The Periphery of the Centre? The Late Avar Cemetery Part at Nădlac (Germ.: Nadlak; Hung.: Nagylak; Slov.: Nadlak)

Cociș, Sorin and Gáll, Erwin and Malvinka, Urák and Ursuțiu, Adrian (2016) The Periphery of the Centre? The Late Avar Cemetery Part at Nădlac (Germ.: Nadlak; Hung.: Nagylak; Slov.: Nadlak). ARCHAEOLOGIA BULGARICA, 20 (1). pp. 1-75. ISSN 1310-9537

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Abstract

In the frame of the Nădlac-Arad Motorway project 12 graves were exca- vated from the Late Avar period near Nădlac. According to the analysis of the burial customs, various object categories of the material culture (lock rings, earring, beads, components of belts with mounts, knives, potteries) can be dated to the end of the late Avar era, which corresponds to the late 8 th or early 9 th century. It can firmly be stated that some of the finds were the products of the latest metallurgical horizon (e.g. the punched belt-hole guard mount and the belt mounts with pendants) so some of the types found here can be connected to the last horizon, which is very important concerning their dating. The identity of the micro-community in Nădlac and their self-identification with a political community were influenced by the fact that they were a primary group . For them their micro- and macro-community traditions and their values and traditions at a micro-community level coming from their way of life might have been much more important than their ethnic identity. According to the clusters of late Avar sites and the supposed location of the hypothetical ‘workshop circles’ in the Carpathian Basin, it is clear that the cemetery researched by us and its micro-region is situated outside the central territories. It seems to be supported by the heterogeneity of the belt sets, which shows that the members of this community had more difficulty obtaining the various decorations. The anthropological deformations indicating hard physical work also seem to underpin this ‘peripheral’ status. Its loca- tion seems to show clearly that this micro-region, and within this the cemetery of this animal breeding and agricultural pagan population, is on the periphery of the power centre(s) of the Great Plain. They were the common people of the late Avar Khaganate in the eastern region of the Great Plain. We can talk about the cemetery of a settlement from the late Avar period, which was on the periphery, under the Khagan or some other Avar chief or big man ( tudun, iugurus ).

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