Avar Period inhabitation of the Carpathian Basin

An abundant archaeological record attests to the key role of the Danube–Tisza Interfluve in the political structure of the Avar Khaganate in the 7th century AD. Based on the burials rich in elaborate precious metal artefacts and ones reflecting an extended connection network unearthed in this zone (e.g., Kunbábony, Bócsa, Kiskőrös–Vágóhíd), this region was likely the dwelling area of the leading Avar clans and families.
During the 7th century AD, settlements popped up along the roads and watercourses in previously barely inhabited lands, too, and the previous lifestyle based on nomadic agriculture and looting was abandoned for permanent, lasting village communities. The unstructured, low-intensity settlements, small cemeteries (e.g., Kunpeszér), and lonely burials (like that of a woman at Nagykőrös-Fekete and of a man at Szalkszentmárton-Táborállás), typical of the Early Avar Period, were replaced by large cemeteries with hundreds or even thousands of graves. Parallel to an explosive demographic increase and the full-scale inhabitation of the Carpathian Basin, the cultural diversity characterising the early period had been replaced by the 8th century AD by a uniform cognitive and material cultural environment where cultural and ethnic boundaries became gradually more blurred: the belts adorned with fittings decorated in the gryphon-and-tendril style, a flagship piece of men’s attires, or the hoop earrings with a bead pendant and the strung bead necklaces, characteristic accessories worn by women, were popular in every corner of the Khaganate (see, for example, the cemeteries of Bácsalmás, Kelebia, and Hajós).