growing population of the Great Hungarian Plain felt the need to expand its settlement territory - Trajan's campaign against the Dacians provided an excellent opportunity. The two Roman-Dacian wars in 101-106 were conducted to crush the powerful Dacian state ruled by the formidable king, Decebal, and to annex his kingdom to the empire by creating a new Roman province (called Dacia). Fifty years after their arrival, the Sarmatians of the Great Hungarian Plain seized the opportunity provided by the crushing of Dacian rule in Transylvania to expel the Dacians from the northern part of the Danube-Tisza Interfluve and to extend their control to the territories beyond the Tisza, which had until then been part of the Dacian sphere of influence. It must here be noted that very few Dacian finds are known from this area, suggesting that the Dacians had simply controlled this area, but had not settled here in great numbers. The slow migration of the Quads from Slovakia to the northern fringes of the Great Hungarian Plain, the Ipoly valley and the Budapest area along the Danube can be dated to roughly the same period. The archaeological heritage of both the Sarmatians and the Quads have been found in the area between Budapest and Vác (Fig. 83), suggesting a peaceful coexistence here, at least during some periods. The Sarmatian-Quadic neighbourship was cemented into a military alliance during the wars fought with Rome - the two peoples are regularly mentioned together in the Roman sources until the 5th century. Suffice it here to quote Ammianus Marcellinus, who - writing about the events of the early 4th century noted that "the Sarmatians and the Quads ... because they were neighbours, had like customs and armour" (Case 29). Turbulent times of war alternated with periods of peace and prosperous trade relations during the centuries of Roman-barbarian interrelations. The bloodiest war was the socalled Marcomann-Sarmatian war of 167, in which several barbarian peoples (Germanic and Sarmatian tribes) clashed with the Roman Empire, then mied by the philosopher emperor Marcus Aurelius. Even though prospects of reaching a peace agreement seemed quite near at times, the fighting continued with renewed vigour again and again, and the war lasted for almost twenty years. 2. WAR AND PEACE, WEAPONS AND MARKETS The peaceful period after the conclusion of the Marcomannic wars brought a flourishing trade between Rome and the barbarian peoples. Imports of terra sigillata wares (bright red, carefully polished pottery imitating metal vessels, decorated with relief and stamped patterns and figurai scenes taken from Roman mythology), enamelled fibulae (dress fastening pins and brooches) made by provincial craftsmen in the Sarmatian taste (Figs 68, 82), finely crafted bronze vessels and various luxury articles of metal made their mass appearance in the Barbaricum at this time. The latter are chiefly found among the relics of the Germanic, rather than the Sarmatian peoples. In addition to long-