Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 25. – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1995)

Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Christie, N.: The Survival of Roman Settlement alog the Middle Danube: Pannonia from The tenth Century A. D. p. 303–319. t. XX–XXIII.

Carolingians sought to repopulate or redevelop Pannónia. Too little time was available in any case: in 883 duke Svatopluk of Moravia devastated eastern Pannonia for 12 days; then in 894 the Hungars crashed across the Danube and 'totam Pannonian...deleverunt', thus ejecting the Franks (Bona 1985, 156-157). These disparate Magyar forces resembled the nomadic Avars in their hey-day, with more thought on booty than on establishing a fixed tentorial base. Crushing defeats in 955 and 970, however, halted their expansionist aims and forced a more static lifestyle upon them. Trade with Byzantium, Italy and Germany is attested from the first half of the 10th century and the need for markets and ports-of-call prompted the re-emergence of proto-urban settlements, leading in the later 10th century to a centralisation of Magyar society. The Danube emerged once again as a vital traffic route, and secured the rise of Esztergom and later Buda as royal capitals, while the adoption of Christianity from 973 led to the establishment of bishoprics. Churches noticeably often came to be sited within the (sometimes) delapidated walls of old Roman castra (as Arrabona, Aquincum) or over early Christian cemeteries (Sopianae) - but secular sectors generally lay outside these ancient confines (In a manner not dissimilar to the Anglo-Saxon reuse of Roman towns and forts such as Winchester, Brancaster). An anonymous author writing of the Magyar occupation of Aquincum-Buda pointedly admired the Roman legacy: '...ipsique ibi civitates et munitiones ad defensionem sui fecerunt, aliaque aedificia multa, sicut adhuc apparet' (Fügedi 1969, 102 with n. 17. Cf. also references to the so-called 'palace of Attila' at Buda). In some cases they respected these structures, as at Scarbantia where the late Roman walls defined the 11th century castrum Suprun (Holl 1990, 96-98). Elsewhere Roman remains provided quarries for church construction: in particular we can note the building programme of Stephen I from 997 for his capital of Székesfehérvár, which saw the massive robbing of Roman Gorsium, 8 km to the south (FlTZ 1980, 24; Kralovánszky 1990, 74-89). Across the Danube the 4th century bridgehead of Contra Aquincum was donated in the mid10th century by the Magyar princes Taksony to the Bulgarian nobles Billa and Boscu; a church and associated cemetery developed here, while the fortress walls, still visible then, were largely demolished as Pest developed into a thriving merchant town (Gerevich 190, 35). Conclusions Although we can re-create to a large degree the character of civil and military settlement in 4th and even early 5th century Roman Pannonia, large gaps still remain, particularly as regards the urban structures and the function of inner fortifications such as Környe and Ságvár. The rural picture is dominated by large villa complexes, leaving the role of the smaller landholder obscure. Urban excavation and rural survey are still largely unknown in Hungary, making our task of analysing the sequence of subsequent settlement change more arduous. Without more detailed archaeological study, for instance, many questions must remain open: how prominent was the Roman military within the province after 380? Should we visualise largely civilian groups occupying sites like Fenékpuszta? How reliable is the present hypothesis of 'federate' settlement? And how plausible is the view of largescale military and civilian evacuation with the break-up of Roman control in the early 400s? For the latter we can note how in Noricum Ripense despite Severin's recommendation to evacuate the dying province in 480, the suggestion again had to be raised in 489 by king Odoacer of Italy. At present, however, there is for Pannonia too great a desire to tie in the restricted archaeological data with the few fragmentary documentary notices: this is undoubtedly distorting a still hazy image. Similarly, for the postRoman period there is an over-reliance on stray and chance finds which before с 526 cannot easily be assigned to spedific ethnic groups. For the Longobard period cemetery archaeology is wholly dominant, yet the restricted publication of many excavations leaves us with a disjointed understanding of the population and their material culture. The same is largely true for the Avar occupation phase, though at least here we do have the evidence of village excavations. Nonetheless, it is only with the late 10th and 11th centuries and the foundation of royal towns, bishoprics, merchant centres and market towns that we can claim to possess a reasonably coherent picture of contemporary settlement trends particularly in terms of urban development. Throughout this study runs the taxing problem of identifying 'continuity' and assessing ethnicity of cultural artifacts. Various forms and levels of continuity may exist, whether of population, of material culture, of religion, of structures or of settlements. In a few instances, notably at Fenékpuszta, continuity has been seen as a survival of a native Romanised and Christian population within the walls of a late Roman fortification despite the changing face of the dominant ruling group outside. Under the Longobards, cemetery data are thought to attest an assimilation of various material cultures, elements of which were transferred with the Longobards to Italy in 568. Similarly under Avar hegemony various peoples can still be recognised materially even if cultural identities fade after с 600. In each case, however, we are partly reliant on the vague documentary sources for providing useful ethnic labels. Still to be examined fully, meanwhile, is the physical connection between Hunnic, Suebic, Longobard and Avaro-Germanic cemeteries to adjacent Roman sites - how far need this imply a residual 'native' population within the old settlements and a maintenance of role? 312