A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyve 37-38. - 1995-1996 (Nyíregyháza, 1997)

Régészet - Eszter Istvánovits–Valéria Kulcsár: Some data on the religion and tribal attribution of the Sarmatians of the Great Hungarian Plain

Istvánovits—Kulcsár Some data on the religion and tribal attribution of the Sarmatians of the Great Hungarian Plain In this work we are dealing with a unique (in the Barbaricum of the Carpathian basin) find of grave 20 unearthed in the vicinity of Szentes called Nagyhegy. This object of the assemblage found in 1931 is a diadem/headgear. The burial itself can not be dated earlier than the 4th century A.D. on the basis of secondarily used Roman mountings of a scrinium. The rest of the finds does not speak against this dating either. At the same time, on the basis of its eastern analogies (Novocherkassk-Hohlach, Kobiakovo, UstLabinskaia) the diadem of the priest(?) woman was made in the 1st century. Later it was a little modified: it can be determined mainly on the basis of the three mountings depicting human faces that could decorate the central part of the headgear. These depictions of human faces find good analogies in the Hun Age. In connection with these analogies we referred to the custom of the Iranian cultural circle (involving Alans) which is known both from a Roman author's data (Ammianus Marcellinus) and from images (Orlat, Nagyszentmiklós) depicting the enemy's head attached to the saddle-bow. Mask mountings used as phaleras derived from more naturalistic images. A good depiction of this scene is known from a Sassanian plate. Golden animal figures of the headgear from Szentes-Nagyhegy belong to the circle of the so called polychromic Sarmatian animal style. Another important find of this circle is a golden plate with a tamga from Dunaharaszti. Close and far (as far as Tillia-Tepe in Afghanistan) parallels of the diadem from Szentes, the analogies of the form of the animals (e.g. Porogi), the technological features of the plates, the circle of tamgas (Kushans, North Pontic region, Dunaharaszti) point to the axis Central Asia - Lower Don - Northwestern Pontic Carpathian basin, that is to say, to the direction of the Alanic migration and expansion. On the basis of the mentioned finds, the change of burial rite and last but not least, judging from the data of the written sources, this migration had to reach the Carpathian basin from the direction of the Lower Danube at the very end of the 1st - beginning of the 2nd century A.D. Beside the archaeological material Roman sources also mentioned newcomers from the East. After Traian's Dacián campaign we hear about fights against Jazygs. After Traian's death in 117, Roxolans started to move. The migration of the Roxolans - the white Alans - could had been rather serious taking into consideration the destruction by Hadrian the bridge at Turnu-Severin built not long before that. Hadrian even had the idea of sacrificing province Dacia rich in gold, in order to save the peace. The strength of the newcomers is shown by the fact that they made the Empire increase taxes paid to them. From this time, that is to say from the beginning of the 2nd century, we have to be aware of the constant presence of the Alans at the Great Hungarian Plain at least up to the Hun Age, but more probably much longer than that. Eszter ISTVÁNOVITS Valéria KULCSÁR Jósa András Museum Petőfi Museum Nyíregyháza Aszód Pf. 57. H-4401 Pf. 39. H-2170 166 A Jósa András Múzeum Évkönyve 1997