Csilla Balogh

The so far known largest Avar period cemetery of the Carpathian Basin, covering a 5-5.5 hectare large area, is situated within the territory of the city of Zamárdi located on the southern bank of Lake Balaton. Nearly 2700 graves of the cemetery have been excavated until now, and almost the same amount is uncovered yet. Although onetime robbers ravaged and looted 95% of the graves, the cemetery is one of the richest find places of the period. Its various grave goods attest to the multi-rooted material culture of the community once using the cemetery, their ethnical complexity, and diverse commercial connections, as well as the cultural influences that arrived from various directions. Apart from eastern, nomadic cultural roots, local, Late Antique Byzantine and Germanic elements also formed the culture of this community.
The scientific processing and publication of the find material recovered from the 2368 graves until 1997 is finished already. However, only a few information have come to light so far regarding the results of the excavation restarted in 2015, since the restoration and the processing of the finds is still in progress. Even so, we decided to give a foretaste of our recent results by presenting some new phenomena and interesting find assemblages. Our observations fit well with the results of the earlier research, therefore we selected artefacts and groups of artefacts from the material of the previous excavations too, thus aiming to offer an overview of the most important characteristics of the cemetery. We infused life into our professional results by colourful reconstruction drawings.
The excavation of the cemetery continues, and we hope that the uncovering of each and every new grave contributes to our effort to show an even more precise and authentic image to laymen and professionals about the Avar period community that once used the cemetery in Zamárdi-Rétiföldek.

The so far known largest Avar period cemetery of the Carpathian Basin, covering a 5-5.5 hectare large area, is situated within the territory of the city of Zamárdi located on the southern bank of Lake Balaton. Nearly 2700 graves of the cemetery have been excavated until now, and almost the same amount is uncovered yet. Although onetime robbers ravaged and looted 95% of the graves, the cemetery is one of the richest find places of the period. Its various grave goods attest to the multi-rooted material culture of the community once using the cemetery, their ethnical complexity, and diverse commercial connections, as well as the cultural influences that arrived from various directions. Apart from eastern, nomadic cultural roots, local, Late Antique Byzantine and Germanic elements also formed the culture of this community.
The scientific processing and publication of the find material recovered from the 2368 graves until 1997 is finished already. However, only a few information have come to light so far regarding the results of the excavation restarted in 2015, since the restoration and the processing of the finds is still in progress. Even so, we decided to give a foretaste of our recent results by presenting some new phenomena and interesting find assemblages. Our observations fit well with the results of the earlier research, therefore we selected artefacts and groups of artefacts from the material of the previous excavations too, thus aiming to offer an overview of the most important characteristics of the cemetery. We infused life into our professional results by colourful reconstruction drawings.
The excavation of the cemetery continues, and we hope that the uncovering of each and every new grave contributes to our effort to show an even more precise and authentic image to laymen and professionals about the Avar period community that once used the cemetery in Zamárdi-Rétiföldek.

A regional landfill was set up at the border of Felgyő in 2006 that made excavations in the area necessary. In 2006 the excavation covered 103.000 m2, then in 2007 it included a further 10.444 m2 on the area of the access road and the drain to the establishment. Besides signs of settlements from the Bronz Age and the Sarmatian period, an Avar settlement was excavted on site abounding in archaeological features. The Avar features are scattered at the whole excavation site. The boundaries of the settlement was not found, it means that the size of the settlement was wider than 11 hectares. According to our present knowledge, this Avar settlement, excavated in Felgyő-Kettőshalmi dűlő at the Farago-tanya (homestead), is one of the largest among the settlements of similar age in the Carpathian Basin.
During the excavation 4.665 archaeological features were discovered, 1.280 features – 6 graves and 1.274 settlement features – derive certainly from the Avar period on the grounds of the superposition of the finds and the features. It is also likely that amongst the 1.364 as unknown and 136 as belonging to the Migration period classified features can be some that rather belong to the Avar period of the site.
By reason of the ceramic materials we can surely outline 2 phases of chronology: first phase can be dated from the three-third of the 7th century, on the basis of chronological place of the baking bells and earthen cauldrons we can date the second phase of the settlement to the 8th century, but if we take the wheel-made ceramics into consideration we can extend this date to the early 9th century.

