The Reihengräberfelder in Transylvania after 100 Years of Archaeological Research

The article presents a newly discovered site identified during a rescue excavation performed in 2014 as part of the project for the construction of the motorway Nădlac – Arad, Arad County. With this occasion, two graves belonging to the Migration Period dated during the middle of the 6th century AD were discovered. Due to the topographical position of these two graves it is believed that they are part of a bigger necropolis belonging to the so-called Reihengräberfeld type of cemeteries, typical for the 6th century AD in this geographical and cultural area. Strong connections with the Merovingian milieu are observed while studying the composition of their funerary inventories, testifying for the complexity and heterogeneity of the 6th century AD group of discoveries linked with the eastern Germanic tribes known, from the ancient literary accounts, to have inhabited this region. This newly identified necropolis can be associated with the group of similar discoveries documented in the western part of Romania, the Tisza region and in the northern part of nowadays Serbia generally connected with the presence of the Gepids.

The political domination of the Avars in Transylvania was confined to the center of the Transylvanian Plateau (bend of the River Mureº, between Câmpia Turzii and Teiuº), extending also to the Târnave Basin, territories where the Avar cemeteries cluster. Mureº Valley connected this centre of power with Pannonia (fig. 2). Large territories from Transylvania, like the northern part of the Transylvanian Plateau as well as the piedmont areas of the Carpathian Arch remained outside the “borders” of the Empire. In this context, a series of extensive Avar military expeditions can be supposed during the fourth and fifth decades of the 7th century in order to conquer Transylvania. The military campaigns were aimed at solving several issues: 1. The conquest, abolishment or only the control of the Gepidic centers of power from Transylvania, still active in the first half of the 7th century; 2. The repression of the supposed Slavic uprisings from Transylvania; 3. The establishment of an Avar centre of power in the middle of the Transylvanian Depression with a distinct aim of effectively controlling the salt reserves in the centre of the Transylvanian Plateau. A single Avar military centre existed in the Transylvania, positioned in the area of the River Mureº bend. It had the status of a province “Aul” and it was subordinated to the Avar khagans from Pannonia (fig. 2). They exercised a direct control over the centre of Transylvania via personal representatives. They were elite warriors, accompanied in Transylvania by their military retinues, as well as by bands/units of common fighters from the Avar army.

2005

Linguistic revision by Christina Lundberg Cover I: Ileana Burnichioiu The cover image illustrates a human skull and the articulated limbs from Alba Iulia-Lumea Nouă, Trench I/2011, square D (Poz-47402: 5690±40 BP)

= Morminte de şefi militari avari din Transilvania / Cosma Călin. -Cluj-Napoca : Mega, 2018 Conţine bibliografie ISBN 978-606-543-962-7 902 © Editura Mega,

Catalogi Mvsei Marisiensis, seria archaeologica, II, 2015