Hungarian prehistory
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- Explanatory note: This article was originally based on "The Hungarian Old Country", written in Hungarian by professor István Kiszely, and translated into English by Csaba Hargita. Dr. Kiszely's purpose was evidently to counter the argument that Hungarians are more closely related to Finno-Ugric than to Turkic peoples, the view that gained the upper hand in the 19th century during the so-called "Ugric-Turkish war" on Hungarian origins (see: Hungarian language#Classification for a convenient summary of the various arguments). Several Hungarian scholars agree with Dr. Kiszely, among them Tibor Baráth, Adorján Magyar and Fred Hámori.
"Hungarian prehistory" refers to knowledge about the Hungarian people prior to historic records, that begin with the Magyars' occupation and settlement of the Pannonian plain around 890 AD.
Hungarian prehistory includes the wanderings of such disparate steppe nomads as the Scythians, Sarmatians, Huns, Avars, Iazyges, Pechenegs, Cumanians, and others, all of whom may have contributed to the ethnogenesis of the Hungarians.
In modern theories, politico-ideological assumptions have given way to research in physiology (BG, marker and mitocondrial DNA) and sociology, as well as philology and a renewed attention paid to classical sources.
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[edit] The Hungarian Nation
The Hungarians arrived here from afar, multiplying up to around 15 million, and preserving their own language, culture and physical traits.
In searching for the ethnic origins of Hungarians, one must look for some other people -- whether past or present -- with the same, or similar psychology, music, dance, faith, folklore, poetry, writing system, cuisine, flora, fauna, and language.
These comparisons, aside from relying strictly on classical written sources, may be performed using the disciplines of anthropology, music, dance, theology, poetry, typology, ethnology, gastronomy, botany, zoology, and linguistics. There is no need for guesswork outside of these precise sciences. If these methods fail in the attempt to clearly identify the group or groups with the strongest affinities to Hungarians, then the most scientific statement one could hope for would be the somewhat resigned phrase: "It is impossible to say."
Hungary has one of the most prominent non Indo-European populations of Europe. Its origins cannot be sought in Europe, as its physical, cultural and linguistic roots are distinctly non-European in nature.
Hungarian chronicles and traditions trace the beginnings of their national identity to a series of tribes from Central Asia who settled the Carpathian basin in several 'waves'; these include the Huns who were first invited by the Romans in 361 AD, and opposed them a century later and from whom the modern Székelys claim descent -- then two waves of Avars in 586 AD and Magyars (the nation of Árpád) settling in 895-96 AD, then Iazyges settling in 1235 AD and Cumanians in 1243 and 1246 AD.
Being the largest in number (about 500,000 people), the nation of Árpád is usually taken as the origin of modern Hungary. The related peoples who entered the Carpathian Basin before 890 are called "ancient Hungarians". In addition, surviving native populations who occupied the region beforehand (from the Neolithic, copper, bronze and iron ages, to the Scythians, Sarmatians, Romans and tribal migrations), and various peoples who settled later on (Saxons, Swabians, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Serbs, Croatians, etc.), have been assimilated into today's Hungarians.
[edit] Sciences utilised in the quest for Hungarian origins
[edit] Anthropology and Genetics
Anthropology can point to the Hungarian homeland through physiological research. The old country of Hungarians must be sought where people lived, or still live who are physically like Hungarians. The Uyghur cemetery at Astana near the Jungar Gate provides the answer to this, revealed by Aurel Stein between 1913 and 1915, with 1200 more graves discovered by the Uyghurs and Chinese in 1986. The people buried there were physically the same as the Hungarians who settled in the Carpathian Basin. Also demonstrative is the fact that typically Turanian, Pamirian and Taurid genetic elements, that entered the Carpathian Basin with the Hungarians, are common only among the Turkic peoples of Central Asia, but occur nowhere else in Europe.
Aside from physiology, recent genetic research has provided clues about national origins and kinships. Within the blood group system attributed to Landsteiner, the rate of the typically Hungarian "0" and "B" blood types (31.05% and 17.90%) is off from that of Indo-European and Finno-Ugric nations, but is within the range found among Central Asian Turkic nations. Besides this, there is another blood type among Hungarians, the Diego [A+], present in no other people of Europe. The "Mongolian spot", almost unknown in Europe, has 22.6% occurrence, and Lactose intolerance (missing lactose digestive enzyme), rare elsewhere, is at 37% among Hungarians, as in Central Asia. The skin splinter system of Hungarians has Central Asian characteristic (low bend rates, but high vortexes). The Gm-marker research pointed out that the Gm abst and Gm afb3 gene markers occurring among Hungarians are missing among other European populations. International Mitochondrial DNA research has also recently identified additional Central Asian characteristics among Hungarians.
[edit] Linguistics
Linguistics has revealed much of loan-words in Hungarian, but native Hungarian vocabulary and grammar have been studied far less, on an objectively scientific level. In this regard, one may consult the breakthrough volume "Of the origins of the Hungarian Language other way around" by Peter Sara (1994) and the works of Laszlo Maracz (2000); but the Codex Isfahani that surfaced in 1860 -- a Hunnic-Armenian dictionary and grammar, in a 10th c. Turkish transcription -- is of supreme importance. This work contains almost the entire Hungarian basic vocabulary. The only problem with this is that there is absolutely no proof that it ever existed, hence the codex is told to be "lost" during WWII without any copies or scientific examination from the time between its "surfacing" and "perishing". The whole matter seems to be another far right-wing hoax to fortify the theories (e.g. the Sumerian-Parthian-Scythian-Hunnic-Avaric-Hungarian-continuity) of the nationalistic circles, comparable to the Romanian Daco-Roman theory.