This book is a partly revised and updated version of my doctoral thesis, A Duna-Tisza köze avar kori betelepülésének problémái [The settlement of the Avars in the Danube–Tisza interfluve], defended in 2014. The main goal of the thesis was to address the issue of the occupation and settlement of the Danube–Tisza interfluve through the collection, classification and assessment of the region’s Avar-period finds, most of which were unpublished. The issues discussed in the thesis were not restricted to the region’s occupation, namely to the question of who had arrived to the region first and why, and how they took possession of the region; I also examined whether there is any evidence for the subsequent arrival and settlement of other groups and for internal migrations, and I also examined the responses of the communities living in the region to the various processes in the Avar Khaganate, how they reacted to environmental changes, the communication of the communities living in the region with other areas within and beyond the Avar Khaganate, and their “official” and interpersonal contacts.
The text of the thesis was slightly revised later, and a few new chapters were added which addressed in greater detail certain issues that had received less attention in the thesis. This book therefore offers a more comprehensive picture of the Avar-period archaeological relics of the Danube-Tisza interfluve known to date. Despite the roughly seventy thousand graves known from some two and half thousand sites in the Carpathian Basin, we still lack regional overviews of burial customs and find assemblages based on a systematic collection and comprehensive assessment of the relevant material, even though many questions can only be answered in general terms and, very often, but vaguely in the lack of such systemising works. This study seeks to offer a comprehensive overview of the Avar period in the Danube–Tisza interfluve, which can serve as a basis for further research in this region and as a comparative material for other regions in the Carpathian Basin.

Rec.: http://files.archaeolingua.hu/2017TA/recenzi%f3_balogh_eng_17ta.pdf

Im Jahre 2009 und 2010 wurden 251 Gräber eines frühawarenzeitlichen Gräberfeldes bei Makó freigelegt.
In der vorliegenden Studie wird das Grab 61 von den drei, sich an die Ordnung des Gräberfeldes
anpassenden, Gerätbeigaben beinhaltenden Bestattungen kurz vorgestellt. Dieses Grab bietet Anlass, den
Herstellungsprozess der Kompositbögen und den Gerätbedarf der Fertigung aufgrund eines geschlossenen
Fundverbandes zu überlegen.
Im Grab lag das Skelett eines 40–49 Jahre alten Mannes. Der Verstorbene wurde in die, in die nördliche
Seite des Grabes eingegrabene Nische gelegt. Der Mann trug einen beschlagverzierten Gürtel und ein
solches Schuhwerk. Ihm wurden ein Schwert, ein Bogen und ein Köcher voll mit Pfeilspitzen beigegeben.
An seinem rechten Unterschenkel befanden sich Geräte, unter ihnen gab es Feilen, Messer, Zwerchäxte,
ein Hammer, verschiedene Markiergeräte und Kratzer, ein Klauenhammer, usw., ferner ein Gusstiegel aus
Eisenblech. Der Gusstiegel war voll mit verarbeiteten Tierknochen und Hornstücken. Hinsichtlich der
halbfertigen Bogenplatten gilt dieser Fundverband für einen Ausnahmefall in Eurasien, kein Ähnliches ist
bisher bekannt.
Der Bestattete könnte ein auch Bögen herstellender Meister gewesen sein, aber die Gerätbeigaben
können nicht nur an einen Beruf geknüpft werden: Außer den Geräten der Holz- und Beinverarbeitung
gelangten auch die der Metallverarbeitung, ferner Schmiede- und Goldschmiedegeräte ins Grab.
Mit Hilfe des Typs der Gürtelbeschläge (biskuitförmige gepresste Pferdegeschirrbeschläge, symmetrische
Schuhwerkbeschläge, Riemenzungen mit Maske und gepresste Pseudoschnallen) ist diese Bestattung
ganz an das Ende des 6. und den Anfang des 7. Jahrhundert zu datieren.

