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 7 - The early Migration period: the Huns and the Germanic peoples (c. 420-568 A.D.) (Ágnes B. Tóth)

5th century. The grave pits were oblong; those of the wealthier members of the community were dug deeper to prevent or at least hinder grave robbing. Evidence for the use of coffins was found in some cemeteries. According to the written sources, the Gepids' conversion to Christianity by Gothic missionaries probably began in the 4th century. The finds reflecting conversion include crosses worn around the neck, reliquaries and crosses engraved on eagle brooches. The survival of pagan beliefs is reflected in the deposition of food and beverages into the graves and the use of apotropaic amulets, the so-called Donar pendants. More recent excavations in the Great Hungarian Plain have enriched our knowledge of Gepidic villages. Most settlements were located directly by water, on the high banks near rivers and lakes. The greater part of the sunken buildings uncovered during these excavations were workshops and storage facilities built around upright timbers with walls of wattling daubed with clay. Very often, finds reflecting various craft activities were found inside houses. Textiles, blankets and the like were woven on vertical looms; conical clay loomweights lying on the floor have been uncovered in many houses which were destroyed by fire. Awls, files, needles, spoons, skates and amulets to ward off evil spirits were produced in the bone carving workshops; the popular double-sided combs were carved from antler. Gepidic potters fired their wheel-turned wares in kilns which had a separate stoke-pit and kiln-room separated by a grate. The pottery finds from burials and settlements provide a good overview of Gepidic vessels: the loveliest among them are the carefully polished, wheel-turned bowls and cups covered with stamped patterns (Fig. 95). Cooking pots, mugs, bowls, jugs and storage jars were made from clay tempered with grit. Crop cultivation is indicated by finds of hand-turned grainmills consisting of an upper and lower grinding stone. Cultivated cereals included millet, wheat and six-row barley. The animal bones thrown into the refuse pits were made up of domestic animals (cattle, horse, sheep, pig) and wild species, as well as fish. 15-17. THE LANGOBARDS IN TRANSDANUBIA (510-568 A.D.) There was a considerable shift in the political and ethnic mosaic of Transdanubia after the Langobards arriving from the Elbe region defeated the belligerent Heruls guarding the northwestern entrance to the Carpathian Basin around 510 and entered Pannónia. The first Langobardic groups occupied northern Transdanubia (the first burials in the Szentendre cemetery probably date from this period). The Langobards lived in peace with the Gepids of the Great Hungarian Plain and Transylvania; the two peoples were bound by dynastic ties, for Wacho, the Langobard king, had married a Gepidic princess. It would appear that neither the Heruls and the Suebians of Transdanubia, nor the remnants of the Roman provincial population came into conflict with their new overlords. On the testimony of the Hegykő cemetery, the Germanic peoples (Suebians, Heruls or perhaps Rugians) and the surviving remnants of the provincial population lived in peace and prosperity under Langobardic rule. The graves in the Hegykő cemetery, many of which contained wooden coffins, were not particularly large and they were dug shallower than the average Langobardic burial. The weapons and the jewellery (bow, disc and bird brooches) of the Germanic elite contained many Alemannic-Frankish products, reflecting the close political and trade relations between these peoples, living far from each other. The deceased included converts to Christianity, buried with their hands clasped together, as well as servants or slaves buried with very modest grave goods. Some of the most superb finds of the Hegykő cemetery were recovered from Grave 18: large brooches with gems en cabochon (Fig. 96), disc brooches, rock