[edit] Cultural Disciplines
The material and spiritual culture of a nation provides valuable insights about its origins. Any one of these cultural elements might be of major importance, but if all taken together can be shown to have originated in the same area, than this ought to be a determining factor. A critical examination of culture is especially important, because it tends to be preserved in unchanged form for a long time.
[edit] Writing system
Hungarians arrived in Europe with a specific writing system. Although the Indo-European scripts have long since abandoned character writing, forms of it persist in Asia– e.g. it is still in use among Turkish – where it is usually written right to left and/or as syllabic writing, while the vowel regimen is often indicated by "ligatures". The uniquely Hungarian runes most likely originated in Central Asia, and could have evolved from hieroglyphs to phonetic characters as long ago as the 2nd millennium BC.
The distinctly spiritual relationship Hungarians have with their script recalls that of other peoples such as the Etruscans, Sogdians, Bactrians, etc.. This script was used not only by monarchs, but by commoners as well. The 3000 year old Central Asian scripts published by S. Tovuudorj in 1995 prove that their basic 13 consonants have not changed since that time. The Hungarians arrived in Europe with a developed script, and could easily have kept the writing and its spirit, just as their language, alive until today.
[edit] Music
The history of folk music and instruments plays an important role among the sciences searching for the cultural affinities of the Hungarian people. Hungarian music is pentatonic, quart or quint changer, descending scale, and proclitically ending, like Turkish music. The primary characteristics of Asian music are its zest, diction, use of decorative voices, presence of glissando, narrow melodic range of voices, its trichord-tritonic-tetrachord-tetratonic-pentachord modality, the existence of bard songs and lamentations, psalmodic recitation, unison, and the characteristic rhythms (syncope, changing of sharp and prolative rhythms, etc.). The kinship between Hungarian and Turkish folk music was pointed out by Zoltan Kodaly, based on the collection of Bela Bartok in 1939.
Thanks to collectors of Hungarian folk music, 200,000 folk songs have been registered and some 100,000 published in print. This makes Hungarians among the most musically prolific per capita (pop. 15 million) anywhere in the world. Ancient Hungarian instruments that have been preserved include: typical drums, hit gardon, lyre, hammered dulcimer, zither, shepherd's pipe (csilinka), twin-flute, longflute, reed, Turkish whistle (or rather oboe-like shawm), bard whistle, and the Hungarian bagpipe (Duda), etc..
[edit] Art
Among the basic motifs of Hungarian folk art, the tulip plays a central role, alongside the carnation, the pomegranate, the corn-flower and the peacock. Hungarian folk art is built with unbelievable richness around the tulip, a flower first cultivated in Central Asia on the perimeter of the Gobi desert. This tulip motif found among Hungarians can also be found in the same form in Central Asia.
Hungarian folk art contains many other Central Asian stylistic elements: ligamentures, "S"-shaped frizzling leaf forms, double frizzles, rosettas, sunwheels, swivel crosses, spirals, winged suns, use of rosetta and palmetta. The symbolism of Hungarian folk art is specifically Central Asian: peacock – immortality; tulip – woman; griffin – eternal light; heart – love; flower in flower – fertility; pomegranate – abundant descendants, etc..
The love symbols, the ornamental use of the Sun and the moon, the stag and dragon emblems and the Life tree -- with the religious beliefs connected with these -- are unusual in Europe. Hungarian decorative imagery is characterized by a desultory, rich diversity, a love of flowers, a deep sympathy with nature, a proper sense of ratio, "the power, the rest, the serious conflicts of the lividness of big plain areas and the fire of congested frittering, the manly avoidance of slobber or of risible tints..." (Aladar Fay, 1941). Two specific elements of Hungarian architecture that originated in Central Asia are the Székely gate and the wooden plinth, both unique in Europe.
[edit] Dance
Hungarian dance is uniquely rich in Europe; "Hungarians could keep something from the dance art brought from Asia, and widely different from any other dance arts of Europe -- specifically Hungarian" (Laszlo Felfoldi, 1996). Many dance teachers (notably György Martin and Sándor Timar) have been able to rescue the art of Hungarian dance from the verge of disappearance, and bring it to our everyday life. The specific moves of many modern Hungarian dances continue to reflect the ancient sacrificial rites and martial dances.
[edit] Religion
In spite of numerous and degrading assertions to the contrary, the fact is that the ancestors of the Hungarians were never truly "pagans". The ancient Hungarians were monotheistic, as were other nations of the plains, being close to nature – the Sun and moon, rain, snow, and wind.
Monotheism is common among the stockherding equestrian nations of the steppes, and a centrepiece in the practice of the Hungarians' religion was the model of the Central Asian ruler, ruled by the grace of God, acting for Him. The king of the Huns was the "Son of Heavens". All Hungarian vocabulary related to God and faith has a Central Asian Turkic origin: isten (God), lélek (soul), imád (adore), menny (Heaven), boldog (blessed), böjt (fasting), vétek (transgression), bűn (sin), bocsát (forgive), búcsú (saint's day), hit (faith), teremt (create) örök (eternal), etc..
Of course they respected the elements – the Sun, moon, fire, Water and Earth – but the shape of the One God – Tengri – always rose above the world of spirits. Theophylactos Simocattes wrote about it thus: "The Turks (Hungarians) respect the fire, Air, and Water, honouring the Earth with hymns, but worship and call God only the One, Who created the universe..." And the following can be read at Anonymus: "The leader Árpád, whose helper was the God of All... prayed to God in tears... and the helper of the Leader Álmos was the Holy Spirit... Tas, Szabolcs and Tétény saw, as God gave them victory..."
The symbol of the cross can be seen on the sabretache cover plate from Bezdéd, and in graves from the age of settlement. It is very important to note that the Hungarians' ancestors have never had shamans, as have the Siberian nations, but rather wise priests, táltos, who had extraordinary knowledge, and "organized the spiritual world of the Hungarians under the God of Hungarians" (Imre Harangozó). "Such motifs can be known in totemism, those backbones lead us into the world of the monotheism of Central Asian Turkestan" (Béla Gunda).