In the present study we deal with a dagger with notches was founded as stray find in the ammunition clearance before the construction works of the M5 Motorway at Kiskunfélegyháza-Kővágó-ér in 1998.
This weapon typ was spread in a large area from the East European stepp to France. The distribution of the dagger typ may be related to the expansion of the Alans. Total 9 daggers are known in the Carpathian Basin, five daggers were founden in the Danube–Tisza Interfluve. The archaeological sites of these are in the area where the majority of the graves containing weapon can be found in the Late Sarmatian – Hun Age. This site are located at the strategic points, near the Roman trade routes and river crossing.
The daggers with notches founded in Carpathian Basin can be dated to the end of 4th and 5th century.

This article presents a unique Byzantine gold pectoral cross pendant from the Avar period archaeological site of Makó,
Mikócsa-halom, located in Maros Valley, Southeastern Hungary (Kom. Csongrád).
The adult woman (aged 23-35) who wore the cross from Makó was buried according to pagan rites, with grave goods
(an earring with a large spherical pendant, two cast bronze bracelets with widening terminals, a necklace assembled
from three pressed silver disk-shaped pendants and thin bronze tubes) as well as sacrificial animals. Based on our in
situ observations, the woman had worn the gold cross at her neck, among beads. The cross was not a symbol of her
affiliation with the Christian community but was probably worn as an amulet.
The pectoral cross belongs to the type of hollow sheet-metal crosses with widening arms that were widespread primarily
in the Eastern Mediterranean. Based on its hollow body, this was probably originally a reliquary cross. The representatives
of the types are known mostly from the Balkan Peninsula. A few exemplars are attested in the southwestern
part of the Crimean peninsula.
To date the cross, we used the known chronological position of the other finds from the grave. Based on these, the
grave can be dated to the beginning or the first decades of the 7th century. The radiocarbon date obtained from the
human remains in the grave confirms this. At the same time, the use-wear traces and damage to the cross indicate that
it had been in use for a long period before it was buried in the grave. Thus, it had most probably been manufactured
in the 6th century. Based on the analogies, it was probably made in one of the workshops of the Byzantine Empire in
the Balkans.

The present article examines the carved bone plates of the Avar archaeological material from the Carpathian Basin, wich are decorated the small bard-boxes and cases. This material was found in 22 graves from 13 Avar cemetery. The majority of archaeological sites are located in the Danube–Tisza Interfluve, in a strait zone near two the rivers.
Primely they came up from female graves, but in four cases they were found from male graves. The small carved bone plates were usually found near the femur and elbow at the left site.
The motive of these bone plates are similar to the motives of the bone rectangular hand-bag claps of the Avar Period. The similarity of the decoration is partly in relation to the form of the bone plates, I think that these carvings were made by worksmans or bone carved workshops using the same motives.
These bone plates were simply stock together or were pasted on a kind of wood plate. The lenght of the bard-boxes was between 5.5 and 8 cm, the width was between 2 and 3,6 cm.
The specification of the bard-boxes isn’t easy. Near some of them were found toilet tools. In these cases I think that these were toilet boxes containing oinment or face-powder. In another case these boxes contained other powders, grains or small things.
The bard-boxes decorated with carved bone plates hanged usually ont he belt with bronze or iron chain.
In grave 240. and 371. in the Szeged-Fehértó A. cemetery were found strait bone lath decorated with poin-circle motive. Similarly to early Byzantine relic boxes, the small wood boxes were decorated by them. The lid of the boxes could be like a roof form.
The measurement of this cases could be similar to bard-boxes and these were similarly suitable to containe small things and grains too.
The bard-boxes and small cases decorated with carved bone plates came up from average rich graves, in wich were generally characteristic archaeological finds. On the basis of the analysis of the archaeological finds these bard-boxes and small cases are dated to 2th–3th quarter of the 7th century. The origin of them must be investigated.

In a cemetery excavated in 2010 in the region of Middle Theis, Körös and Maros Rivers in Hungary 207 Avar graves came to light. Graves, burial customs and archeological materials of the cemetery show similarities to the graves and burial customs of the Eastern European steppes. On the basis of coins and findings from the graves the cemetery can be dated between 568–630. The cemetery shows similarities to the cemeteries with niche grave of the other population lived between the Körös–Theis–Maros Rivers. This nomadic community settled in the western site of the Theis river must have joined the Avars of Turkic origin somewhere in the steppes of Eastern Europe during the westward migration of the Avars.

