A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 32. Kunt Ernő emlékére. (1994)

TANULMÁNYOK - FODOR István: A magyar őstörténet vázlata (magyar és angol nyelven)

changed their language. Another group migrated to the east, all the way to the Yenisei and Angara rivers. This movement most probably represents the separation of ancient Samoyeds from the main body of population. Finno-Ugrian inhabitants who remained in the Ural region occupied the western slopes of the mountain during the 3rd millennium as well as the valleys of the Kama and Pechora rivers and the area where the Kama flows into the Volga river. Within the framework of their economy using natural resources, a marked development became apparent. More sophisticated artifacts began to occur, traditions of architecture became enriched and pottery remains indicate a southern connection. Among the remains preserved by the peat deposits of lakeshore settlements (such as Sigir and Gorbunovo) a number of artistic wood and bone carvings have also been found. (Fig. 3.) The period of Ugrian coexistence The Finno-Ugrian linguistic unit was dissolved by the end of the 3rd millennium B.C. This change is also clearly mirrored in the archaeological material. Western groups of the Finno-Ugrian community moved westward with a great momentum from the region of the Kama and Volga rivers. During the course of a few centuries they had conquered the upper region of the Volga river and reached the Baltic area. These populations became the ancestors of later Volga and Baltic Finnish groups. Ancestors of the Perm Finno-Ugrian population lived in the region of the Pechora, Kama and Viatka rivers. Ugrian populations (ancestors of the later Ob-Ugrians and Hungarians), however, remained in the wooded steppe and parkland areas, east of the Ural Mountains. (Fig. 4.) The habitation area of the Ugrian group, which populated the Ural Mountains and the regions of the Ob, litis, Isim and Tobol rivers must have extended over quite a large area within which small Ugrian communities were only „tied" together through relatively loose contacts. This is suggested by a relatively small number of linguistic phenomena in Ugrian languages which seem to have developed in the Ugrian period. With the exception of the northern groups, decisive economic changes took place within the Finno-Ugrian community during the years between 2000 to 1500 B.C. Under the influence of their southern neighbours who inhabited the Eurasian steppe region and who primarily spoke ancient Iranian languages, the Finno-Ugrian population was introduced to two important branches of productive economy, animal keeping ana land cultivation, in addition to metallurgy. As far as is known today, this process occurred a few centuries earlier in the Ugrian portion of the population than in its Eastern-European component. The Ugrian group most probably inhabited the northwestern territories of the so-called Andronovo Bronze Age archaeological culture. This culture may well have been formed by population groups speaking ancient Iranian, who had previously lived more to the south. The Ugrian agrarian economy was adopted under their influence, while metallurgy developed under stimulation from the south and east. This process is nicely illustrated by the finding that the early vocabularies for both agricultural production and metallurgy in the Finno-Ugrian languages include an overwhelming majority of ancient Iranian loanwords. The high level of Ugrian animal husbandry is clearly illustrated by the terminology for horse keeping which is common in all Finno-Ugrian languages and had survived to the present („ló" = horse, „nyereg" = saddle, „fék" = cheek bit, „ostor" = whip, „kengyel" = stirrup, „másodfű ló" = „second grass horse", 2 years old, 116