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)

were drawn together at the ankles in the Iranian tradition. The straps of his boots are typical for the footwear worn by this people, while the spurs, a rare find among the accomplished Sarmatian horsemen, are an indication of his rank. The belt and shoe buckles were made in the same style: popular in the late 2nd and early 3rd century in the Great Hungarian Plain, this fashion originated from the Lower Don region. The other man's costume bespeaks his Germanic stock and his hair-style reveals that he is a member of the Quads (Suebians). In his Germania, Tacitus mentions that the Quads "are remarkable for a peculiar custom, that of twisting their hair and binding it up in a knot. It is thus the Suevians are distinguished from the other Germans, thus the free Suebians from their slaves." This peculiar hair-style is known from several contemporary depictions, one of these being the bronze statuette from Brigetio/Oszony showing the "Suebian knot" (Case 28). The man's mantle was fastened with a gilt brooch and his trousers were cut straight, unlike the one worn by Sarmatian men. His wife's costume reflects the far-reaching contacts between the peoples of the Barbaricum. The reconstruction is based on the finds from a burial unearthed on the outskirts of Veresegyháza. The various pieces of her jewellery were made in the tradition of the different peoples living here. Her neckring is made in the Dacian style, her bracelet is Germanic (Fig. 83), her belt reflects the Sarmatian taste, while her brooch is a Roman product. In the background of the marketplace is a view of a barbarian village. The sunken houses with their wattle and daub walls show a marked contrast with Roman urban culture. It is hardly surprising that the barbarian peoples envied the affluence of the population on the opposite side of the Danube. They often raided the province during the centuries of Roman rule, their ultimate aim being to gain admittance into the empire, which provided prosperity and security for its inhabitants. These peoples adopted many innovations from their 111 Roman neighbours: the art of making wheelturned pottery, an array of goldsmithing techniques and various elements of costume. This cultural interaction was by no means onesided: the Sarmatians' battle tactics, for example, influenced Roman warfare. To quote Tacitus' words, "when they appear on horseback, there is scarcely a line of battle that can stand up to them." The Romans adopted many elements of the typical Iranian (Persian, Mede, Sarmatian) heavy cavalry, in which both riders and their horses were protected with metal armour - Roman arms and warfare undoubtedly served as models for medieval knights' armour and battle tactics. 3. NEW IMMIGRANTS AND DECLINE On the testimony of the archaeological finds, the population of the Great Hungarian Plain was never as large in the centuries preceding the Hungarian Conquest as during the late Roman period. This can hardly explained by a mere demographic boom. The Sarmatians migrated to the left bank of the Danube in several successive waves. The Jazygians were followed by the Roxolans, after whom came the Alans. Other peoples beside the Sarmatians too drifted towards the west in growing numbers. The Vandals, a Germanic tribe, occupied the northeastern areas of Hungary after the Marcomannic wars. Arriving from the territory of present-day Poland, this Germanic tribe lived adjacent to the Sarmatians in the Upper Tisza region for long centuries. The princely graves from the later 3rd century or the early 4th century found at Osztropataka in 1790 and 1865 can be associated with the Vandals (Case 26; Fig. 84).The first assemblage was taken to Vienna, while the other one, known as the Second Osztropataka Treasure, is the pride of the Hungarian National Museum. The perhaps most magnificent piece of the assemblage is the golden neckring symbolising the royal rank of its owner. The shield boss discovered