In the present study we deal with a rare object type from the Avar period; namely with the carved or turned short rolls made of bone or horn, which formed mouthpiece of leather or bladder hoses. We know 38 pieces of them among the historical relics of the Avar period.
Most of their archaelogical sites are situated along the right side of the Tisza and left side of the Danube, and in the north-eastern corner of Transdanubia. 28 of them originate from the Danube–Tisza Interfluve, and based on this, bone mouthpieces of hoses can be kept distinctive pieces of Avar period finds from this area. In 4 graves along the Central Tisa there were 2-2 pieces, in other cases they were found one by one.
We reconstruct their forms and closures on the base of ethnographic analogies and the Asian stone sculptures. The positions of the mouthpieces of hoses in graves show, that the hoses were worn suspended from a belt.
Their chronological position are given based on their accompanying findings. Based on the earrings, beads, brooches, bone-disc boxes, belt ornaments and weapons they can be dated to the second quarter of the 7th century to the end of the century, or possibly to the beginning of the 8th century.

In 2008 was excavated a little cemetery consisting of ten graves. On the basis of the archaeological finds (a double-edged iron sword, tabbed buttons, (Orseolo) Péter I. (1038–1041, 1044–1046) denarius) and 14C measurements the cemetery seems to have been used from the thirties of the 11th century until the end of the century. The small number of the graves indicates that the community using the cemetery was also small. The DNA tests show that the community was certainly not organized on the basis of a matriarchal kinship relations. The sex ratio of the graves is very uneven: 7 men, 2 women and only one child. On the basis of this kind of majority of the men and the absence of children it may almost be excluded that this community had a normal family life. The outnumber of the men may be explained only by unmarried status of the men or a sudden abandonment of the cemetery. The cemetery of 10 graves was a burial ground from the Early Árpádian Age associated with an intermittenly occupied campsite. It was probably a burial place of the population of an accommodation surviving several generations or of some married slave colony (praedium).
Next to the cemetery, a settlement form the Árpádian Age has also been explored, which is partly as old as the graves and can be dated to the 11th–12th centuries. It is likely that the first inhabitants of this settlement were buried in the immediate vicinity of their accommodation. The settlement, which at the beginning consisted of only a few houses, gradually increased and grown in size as a village. Therefore, at the end of the 11th century, the inhabitants abandoned the small cemetery and elsewhere, but probably near the settlement opened a new one.

Golden, gilded silver or silvered/leaded bronze plate ornaments/plate fragments considered as ornaments of shrouds or coffins are known from 52 burials of 14 sites within the Carpathian Basin. The great majority of the sites are situated in the northern part of the Great Plane between the Danube and Tisza Rivers, in a region where there might have been the centre of the Khaganate from the middle of the 7th century to the and of the Avar-Age. In the Transdanubian region two of the most important prince settlement area of the middle Avar-Age (Dunapentele, Ozora-Tótipuszta) are known, while in the Trans-Tisza region only two, one of them rich prince grave of the early Avar-Age (the horse burial of Madaras) was found. All this reflects that the use of the funeral goods decorated with gilded plates was typical to the highest stratum of the social hierarchy.
These plate ornaments were mainly found in male graves (33), less (9) came from female, 3 from child graves, while in case of 7 graves the gender of the dead is not known. Chronologically the 52 graves originate from an one and a half century period between the 7th
and the middle of the 8th centuries. The understanding of the fragmentary nature and the reconstruction of the plates are difficult, because it can not be specified whether they were applied to the coffins or some textile bearing surface. While analysing the plates, those which might have been fixed to the coffin with nails were separated from those which have small holes at the rims. The first category includes the founds of Kiskunfélegyháza-Pákapuszta, Mélykút-Sánc dűlő, Szeged-Fehértó B. Grave 61, Kunbábony (the bigger plate fragments) and Tatárszentgyörgy and can be imagined them on the coffins in the analogy of the reconstruction of the similar plates of the assemblage of the Pereshchepino, while the second category includes the smaller plates of Kunbábony and Kunmadaras and they might have been sewn onto the textile surface of the shrouds. The gold tinsel plates of the graves 12 and 13 of the Budapest-Rákos site were also applied onto shrouds which were spread onto the coffins, because the textile traces found on the coffin hinges reflect to the custom of spreading the shroud onto the coffin. Similarly to the face shrouds decorated with eyeand mouth-plates, the custom of decorating the coffins and shrouds with plates in the Avar-Age might be a feature originating from Central Asia, but the identification of their true origin requires further researches.

