DIE METHODISCHEN PROBLEME DER UNGARISCHEN LANDNAHMEZEITLICHEN FORSCHUNG. DIE GRÄBERFELDER
THE METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMS OF HUNGARIAN LAND ACQUISITION TIME RESEARCH. THE GRAVES

Summary/Abstract: Since the 1960’s two approaches mainly based on ethnical and social differences have been applied in the course of the analysis of the 10th–11th century cemeteries of the Carpathian Basin. However, the social classification of certain cemeteries is problematic. The division considered applicable to the entire 10th–11th century settlement area (tribal and clan aristocracy – middle class – commoners) does not stand its ground anymore; the cemeteries known today cannot be interpreted as their direct archaeological projections. Families or larger communities of equal status or the same social group could have been greatly different regarding their appearance, inheritance, wealth, agricultural practices, and thus their archaeological appearance. The division of sites on ethnical grounds is a similar issue. The new approach focuses on the duration of the cemeteries’ usage, and in connection with this, the number of their graves. I illustrate this with a settlement historical image outlined by the review of the find material of the Tisza–Maros–Körös interfluve. I observed 133 sites in this region which were mostly fractional, ranging from a few graves to dozens of burials. Taking all these aspects into consideration, hereunder I only have an opportunity to briefly outline a picture, according to which the cemeteries of this region are arranged in six larger blocks. Their characteristics are partly different from each-other.

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