The Hungarians' ancestors had already become acquainted with Christianity while in the Caucasus. In about 530 AD, the Armenian bishops Qaurduct, then Maq, converted the Onogurs, and in 644 a Turk monarch with all his nation converted to Christianity, as commemorated by Armenian authors. We can also read about the Christianity of the Hungarians' ancestors in the legends of Cyril and Method. In 948 Bulcsú and Tormás (Termatsu) were baptised in Constantinople, then the headman Gyula in 953; later Ajtony, Géza and István converted to Christianity in Vidin. The honouring of the Hungarian and Central Asian Mother-god cult – the Blessed Woman, or "Woman of Beauty" (Babba Maria) – found expression in the cult of Virgin Mary, and lives on even today.
[edit] Mithras cult
There is archaeological evidence (Fertőrákos, Hungary; Mörbisch, Austria) that the people populating the Carpathian basin before the Hungarians arrived also practiced a monotheistic religion, the Mithras cult originating from Persia. That religion may have also been practiced by the Huns. The Hungarian tribe also lived in the Kazar Empire for some time on their way from Central Asia to Europe; the Kazar elite were practicing Jews.
[edit] Folklore
The Hungarian folktale is a treasure in the search for the Hungarian past that has only lately been discovered. Its richness and diversity is unique in the world. Its distinguishing characteristic is to reflect on the universality of the bequeathed primeval knowledge in the whole of its purity. The people once knew their history more accurately than the authors of chronicles.
Hungarian heroic tales, fairy-tales, and charm tales have a probable Central Asian (Turkic) origin, as recently published collections of Turkish tales have tended to confirm. The heroes and shapes of Hungarian folklore belong to no European tales, and are not easily fathomed by a Eurocentric mind. The "far country", the world beyond, often above the sky or under the Earth, can be explained through the "tree of Life", and heroic Hungarian tales can be properly appreciated only within the Central Asian context of taltos.
The turul legends and the imaginary griffin were likewise begotten by nearly identical Central Asian myths, and played a specific rôle for the ancestors of Hungarians. The turul, that never nested west of the Carpathian Basin, even became the badge of the Hungarian rulers. Hungarians coming from the east evidently brought these Central Asian beliefs with them to the west, where they were unknown, or at least not likely to be known.
[edit] Toys
The toy of a child springs from the depths of the human soul, the natural manifestation of life's primeval instincts. Katalin Lázár in the 1990's was able to collect over 300 Hungarian folk toys, a unique treasure unsurpassed in the world for quantity and variety of Hungarian toys. One of the reasons ancient Hungarian folk toys have endured, is that over half of them are vocalic or rhythmic, uniquely Hungarian.
The children of equestrian tribes had no "ready-made" toys; they had to produce them on their own, using flowers, sunflower-stalk, head, acorn, conker, reed, peach stone, sheep bone, and especially felt. These toys are the bone foals, sledges, tossing woods, felt balls and felt puppets. Analogous toys have also been found in ancient Central Asian graves (e.g. Tarlyktag).
[edit] Family structure
The question is often raised, what has kept Hungarians together? The answer is threefold: monotheism, concept and love of mother country, and the family structure. Hungarian ancestors arrived in the Carpathian basin bringing their identifiably Central Asian family-based structure with them; the 10th century monarchs Géza and St. Stephen later found it impractical to stay with this Asian structure, adopting instead a more European model of statehood.
The basic concepts of the family, or nuclear family (6-10 persons) the extended family (25-30 persons), and the "stem" (1000-2000 people on average) were able to be brought forward from the ancient structure, during the incorporation of towns; but the tribal unit (40-50 stems; 50,000 people on average) disappeared, having achieved the specific goals that had caused these tribal units to become allied with one another under the leadership of the headman.
One such goal was the recapture of the new country in the Carpathian Basin, the old empire of Attila, where the alliance was solemnized by the blood covenant, as usual in Central Asia. The structure of Hungarian society can be perceived as an exact reflection of the Central Asian Turkic model (the suit, "carrying away of girls", introduction to the parents, birth practices, etc.). The family structure and farming of today was developed in a unique form on homesteads in Europe. Far from the "equestrian nomadic" way of life typically conceived of as degrading, the Hungarians' ancestors clung to their stockherding equestrian way of life, the geographically mobile society, the basic quest for necessities and the ability of rapid relocation, to a great extent for a long time.
[edit] Flora & Fauna
The Hungarians of the Carpathian Basin occupied one of the most fertile basins of the world, and practiced their ancient farming and stockherding techniques. Their farming and stockherding related vocabularies again have Central Asian Turkic origins: eke - plough; ásó - spade; kasza - scythe; sarló – reaping hook; csépe - flail; árpa - barley; búza - wheat; arat - harvest; boglya - stack; tarló - stubble; őröl - grind; dara - breeze; gyümölcs - fruit; alma - apple; körte - pear; mogyoró - nut; dió - walnut; szőlő - grape; kocsány - stalk; szűr – to filter; bor - wine; borsó - pea; kender - hemp; kóró – dry stalk; tiló - picker; orsó - spindle; torma - horseradish, üröm - wormwood; komló - hop, csalán - nettle; gyom - weed; gyékény - bulrush; katáng - chicory, etc..
If the Hungarians' ancestors had been mere "nomadic shepherds", then they too would have disappeared among the surrounding nations, as happened to many tribal nations during the time of the great migrations. As no one pursued the Hungarians at any time, and the Carpathian Basin was not occupied of necessity, they had the luxury of bringing ancient Hungarian animals and plants along with them.