This article presents a burial of an Avar bowyer excavated in 2010 in Hungary (Fig. 1) and dated to the end of the 6th century or to the very beginning of the 7th century (Fig. 2-3).Its unique feature is that it consisted of a number of tools (Fig. 4) and semi-finished bow plates of horny material (Fig. 5). The man lying in the grave must have been a craftsman also making bows. He was buried according to nomadic rite, i.e. together with his horse and weapons. His tools (2 adzes, 2 hammers, a file, a saw, a splitting knife, a hand drill and a small two-pronged tool) were placed to his right calf. The semi-finished bow plates of horny material were placed in a melting pot. In connection with the interpretation of the finds from the grave, we try to reconstruct in accordance with specific archaeological finds how the dreaded weapon all over Eurasia, the composite bow of nomads, should have been made. On the other hand the tools found beside of the deceased reveal that the 40-49 year old man buried in the grave not only produced objects of bone and horn, but also dealt with metalworking.

The present article discusses the settlement of the Avars in the Danube-Tisza Interfluve Region
on the basis of the analysis of 8.039 graves. Six chronological phases were identified in the archaeological
material of the Avar Period in the research area. No find horizon was recognized
from the sixth century period. The growth of the Avar settlement area along the Tisza River, and
also north from Kecskemét is clearly visible in the second phase (620/625–650/660), when a series
of new cemeteries were opened. In this period the upper part of the Danube-Tisza Interfluve
Region had a special historic importance as the residence of the Khagan was located there. The
distinctive role and the privileged position of the communities residing here can be demonstrated
until the end of the Avar Age. Though the material culture of the Avars in the third chronological
phase (650/660-670/675) resembles the features of the Early Avar Period, the beginning
of a slow transformation is observable, especially in the fashion of jewelry. The changes became
explicit in the fourth phase (670/675-700/710), by that time the material culture of the Early Avar
Period disappeared. The Avar settlement area spread to the whole territory of the Danube-Tisza
Interfluve Region in the fifth phase (710/720-730/750), when smaller communities appeared in
the south eastern, before that time uninhabited parts of the region. In the sixth chronological
phase (730/750-826) new cemeteries were opened in the northwestern part of the region, containing
graves with weapons, besides, significant Byzantine find concentration appears in the
area of Szeged-Szabadka/Subotica–Topolya/Bačka Topola, as well as southern borderland of
the Bácska Region. Obviously, the chronological phases defined by the present paper must be
interpreted as a flexible framework, which might be modified by the further analysis of the find
material, discovery of new finds, and the study of Avar settlement patterns.

