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CHAPTER 1
Introduction
The Carpathian Basin, being the westernmost fringe of the vast Eurasian
steppe zone, at the crossroads of the Balkans, Central and Eastern Europe, has
been exposed to various cultural influences throughout its history. The region
witnessed many population movements, migration of nomadic and semi-
nomadic peoples from the steppes, beginning with the Scythians, Sarmatians,
Huns, and ending with Avars, Magyars, Pechenegs, Cumans, and Alans.
One of the most consequential migrations was that of the Avars, which
resulted in significant political transformations, as their polity lasted for more
than 200 years, from the late 6th century to the early 9th century. The establish-
ment of the Avar qaganate brought stability to the region, and the Avar culture
left recognizable and indelible traces in the physical and cultural landscape of
the Carpathian Basin. Ever since the 19th century, archaeologists have revealed
thousands of cemeteries with tens of thousands of burials, and several hun-
dred settlements dated to the age of the Avars.
The archaeology of the Avars in Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia
and Slovakia has by now clarified a broad range of issues regarding the arrival
and gradual settlement of the steppe nomads, the chronology of the Avar Age,
ethnic questions such as the involvement of the Slavs, the hierarchical struc-
ture of Avar society, as well as the development of craft traditions. Every one
of these issues is closely involved in the study of Avar-age arms and armour.
The Avar Age was one of the most important periods in the early medieval
history of the Carpathian Basin. More than 60,000 richly furnished burials
are known from this period spanning from 568 AD to the first half of the
9th century.1 The burial customs of the period allow us to reconstruct the mate-
rial culture of the Avars, among other things their arms and armour.
The study of the Avar armament dates back to the beginnings of early
medieval archaeology in the Carpathian Basin,2 as scholars have long noted
the fact that the Avars were described primarily as warriors in Byzantine and
1 In 1993, 2,475 Avar age cemeteries were known (the database of Avar age sites known as
ADAM). There are several estimates of the total number of Avar age burials, with István Bóna
suggesting between 35,000 and 40,000 (Bóna 1988, 437), and more recent studies going as
high as 60,000 (see: Daim 2003, 463; Vida 2003, 304; Langó 2007, 188, with note 84).
2 For the beginnings of the research on Avar weaponry, see chapter I.1.