Ancient Hungarian cereals included wheats such as wild einkorn (Triticum monococcum), emmer (T. dicoccoides and T. tricoccum), and spelt (T. aestivum subsp. spelta); proso millet (Panicum miliaceum), barley (Hordeum vulgare subsp. hexastichum), rye (Secale cereale), fat hen (Chenopodium album); harvesting and threshing did not happen in the European manner.
Ancient types of ploughs were the crooked plough, the digging plough and the bed plough. Trucks lens (Lens culinaris), lentil vetch (Vicia sativa var. lentisperma), pea (Pisum sativum), chick-pea (Cicer arietinum), galajt (Galium spurium), gourd (Lagenaria sicenaria), the Asian original onion (Allium cepa) and garlic (Allium sativum), cabbage (Brassica oleracea Capitata Group), kohlrabi (Brassica oleracea Caulorapa Group), Caucasian celery (Apium garveolens), the ancient world's oldest granted parsnip (Pansinaca sativa subsp. sativa), prickly lettuce (Lactuca serriola), common sorrel (Rumex rugosus), spinach from Asia Minor (Spinacea oleracea), the cultivated radish from Asia Minor (Raphanus sativus) and the Central Asian, the best of the Chinese, the eggplant (Solanum melongena), etc. were known (Ferenc Gyulai).
Hungarian fruits included the apple (Malus domestica), the China-originated peach (Prunus persica), the Central Asian apricot (Prunus armenica), Persian walnut (Juglans regia), the "European" plum (first cultivated in Asia) (Prunus domestica), cornel (Cornus mas), the cantaloupe (Cucumis melo) from India and Middle Asia, the watermelon, first cultivated in China (Citrullus lanatus), the pear, cultivated in Asia (Pyrus domestica), the nut, the sweet cherry (Prunus avium) and sour cherry (Prunus cerasus), etc.
Hungarians also had specific Central Asian ("Turanian") knowledge about viniculture. All Hungarian vineyarding and winemaking-related words are of ancient Turkic origin. Their ancestors arrived in Europe along with winerods, as the Hungarian sort of grapes and viniculture doesn't even belong to the sphere of Roman viniculture. "Even if Roman and earlier knowledge of viniculture lived on, those were soon merged into the knowledge of the Hungarians arriving into the Carpathian Basin". (Ferenc Gyulai). Hungarians also had specific knowledge about rearing bees.
Hungarians arrived with Asian "taki" or Przewalski's horses (Equus przewalskii) and so-called "Achal Teke" horses ("achal tekini"), and the associated equestrian culture (the Central Asian wooden saddle, iron stirrup, and curb). The civilized world adopted the science of riding from the Hungarians' ancestors: the stirrup, saddle, and spur, the dirigible coach and the light horse.
After much discussion, Hungarian researchers (notably János Matolcsi) determined that the "arm-horned Hungarian grey ox (even if not in its present form) was the domestic beef of our founding ancestors" (the Hungarian grey ox was a direct descendant of the wild ox Bos primigenius). "The straight twirled horned sheep came along with our ancestors and stayed until today" (Béla Hankó).
Nothing seems to show evidence of a settled herding culture better than the fact that the Hungarians' ancestors also brought pigs (the ancestor of the salonta pig) along with them into the Carpathian Basin. The dogs brought by Hungarians - the Tibet dog, the shepherd dog from the Tarim Basin, the puli, the two guard dogs - the komondor and the kuvasz - and the hunting dogs, the Hungarian greyhound and the pannon foxhound, are of non-European origin. The Central Asian two-humped camel (Camelus bactrianus) was still living in the Carpathian Basin in the 12th century.
[edit] Cuisine
Describing the ancestral Hungarian cuisine, Pál Kövi wrote: "Treasure like the folk music and the folkdance, a unique cultural treasure resides in gastronomy. This treasury must be revealed, we have to sink into its depth, since the more we get to the bottom of it, the more we get to the heights of knowledge and spirit."
Hungarian cuisine of the age of settlement cannot be directly compared to Western European cuisine at the time, as its philosophy was completely different -- gastronomically speaking. Hungarian cuisine is characterized firstly by cooking, having a significant touch of the flavour of Turkic and other eastern cuisines. As frying is used more in the West, cooking is used more in the East; and this is a basic difference in culinary styles.
The cuisine of ancient Hungarians used to be characterized by the pentathony of tastes; taking the strong as a separate taste to the sweet, sour, salty, bitter; aspiring to the harmony of them, just as the Central Asian nations do. "In the sphere of gastronomy, traditions can be found going back to the age of Settlement, and even older and more east..." (Robert Gyula Cey-Bert). The recipes for goulash, and goulash soup, can be found among the descriptions of certain sacrificial foods (keng, ta-keng) by Chinese authors. The pastes, the soups, the tradition of canning meats by curing, the fermentation of milk, and the still-practised cooking techniques that differ from those of any other European nation, were all brought from the East.
[edit] Metallurgy
The Hungarian ancestors' metallurgy surpassed any other professions, and was completely different to the European form, since its bases were not different kind of minerals (like pyrite), but the limonite, whereof by damascening and multiple folding were created the only light (500 g.) samurai swords, sabres, often mentioned by authors as being in demand; war-axes, spears, spontoons, kopja (spear / pike), clubs, hoes, and spades.
Hungarian goldsmiths used Central Asian motifs and techniques, and their jewels were famed far away. No other European nations made horse-hair jewels. The bowmasters made the Central Asian type reflex-bows, first reconstructed from grave artifacts by Gyula Fábián, and still counted among the best. For the bows, the Hungarians' ancestors made arrows with specifically Central Asian arrowheads, storing them in artistically decorated quivers. The "Eastern" tactics of the Hungarians' ancestors were described in detail in the writing by emperor Leo the Wise entitled "Tactics".