The grave 8 of the Avar cemetery from Mokrin was described about first by Gyula László in 1946. From among the finds, he reconstructed the two bone plates with meander ornaments as belt mounts. However, in my opinion, they did not belong to a belt but decorated a quiver. No similar bone slat ornamentation can be found among the Avar bone objects, the best parallels can be found between their meander band ornamentation and that of the rectangular slat hair-grips characteristic of the middle Avar Age finds and the incrusted chairs of the cemetery in Zamárdi.
The two bone plates lay across the waist, in more or less one axis. The former position of the slats of the Mokrin find resembles that of the bone slats on the birch-bark quiver found in kurgan 58 in the Mongun Tajga. The quiver unbound of the belt was placed on the abdomen of the dead body. The hook mount at the end of the left plate was used for hanging the quiver.
Narrow, ornamented bone slats are known from further six graves in the Avar age finds of the Carpathian Basis, which may have ornamented quivers similarly to the ones in Mokrin.The typical feature of these quivers is that none of them had curved brim plates, they were hung up by the support of looped hooks, no rectangle belt end or animal-head-shaped fittings belonged to them and there are no quiver belts ornamented with rosettes either.
For the time being, there is no data about the form and shaping of the brim of these quivers. The available data are not yet enough to decide whether the quivers ornamented with narrow slats, based on their from belong to the group of so called “collared” quivers, the top of which was truncated-cone-shaped, often with a lid, and only the system of their ornamentation differed from or were related to other quiver forms.
Among the ornamentation of quivers with bones, there are motifs which did not belong to the earliest types but appeared in the early Avar as well as in the middle Avar Age. Most of the discovery places of the quiver group are in a small geographical area, about 120 km along the Lower Tisza, they stretch close to the river between Csengele and Óbecse. Several types of quivers were discovered among the Avar Age finds. Most of them are “collared” quivers (type 1), which have been found in different varieties: ornamented with metal (Bócsa-type quivers) and carved bone plates (quivers with curved brim plates). The ornamentation of quivers with narrow, curved brims is an invention in the Carpathian Basis, it is not known whether they were used in the East.
Quivers ornamented with narrow slats supposedly belong to the group of “collared” quivers. Often only hanging hooks and mounts, rarely iron props seem to prove the one-time existence of quivers. Quivers of this type were not ornamented with carved slats (type 2). Most of them were typical for graves of high-rank men buried with swords decorated with gold and silver fittings and were outlined on the edge of the chieftains’ quarters in the central part of the region between the Danube and the Tisza Interflue in the middle third of the 7th century. Rarely, they had iron props. These quivers had a downward steadily widening form with a closed brim by eastern analogy (e.g. from Avilovka and Belozerka kurgan 31.).
Hopefully, quiver ornaments will later be found in Avar surroundings, which will clearly prove the former existence of quivers decorated with short bone slats, and will also provide data that will contribute to the reconstruction these quivers.

Six Avar graves were uncovered during the archaeological investigation of a roughly 113,000 m2 large area on the outskirts of Felgyő. The large distances between the graves suggest that these were solitary burials that had been part of a burial zone.
A distinctive group — characterised by knobbed and spiky ceramic wares, hand-thrown, asymmetric clay flasks, braid combs, mirrors, caskets with bone plaques, closed uncollared quivers adorned with narrow bone plaques and the earliest bone plaques for bow quivers — can be outlined in the early Avar material of the Danube-Tisza interfluve. These artefact types have no local amtecedents in the Carpathian Basin. The burial rites associated with this group (the north-northwest to south-southeast and north to south orientation of the deceased, the lack of sacrifical animals, the longish, pit-like cavities recessed into the long side of the shaft graves, the deposition of the remnants of funerary sacrifices into separate pits and the creation of a burial zone with graves scattered over a large area) reflect the arrival of a new population group to the Carpathian Basin in the second quarter of the 7th century.

"The 216 Avar graves uncovered by Gyula László (1960–1977) at the Ürmös-tanya site do not represent the entire cemetery: it is quite certain that unexcavated burials still lie north-east, east, west and south-west of the excavated area. The cemetery was opened during the Early Avar period. The Early Avar graves were oriented north–north-west to south–south-east, and rarely contained pottery or food offerings. The finds include earrings with large or small spherical pendant, necklaces strung of a handful of eye beads, and spindle whorls. The belt mounts from Graves 83 and 215 provide good anchors for dating the early burials to the second quarter of the 7th century. The next horizon is represented by the burials from after the mid-7th century. Most of these graves lay next to each other in northern part of the cemetery, forming a north–north-east to south–south-west oriented group, with the exception of three graves in the cemetery’s middle. While the grave furniture from these burials is predominantly characterised by Early Avar artefacts, new types too make an appearance. Some graves yielded articles made in the Avar style. The women wore necklaces strung of the earlier eye beads together with trailed beads, millet seed beads and segmented flattened globular beads, and earrings with a large or small spherical pendant decorated with granulation. None of the belts were fitted with mounts, except for the one in Grave 62. The bone disentangling hooks and mouthpieces, as well as some of the amulets, were recovered from these burials. Another group, also falling into the same horizon, stands out by the poorness of the grave goods and the presence of artefacts reflecting a Germanic (or Gepidic) taste, rather than typical Avar wares, such as the double-sided comb from Grave 39, the shield-tongue oval buckle from Grave 89 and the iron mounts from Graves 14 and 74. New elements made their appearance in the burial rite too: most graves were north-west to south-east oriented, the grave pits and the coffins were trapezoidal, and the burials were amply provided with food offerings (marked by the presence of vessels and animal bones). Burials with harness sets can be assigned to this group too. While several finds indisputably reflect a Germanic taste, it yet remains to be proven that these burials represent the heritage of the latest descendants of the Gepids in the eastern fringes of the Danube–Tisza Interfluve, or whether the artefacts came from some nearby settlement. The fact that the artefacts in question were found in a position conforming to the way they were worn (and were not in a secondary position) seems to contradict the latter possibility. At the same time, the currently available evidence is insufficient for confirming their possible acquisition through trade.
In contrast to earlier views (BÓNA 1984, Map 24), it is by now clear that the Gepidic settlement territory extended to a 30–40 km wide zone along the Tisza (KISS 1998). “Germanic” artefacts have also been reported from other cemeteries near the river too (Abony, Gátér and Szeged-Kundomb), none of which came from the earliest graves of these burial sites.
The upper boundary of the cemetery’s use-life is marked by the male burials with cast belt sets, necklaces strung of late beads and earrings with oval hoop and bead pendant or prismatic bead pendant. These burials can be assigned to the close of the 8th and the onset of the 9th century (Late Avar III period)."

