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)

88. Bronze sacrificial cauldron from Hogy ész. First half of the 5th century anvil, several tongs and two hammers) was no doubt a respected member of his community (Csongrád-Laktanya). The deceased were provided with food and beverages for the otherworld: the fine glass cups were perhaps made in Pontic workshops, while the dark grey jugs with smoothed-in patterns were the products of potters working in the Carpathian Basin. Basing his narrative on Priscus' reports, Jordanes, chronicler of the Goths, recounts how after mourning his death with lamentations, Attila' body was buried in the "secrecy of the night." The rich gold treasures (such as the magnificent assemblage from SzegedNagyszéksós) and the fragmentary, sooty bronze cauldrons (Törtei, Várpalota, Hőgyész; Fig. 88) can in all probability be regarded as the remains of the funerary feast and sacrifices, buried a little farther from the grave. The distribution of these large, heavy, cylindrical cauldrons with their handles rising above the rim from Inner Asia to Gaul outlines the extent of the Huns' migration. 7. GERMANIC KINGS AND PRINCESSES AT THE HUNNIC COURT Lying in the southern part of the Great Hungarian Plain, the central Hunnic settlement territory was encircled by a wide ring of the subdued peoples as was customary among nomadic peoples. The names of many nobles and kings who as loyal vassals led their armies into battle with the Huns, who feasted at Attila's table and who received generous shares of the booty, are known from contemporary chronicles. The treasure of the Gepids, one of the allied peoples of eastern Germanic stock who had arrived to the Carpathian Basin from the northeast, was found at Szilágysomlyó in two parts in 1797 and 1889. The two treasures were amassed by the Gepidic rulers for over a century. Treasure I was taken to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, while Treasure II is part of the collections in the Hungarian National Museum. The two treasures were exhibited together for the first time in 1999, first in Vienna, then in Budapest. Treasure I contained fourteen (or fifteen) gold medallions which, being the gifts of Roman emperors to barbarian rulers, had never been in circulation. The earliest was issued by Maximianus Herculeus (286-305), the latest one by Gratian (377-383). The treasure included also a few copies made by local, non-Roman goldsmiths. The smaller medallions were set into an ornate frame, onto which a small loop was soldered. The wear traces suggest that they were often worn, probably on ceremonial occasions. The necklace with a large smoky quartz pendant and fifty-two smaller pendants in the form of various tools and weapons symbolising various crafts, agricultural work and warfare, was likewise donned on special occasions. Other items in Treasure I included a pendant resembling a medallion, a gold ornament depicting a man, an animal headed ring and the fragment of a bracelet, as well as eleven beaded and thirteen plain gold rings. A few articles of Treasure II, displayed at