[edit] Apparel
The civilized world of today no longer wears the chitons of the ancient Greeks and Romans -- nor yet the leather stapled separates of Germans -- but the modern suit, brought by Hungarian ancestors into Europe: the kazak and pants made from fine lenvászon or kendervászon, the three-quarter heeled shoe, the caftan (greatcoat of today) and underwear, that was formerly not the accoutrement of European culture.
There are plenty of written sources about the Hungarians' ancestors' clothes -- Gardhezi, Jayhani tradition, Istakr, emperor Leo the Wise, pope Sylvester II, etc. -- who all emphasize the Hungarians' ancestors' "spiffiness". There weren't many differences between the clothes of men and women in Central Asian traditions; Hungarian women wore pants until the end of the 13th century; both sexes wore underwear.
Accessory men's wear was the caftan, hussar pelisse, mantle, sheepskin waistcoat, szokmány (tightly fitting short coat of peasant attire), szűr (long embroidered cloak of the Hungarian shepherd), guba (coat made of course knotted cloth), sheepskin, backskin, sheepskin jacket, busby, boots, heeled shoe (not the European sandal or shoe), and the studded belt with hanging knife, decorated bag (tarsoly) and bow. Women's wear was based on finer material than men's wear; the shirt made from fine material (pendely) was stitched on both sides and tied on the waist. Women also wore three-quarter (and slimmed in the waist) kazak, low uppered soft boots, coronet and unbelievably many jewels; plait trappings (breast disc), pearls, earrings, necklets, armlets, rings, leg- and armbands. The authors emphasize the "elegant" and "always clean" clothes of the plebs; the rich used a lot of silk, brocade and velvet in their clothes.
[edit] Migrations before entering the Carpathian basin
The Hungarians' old country — the place where people physiologically, genetically, linguistically and culturally similar to Hungarians live — is today's Eastern Turkestan, the "Heart of Asia" (Central Asia); specifically, the northern and western edges of the Gobi Desert, the Jungar Basin and the confines of Takla Makan.
In this area, between the 9th and 8th centuries BC, was established the Hun (Xiongnu) empire from 16, 19 or 24 tribes; among the members were Turkic, Altaic and Iranian groups, as well the ethnic group that later under the name Onogur constituted the Hungarians' ancestors. The members of the Hun tribal federation were stockherding equestrian nations; Chinese almanacs mention them as being from whom, in times of need, horses, sheep, and wheat, could be bought for silk, china, gold, silver, black ink and powder, and who engraved the contracts "with their own characters" on wooden plates and dog skins.
This Hun tribal federation split up in 91 AD, when the Western Huns, who had lived along the Chu river, seceded; later, the Romans invited them in 361 AD into the Hungarian Plain, to keep the Sarmatians and Gepids in check. Their king of a century later, Attila, was one of the most feared rulers in Europe of the first millennia. After his death in 453 AD, the remaining Huns proceeded to Chigle Field (Mezőség); they are possibly the ancestors of Székelys.[citation needed]
The first Turkic tribal federation was established with like components, and included the Juan-Juan nation and the Uar ("Calico Horsed") nation, or Avars, who in 568 AD occupied the Carpathian Basin in two new waves. The migration of the Hungarians' ancestors from Central Asia started with the later Onogur nation seceding from the second Turkic federation to move west, and it continued until the recapture of Pannonia in 895/96 (890?) AD.
The Hungarian ancestors' first stopping place was supposedly Turan in the end of the 3rd or beginning of 4th century AD.[citation needed] The Turan Plain, often mentioned as playing a significant role in the past, is the huge semiarid steppe between the South Urals, the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea and the Tien Shan. This area was the crossroads, resting place, and a kind of ethnic melting-pot of different nations. Trade routes of four worlds met here: the legendary Silk Road from the east, to Mesopotamia and the Byzantine Empire in the southwest; and the Southern Iranian routes converged here with those of the Northern equestrian nations.
Hungarian ancestors not only sojourned in the Turan area, but stayed in its northern part for a while, in the neighborhood of Khwarezmia, Kangju, Sogdia and Bactria. Tiny vestiges of the Hungarians' ancestors here include the "tribe" called "Madiar", and the place name Majar Kislak. Much could be learned about the Hungarians' ancestors from the writings of the Arabian geographers Al-Makdisi and Abu Rayhan al-Biruni from this area, and would be, if they were properly translated and handled. Among other things, it could be learned that the Hungarians' ancestors at this time already had irrigative agriculture and developed herding.[citation needed]
The Hungarian ancestors' next stop was in the Caucasus. Xenophon, Prokopios (490-562 AD), Agathias (536-582 AD), Protector Menandros (6th century), Joshua the Stylite (6th century), the Chronicle of Edessa, Joannes Ephesinus (6th century) and especially the Armenian authors Agathangelos, Phaustos Byzantios and Lazar of Farp, mention the Huns and Hungarians dwelling there. Even the Armenian ruler St. Gregory "the Illuminator" (Gregor Lusavoritch) mentions the Hungarians' ancestors there in his ecclesiastic works; regrettably, most modern researchers do not delve into Armenian resources too deeply.
Kornél Bakay (1996) finds significance in the fact that "the old name Sabir of the Hungarians leads us into the Caucasus... the ancient Hungarians came into being from two ethnicities; the Hungarian speaking Sabir-Huns, and the Turkish speaking Onogur Turks" (it is now known that the language of the Huns was also Onogur Turkish). The group who broke away in the Caucasus are the Savard Hungarians, to whom the monk Julianus traveled, before nearing Magna Hungaria. (Their location here is Majar, where Samuel Turkoly attracted attention in 1825).
Next the Hungarians' ancestors -- or according to newer assumptions, only a part of them -- moved from the Caucasus to the Northeast, to Magna Hungaria, where they stayed a relatively short time. Magna Hungaria corresponds to today's Bashkiria and areas to the west. Genetic research proves the Hungarians' ancestors stayed here, showing Hungarian-specific markers among nearby Finno-Ugrian nations, missing from more remote Finns and Ugrians.