Conclusions drawn from the examination of burials with horse or horse-harness of the Avarian Age in the territory between
rivers Danube and Tisza are the following:
Burials with horse or horse-harness are not characteristic for this territory. Among Early Avarian sites Csepel-Háros should
be mentioned as a cemetery with an outstanding number of graves containing horse. Among Late Avarian ones the Szeged-
Makkoserdő cemetery is to be dealt with. The former is related to Transdanubia (Western Hungary) (W-E orientation,
graves with posts, Germanic connections of the finds), the latter to the territory east of Tisza (W-E orientation, niche-graves
of late type, more animal sacrifices).
Both in the Early and Late Avarian Age, graves containing horse are usually found in the narrow zone along the Danube
and Tisza. They are situated in one group in the cemetery and all the elements of the burial rite (orientation, shape of the
grave, sacrificial animals) suit well to the order of the cemetery. Practice of burying with a complete horse or part of it
accompanied only men all along the Avarian Age.
Judging from our data, at the territory in question, horse and equestrian graves were in custom only for a short time and
only in small, local communities. The earliest graves with horse come from among the early burials of cemeteries Gátér,
Csepel-Háros (second quarter of the 7th century) and Ürbőpuszta (mid-third of the 7th century). This custom continued to
exist after the mid-7th century in the Csepel-Háros and Ürbőpuszta community. It also appeared in several cemeteries that
started at that time: in Apostag, Dunavecse and Szabadszállás (in the western part of the territory between Danube and
Tisza), and in the Szeged-Makkoserdő cemetery in the southern part of the Great Hungarian Plain. At the end of the 7th
century, the practice of the burial with horse suddenly ceased. We still do not know what was the reason, but the Szeged-
Makkoserdő community returned to this tradition together with the niche-grave custom at the end of the 8th century.
Territorial distribution of the burials with horse-harness is similar to that of the graves with horse. The appearance of
the custom coincided with the earliest graves containing horse in the second quarter of the 7th century. In some of the
cemeteries started after the middle of the 7th century this custom sometimes appeared at the end of the century, when in the
territory between rivers Körös-Tisza-Maros, Avarians returned to the tradition of burying a complete horse.
Early burials with horse-harness, with the exception of the Szeghegy grave, can be connected with male burials. However, in
the second half of the Avarian Age this custom was practised mainly in the case of women.

Unter den frühawarischen Gräbern am Fundort Kunpeszér-
Felsõpeszéri út, Homokbánya kam in Grab 3 unter
anderem ein propellerförmiger, aus Silberblech ausgeschnittener
Gürtelbeschlag zutage. Der Gegenstand bzw.
Gegenstandstyp ist wegen seines spätawarischen Charakters
in einem frühawarischen Fundensemble einer
gründlicheren Untersuchung wert.