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 8 AND CORRIDOR - The Avar period (567/568-804 A.D.) (Éva Garam)

707. Reconstruction of a jewelled collar with almandines from a girl's burial. Grave Villi A of the Kiskör ös-Vágóhíd cemetery. Last third of the 7th century and western Slovakia and in Transylvania reflect the arrival and settlement of large population groups and, also, that in addition to soldiering and stockbreeding, crop cultivation too had become an important source of livelihood. The creation of a defensive marchland ringing the Avar settlement territory became a source of conflict with the neighbouring peoples, for example with the Bavarians living beyond the Enns River. The Avars withdrew behind their borders, a policy which turned out to have fatal consequences a century later. The male, female and horse burials found at Ozora-Tótipuszta can be dated to 654-659 on the basis of a Constantine IV coin from one of the graves. The golden belt mounts bearing Byzantine designs, the bejewelled collar, the heavy, cloisonné clasps, the finger-rings and the Byzantine cross all bespeak relations with Byzantium. The burial mode itself, however, reflects the general steppean practice of placing the deceased's possessions, including his horse, into the grave. One of the most eloquent examples of the imitation of the Byzantine court fashion is the jewellery found in a girl's burial discovered on the outskirts of Kiskőrös. The Avar or Onogur-Bulgar jewelled collar of almandines trimmed with delicate golden bell pendants from this grave (Fig. 107) is obviously a copy of the bejewelled superhumeral worn by the Empress Theodora as portrayed on the mosaic in the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna. The girl was no doubt a member of the royal family. The large axe planted into the ground in her burial was believed to protect her family and relatives from her revenant ghost. Other finds reflecting the imitation of Byzantine fashion are the pressed gold headdress mounts decorated with a design incorporating the Tree of Life and doves, the snake headed bracelets, the pressed clasps imitating cloisonnéed ones and the earrings with pendants of semi-precious stones from Cibakháza and Dunapentele, found in burials dating to the last third of the 7th century.