The misguided view of prehistory officially propagated in the 19th century by the Austro-Hungarian monarchy derives Hungarian origins as being ultimately from here, even though much of their physiology, language and culture cannot be attributed to this area. At the time of the Hungarian presence there, the Finno-Ugrian nations had a gleaning-fishing culture of a type that never characterized the stockherding equestrian Hungarians.
In Bashkiria, in the territory of Kama and along the river Ingul, Hungarian gravesites confirm the Hungarians' ancestors' dwelling here; a significant burial place used between 850 and 920 AD is Bolshie Tigani, with 150 graves in the Volga-Kama territory. The monk Julianus explored this area in 1235 AD. "The Hungarian tribes joined with by the tribe Megyer – as readable by Istvan Fodor – presumably moved to the south, then west from the Bashkirian Magna Hungaria, crossing the Volga, and dwelled in the area of the river Don."
The Hungarian ancestors' next, relatively very short stop was the area between the Don-Donec Basin and the Maeotis (Azov) Sea, "Levedia" (or Dentumogyer – "Don Magyar"?), called after chief Lebedias. Lately, Kornel Bakay has cast doubt on the Hungarians' ancestors' ever dwelling in Levedia, claiming "a mythic ancestor is seen in Levedias... Levedia cannot be a separate stage of the Hungarians' migration".
Two Hungarian legends take place here: the dream of Emese (the "legend of turul") and the legend of the Wondrous Stag (the legend of Hunor and Magor). Even if Hungrians were in Levedia – in the neighborhood of Bulgarians and Khazars – chances are they lived there "three years" altogether, as emperor Constantin wrote. The Hungarians at this time "hired" out twenty thousand mounted archers to the Khazar ruler -- indicating the strong army and organisation of the Hungarians' ancestors. Certified Hungarian burial places from this territory have only now begun turning up. The Bulgarian legend of the Silver Stag offers a poorly disjointed counterpart to the Hungarian legend of the Wonderous Stag but from comparing the two legends, we may say that unlike the Bulgars, who were helped by an allegorical beautiful stag, a people who the early Magyars felt very closely associated with sought blood but failed because they were not familiar with the waters of the area, even so, female hostage taking by these people occurred in the process and the events contributed to the establishment of Danube Bulgaria.
The Hungarian ancestors' final stop before entering the Carpathian Basin was the Eastern-Northeastern foreground of the Carpathian Basin, Etelköz (Etelkuzu) -- the territory of the rivers Dnieper, Dniester, Bug and Seret. Hungarians ruled the territory between the Khazar Khaganate and the Carpathians at this time.
There was nothing changed in the Hungarians' way of living compared with previously; reports Ibn Rusta: "The land of Hungarians is rich in trees and waters, their land is wet. They have much tillages..." Many authors write about the Hungarians in Etelköz (Jayhani tradition, Gardezi, Hudud al-Alam, etc.).
In Etelköz when the chief Álmos died, a Central Asian-style blood covenant was contracted, "that is a definitive event before the settlement, forming the Hungarian tribes to one nation" (Gyula Laszlo). The importance of the blood covenant is seen in that the names of the seven high men ("chiefs") (Álmos, Előd, Kend, Ond, Tas, Huba, Tétény) were even noted by emperor Bíborbanszületett Constantin. Árpád was chosen as leader, then he deliberately reoccupied the ancient empire of Attila. "The nation of Árpád was not a ragged multitude of exiled hordes, but a deliberately and plannedly home changing rank, having great monarch Árpád in the lead, whose stem resulted excellent kings." (Kornel Bakay)
The word "settlement" is a relatively new flattery. Simon Kezai (1283) calls the moving in of Arpad's nation to the Carpathian Basin a "remigration", Janos Thuroczy (1488) a "return", Istvan Szekely (1559) and Gaspar Heltai (1575) a "second entrance". The Hungarians' ancestors stayed some 45 years in Etelköz, and the exact date of the settlement, as calculated from the Byzantine solar eclipse, was 895. (This statement came before the diet in 1892, but as the preparations of the millenial festivals were not ready, the Austro-Hungarian government appointed 1896 as the year of millenial festivals).
Europe was in a state of disintegration at the time of settlement. The Byzantine Empire was weakened; there was no longer any centralized power in Italy; the Holy Roman Empire was only established some decades after the settlement; so the Hungarians entered as a strong power on the stage of European history.
The Avar empire in the Carpathian Basin had broken up about a hundred years before the settlement; but some Avars lived strewn about the countryside, calm in their village life. Most of the basin was inhabited by the Slavs. The northern part belonged to Great Moravia, weakened by a civil war. Transylvanian salt mines were guarded by Bulgaria. The Balaton Principality in Transdanubia was occupied first by Great Moravia, then by the Frankish empire.
The beginning of the Hungarian settlement was instigated by other factors: in 894 AD an extreme Muslim attack streamed into Eastern Europe; the Byzantines disappointed the Hungarians living in the Balkans; they were hit by a Pecheneg attack; and finally with Svatopluk I's death that year, Great Moravian power started to decline. The settlement itself supposedly took place in May 895, when the Hungarian tribes from their quarters in Etelköz took the closest route (Verecke, Tömös, Ojtoz, Gyimes, Békás pass, Lower Duna, etc.) and occupied first the Upper Tisa area; then three groups calling themselves kabar ("rioter") split from the Khazars and invadedthe Transylvanian salt mines guarded by Bulgarians, and with the claim of finality pushed into the Carpathian Basin. The Transdanubia was entered by the Hungarians only after the death of Arnulf, the Frankish ruler, in 890 AD, completing the occupation; thus this year may be taken as the actual end year of the settlement.
