The Issue of Gellértegyháza – From another Perspective : Thoughts on the Double-Sided Rectangular Fire Strikers

Rózsa, Zoltán (2025) The Issue of Gellértegyháza – From another Perspective : Thoughts on the Double-Sided Rectangular Fire Strikers. HUNGARIAN ARCHAEOLOGY, 14 (2). pp. 9-22. ISSN 2416-0296

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Abstract

It is a common tendency in studies presenting 10th–11th century assemblages to interpret foreign or atypical finds as mere trade goods. This one-dimensional perspective is often coupled with the “shackles of linearity”, which envision the transformation of pagan Hungarians into Christian Hungarians in the 10th-century Carpathian Basin as a straightforward, linear process. In this view, anything associated with the “old world” is considered outdated – at best, its survival is tolerated in certain geographical contexts. However, this is a reductive interpretation, as it fails to take into account the continuous possibility of influx and integration. This oversight is particularly striking considering the well-known admonitions of our great state-founding king, Saint Stephen I, to his son: Nam unius linguae uniusque moris regnum, inbecille et fragile est – that is, “For a kingdom of one language and uniform customs is weak and fragile.” The following reflections have emerged at the level of problem formulation, in connection with the finds from the cemetery at Orosháza–Rákóczitelep, more commonly known as the Gellértegyháza cemetery.

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