Archaeologists from Kecskemét in search of a bygone people

(2008–2024)
The research of the Migration Period, especially the Avars in the territory of Bács-Kiskun County, has a particularly long story, with many highlights marked by important discoveries or times of intensive fieldwork and slow-paced intervals between them.
The first ‘great era’ started in the 1930s, the first Golden Age of Hungarian archaeology, when Nándor Fettich, an archaeologist from Budapest, started fieldwork around Kiskőrös, excavating several Avar cemeteries and discovering the burials of more than one high-ranking individuals. The young Gyula László, who later became a legendary researcher, joined the work in 1934; his first excavation on the outskirts of Kiskőrös proved to be that of an exceptionally rich Avar cemetery. The residents of the town were interested in local history and proud about their past, and kept reporting new sites; thus, the two archaeologists kept returning and working in the area for years. The recovered find material became part of the collection of the Hungarian National Museum because the collection area of the county museum in Kecskemét did not include these parts unambiguously at the time.
After a long silence, the next upswing in research was in the 1960s; the high point of this era was definitely the discovery of the lavishly furnished grave of a high-ranking man, likely a leader or even a khagan of Avars, interred near Kunbábony. Several exceptional graves and cemeteries – including, for example, Kecskemét–Sallai Street, Kunpeszér, and Kunszállás – were unearthed in this period by archaeologists Elvira H. Tóth and Attila Horváth, wife and husband.
The increase in industrial development in the area from the 2010s also gave a second wind to archaeological research. During the past fifteen years, archaeologists from the Koszta József Museum in Kecskemét have unearthed more than a dozen Avar cemeteries and several lonely burials of high-ranking persons. As a result of the related field projects, more than 600 graves and hundreds of hectares of settlement remains were excavated according to high professional standards. The peak of this era is without question the investigation of an Avar settlement complex – the biggest one from the era known to this day – on the outskirts of Kecskemét. Meanwhile, community archaeology has also gained popularity in the county; the related projects yielded important find assemblages, including the unparalleled metalsmith’s toolkit discovered near Kisapostag.