The real significance of the settlement is that a nation originating in Central Asia, evolved on the border of Europe and Asia, calling themselves Magyar – "son of man" in its original meaning – getting the name "Turk"" from the Greeks, and "Ungar, Hungarus, Hun"" from other European nations, could create a firm state in the Carpathian Basin, one that was able to form a relatively peaceful symbiosis for the nations under the Holy Crown, and that today proudly has a Constitution guaranteeing of rights, that is equal to any among the nations of Europe.
The new home in Europe is one of the most fruitful basins in the world -- where the 500,000-strong nation of Árpád lived in peace side by side with the 300,000 indigenous inhabitants and Avars, and formed the Hungarian nation.[citation needed] At the end of May 895 at Ópusztaszer (or from 890 AD, after the Transdanube's occupation), the first Hungarian diet took place -- whence Hungarian prehistory ends, and history begins.
[edit] False theories in the search for Hungarian prehistory
Although Hungarian prehistory is unambigously proven, many false theories have tried to change, heroize, idealize or mostly degrade this past. A large measure of these falsifications of history stemmed from linguistics, but the theories of laymen have also done much damage. Although the language of a nation belongs to its ethnic criteria, language can change; even its culture can be toned; but its physiology, according to the strict regulations of genetics, will remain unchanged.
The most flagrant linguistic mistakes regarding Hungarian origins arise from the fact that the Hungarians' ancestors stayed temporarily in the territory of Finno-Ugric peoples, borrowing a great deal of vocabulary from them.
The first major unscientific foray into Hungarian prehistory was made by Johann Eberhard Fisher (1697-1771) with his unscientific statement (1768), that "the language of Estonians, Finnish, Lapps, Permis, Vots, Cheremis, Mordvins, Chuvash and Hungarians is common". All these nations lived "in born wildness and crassness in the near past", to his mind. August Ludwig Schölzer (1735-1809) brought Fischer's work into notoriety in his work published in 1771 stating, that "only the Hungarians have no history of their own". The Hungarian theologian and astronomer János Sajnovics, after observing the passing of Venus before the sun on the island of Vardö, wrote a lay linguistic essay about the Finnish-Hungarian-Lapp relationship. Then the jurist Antal Reguly collected folksongs from the land of Voguls.
In 1870 in Budapest the Finno-Ugric theory was established with the support of the Academy in Vienna and proclaimed as fact, with only the barest of linguistic support as evidence. The great "Finno-Ugric warrior" of the 19th century was the Saxon from Szepes, Pal Hunfalvy (Hunsdorfer), who, making common cause with Joseph Budenz, committed himself to the Hungarians' supposed Finno-Ugric origin.
Opposing him, for the cause of proving Hungarians' "Turkish" roots, stood Ármin Vámbery, among many others. He stressed that "the base, the core of the Hungarian language and nation is Turkish, and where a bit of Finnougrian sparses can be found are secondary, sojourner elements". Regrettably, an accurate appraisal of the writings of both researchers, Hunfalvy and Vambery, will reveal numerous factual errors and naive statements within each.
So was the 19th century notion of Hungarian prehistory built upon false linguistic comparisons, with the ideological support of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The ideological bases were twofold: on the one hand, the Monarchy could more easily handle a people not proud of its origins; on the other, they imagined Hungarians would not be not "presentable" enough if they stressed an "Eastern" origin.
The power structure behind the "Finno-Ugric" theory endures today, and many of its representatives (Peter Hajdu, Pal Engel, Janos Pusztay, Antal Bartha, Istvan Fodor, Andras Róna-Tas and many others) still continue to maintain this deception. The "True" Hungarian prehistory, as known before the 18th century, one that derives the Hungarians from Central Asia, from the melting pot of the nations, is again taking its worthy place. The classic "Finno-Ugric" era of prehistory is over; modern science is searching for the truth.
As Peter Sara (1994) expresses it: "About our language, origin of the Hungarian nation, professed false theories must be reconsidered, redrawn, because the decisive majority of the basics of our language can't be handled as a stepchild because of a false conception, even if this conception is defended by the mightiest powers and authorities". Gyula Laszlo summarised the "Finno-Ugric" concept of prehistory thus: "If linguistics wouldn't draw the attention of the explorers to the Ob-Ugrians, they would never search for the Hungarians' ancestors' relatives there by themselves... The language separates our human being, and our beliefs bind us..."
Many other false theories have appeared beside "Finno-Ugrianism". Some of them don't even consider how different the Hungarians are compared with all other European nations, but concentrating on the indigenous natives, proclaim that "the Hungarians, getting the start of any others, dwelled in the Carpathian Basin" (Adorján Magyar, Lajos Marjalaki Kiss).
The idea of the Egyptian origin of Hungarians, published in the 3 volume book of Tibor Barath (1973), appears written in newer phrasing: "Most of the Eastern nations, so the Hungarians arrived not from Mesopotamia, but from the closer Egyptian culture era to the lands of Europe". Geza Kun stood for the Etruscan-Hungarian relationship, and to the mind of Ferenc Zajti, "the ancient Scythian-Hun nation gave birth to the Hungarians".
The often mentioned Sumerian-Hungarian relationship has had numerous representatives and followers (Ida Bobula, Viktor Padányi, Ferenc Badiny Jós, Kalman Gosztonyi, Sandor Csőke, +Andras Zakar, Mrs. Hary etc.). The origin of this theory was explained by Ida Bobula this way: "When in the middle of the 19th century, under the debris of Mesopotamia the first written memories, the tiletable notched cuneiform and hieroglyphic text began to turn up, professionals recognized that those against the Assyrian-Babylonian texts were written in a non-Semitic structured language." The language proved to be agglutinatively structured. The pioneer orientalists, Julius Oppert, Rawlinson, and Archibald Sayce, spoke of the ancient Scythian and Turanian languages; the French scientist Lenormant decisively declared that the language of these "artificers of writing" is closest to Hungarian, and that it would prove to bear a relationship to the "Turanian" family similar to that of Sanskrit for the Indo-European family.
[edit] Land conquest in two waves theory
a theory reiterated in recent decades by Hungarian archeologist Gyula László. He has argued that the Magyars arrived in two separate waves, centuries apart, a notion which is still controversial.
Some evidence: The Primary Russian Chronicle, attributed by some to Nestor, recalls that the Magyars undertook two Conquests of Hungary, first under the name of "White Ugrians", during the time when the Avars occupied the country, and then a second during the reign of the Grand Duke Oleg. Archaeologists of the Rippl-Rónai Museum from Kaposvár (Hungary) have made a sensational discovery near Bodrog-Alsóbű - Temető-dűlő, Somogy County, in 1999. The research-workers dug up a pottery piece that was long-ago part of an ancient furnace bellows, having on its edge a Székely-Magyar type runic text of 4 letters in Hungarian language ("funák" = "they would blow", or maybe: "they were blowing"?). As scientist Gábor Vékony said, this writing monument may be dated as being made between 864 and 873 A.D., so less 23 years before the arrival of the Hungarians (Magyars) led by Árpád in the Carpathian basin.
[edit] Speculations on mythic origins
The Hungarian Chronicles say very little about the early history of the Magyars. The main references to that period are found in two accounts, one of which is the Legend of the White Stag which suggests the unification of the Magyars with certain tribes of Huns and Alans. An early version of this story was found in a document taken from the Hungarian Royal Library when it was captured by the Turks and re-published under the title "Tarihi Üngürüs" (History of the Hungarians), now in the Topkapi Museum of Istanbul.
The second account has been related to Biblical history. The document starts with Tana, perhaps the same as the Sumerian Etana of the city of Kish,[citation needed] son of "Arwium", son of "Mashda". The Kushan Scythians also had an ancestor called Kush-Tana. In the Sumerian account, Etana of Kish was the first king who 'stabilised all the nations'. Some feel that Etana of Kish corresponds to the Biblical Cush, father of Nimrod. In the Hungarian account, Tana's son is called Menrot, whose twin sons, Magor and Hunor dwelled by the Sea of Azov in the years following the flood, and took wives from the Alans, presumably meaning the ancestors of the Iranians (from the eponymous ancestor Aran).[citation needed]
Another version of this legend found in the Kepes Kronika makes Magor and Hunor the sons of Japheth rather than of Nimrod, equating Magor with Magog.
Nimrod the hunter, founder of Erech, is more plausibly identified by David Rohl with Enmerkar, founder of Uruk (Sum. kar=hunter).
The mother of the twin sons in the Hungarian version is Eneth, Enech or Eneh, who is the wife of either Menrot (Nimrod) or of Japheth. If she is to be equated with the Sumerian goddess Inanna,[citation needed] she may have originally been the wife of both men, and a great many others beside. The Sumerian legends of "Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta" describe vividly how the powerful Inanna, something of a kingmaker in her time, abandoned the king of Aratta, who is called Ensuhkeshdanna, and awarded the kingship of Erech to Enmerkar.
Another argument sometimes used to link the Sumerians (who called their language Emegir) with the Magyars, involves the hereditary caste among the Medes and later Persians known as "Magi".[citation needed]
Following these legendary ancestors, there is a short list of patriarchs who can be associated with early Scythian ones as recorded by Herodotus.[citation needed] This period then is followed by the better documented historic Avar and Hun rulers, concluding with the early Hungarian leaders before and after the settlement in the Danubian basin. They presume the strong dynastic bonds with the Huns.
The name of Árpád, the founder of the modern Hungary, can be found in ancient records, from Egypt to Northern Mesopotamia.[citation needed] According to the Hungarian legend of the Turúl Hawk (a mythical bird which corresponds to the Sumerian "Dugud"),[citation needed] Ügyek, the descendant of king Magog and a royal leader of the land of Scythia, married the daughter of Ened-Belia, whose name was Emeshe (a word that means "priestess" in Sumerian language[citation needed]). From her was born their first son Álmos. Álmos, who was Árpád's father, is said to be a descendant of Attila the Hun.[citation needed]
[edit] References
- Bakay Kornél (1997, 1998): Őstörténetünk régészeti forrásai. I. P. 302; II. P. 336. Miskolci Bölcsész Egyesület. Miskolc.
- Bakay Kornél (2000): Az Árpádok országa. Kőszeg. P. 512.
- Encyclopaedia Hungarica (1992, 1994, 1996) I-III. Főszerkesztő: Bagossy László. Hungarian Ethnic Lexicon Foundation. Calgary. P. 778, 786, 888.
- Kiszely István (1979): Rassengeschichte von Ungarn. In: Schwidetzky, Ilse ed.: Rassengeschichte der Menschheit. R. Oldenburg Verlag. München-Wien. Pp. 1-50.
- Kiszely István (1992): Honnan jöttünk? Elméletek a magyarság őshazájáról. Új Mandátum Könyvkiadó. Budapest. P. 460.
- Kiszely István (1996): A magyarság őstörténete. Mit adott a magyarság a világnak. Püski Kiadó, Budapest. I-II. P. 860.
- Kiszely István (2000, 2002, 2004): A magyarok eredete és ősi kultúrája. Püski Kiadó. Budapest. I-II. P. 1500.
- Kiszely István (2004): A magyar ember. Püski Kiadó. Budapest. I-II. P. 980.
- László Gyula (1999): Múltunkról utódainknak. I. A magyar föld és a magyar nép őstörténete. P. 573; II. Magyarok honfoglalása – Árpád népe Pp. 574-1036. Püski Kiadó. Budapest.
