Keszthely culture

Archaeological remains of the Keszthely culture.

The Keszthely culture was a mixed Germanic community (later Avar) Christian enclave located in present-day Hungary, from the 6th (AD 568) century until the first half of the 7th century, in the northern part of Lake Balaton, in and around Keszthely and it's 30km area. The culture had certainly disappeared by the 7th century.

The population of the culture were craftsmen abducted or invited there by the Avars, in the middle of the 6th century, the settlers, or slaves came from the Balkans, Dalmatia, the eastern Alpine region and the Germanic lands.

History

Research into the population's history is complicated because they are not mentioned in written sources, so only archaeology can be relied upon.

The culture can be divided into 2 periods, the early period, which lasted until the end of the 6th century, and the late period, which covers the remained period of the culture until the middle of the 7th century.

Early Period

The first archaeological evidence of the culture dates from the mid-6th (568 AD) century. The Christian barbarians who settled (or kidnapped) there by the Avars in 568, established the culture. According to the most recent theories, these Germanic immigrants or slaves were Lombards, but some believe they may have been Allemanni, Visigoths or Burgundians.

Late Period

During the early Avar rule, a Christian basilica was also built in the area, considered a religious centre of the culture.

At the end of the 6th century and the beginning of the 7th century, a change can be observed in the Christian tombs excavated in the area, suggesting a population turnover caused by immigrants. The newcomers were mainly newly baptised Avar Christians.

Disappearance

What can also be gleaned from the number of tombs is that the culture, even with the new immigrant settlers, was rapidly declined and by the first half of the 7th century had certainly integrated into the Avars, and disappeared. According to some theories, it was the Kutrigur-Avar civil war that caused the culture's destruction.

Language

Early Period

On the basis of graves, archaeological finds and coins, József Hampel determined that the Keszthely culture was formed by the Christian Germanic population that settled there in the 5th century. Thus the language of the culture in the first period was Germanic.

Late Period

The culture probably also underwent a language change later on, when the settling Avar Christians replaced the basic Germanic population. So presumably the language may have changed and become Avar.

Obsolete theories

Latin or Roman continuation

Hairpin found during excavation, with the Latin inscription "BONOSA".

This theory was raised in the early stages of the research of the population, as Roman-style jewellery (basket pendants, clothespins, disc fibulae and snake-head bracelets) was found in a few graves, and a few decades later, a piece of jewellery with Latin writing on it (the writing was BONOSA means good), but these conclusions were drawn from only a few graves, but now over 6000 graves have been excavated, proving beyond doubt that there was no Roman influence in the beginning and that these objects were only put there much later, as spoils of war by the Avars. Also, after 6000 graves were excavated, it can be stated with certainty that the number of Roman or Byzantine style jewellery is negligible compared to the number of Germanic style jewellery, which, moreover, was indeed put there at the time of burial and not later as spoils of war.

Even in the early stages of the research, when the culture was still considered partly Roman, it was suspicious that more than 150 years had passed between the last Latin find in Pannonia and the time when the culture was formed, so the theory was in doubt from the start.

In the early stages of the research, the Austro-Czech linguist Julius Pokorny suggested that the name of the town of Keszthely could be derived from the Istriot-Venetian word "castei" (castle), but later, among others, he himself refuted this, as the name of the town is derived from the Slavic word "Kostel" or the German word Kestenholz (chestnut tree). Also, the Roman name of the settlement was Mogentiana, which does not resemble the present name, so it can't come from Latin, but the German name of the city, is Kesthell. So the hypothetical Latin Roman language has also been disproved by linguistics.

Sarmatian or Hunnic

The Sarmatian, or Hun, theory only emerged at an early stage of research, as nomadic arrowheads were found. However, now it has been proven that the earliest graves of the population dates back to 568 AD. So the beginning of the culture started long after the disappearance of the Sarmatians and the Huns in Pannonia, so these two populations can be ruled out.

Roman ruins

The barbarians, who arrived in the mid-6th century, and founded the culture, settled in the Roman ruins, which had not been used for nearly 150 years, and were abandoned by the Roman and Romanised population after the Visigoth invasion of 401.

This population not only occupied the Roman ruins in the area, but also maintained the Roman fortress as well as the Roman cemeteries and roads, and put them to use and repaired them.

It can be observed that the culture's population, in several places, started to use the cemeteries located along the former Roman roads near Keszthely. The same thing happened with the cemetery next to the ruins of the Roman fortress near Keszthely, that the new population started to use it.

The fortress and buildings in the area, abandoned by the Romans, were not only occupied by these inhabitants, but were also built on, as evidenced by the Avar-style iron picks found near the tower.

• The Castellum (Roman fortress) in Keszthely–Fenékpuszta, inside the Basilica II and the Horreum (Granary)
• 
  South Gate, ruins from the Roman period
• 
  Basilica II (top) and the Horreum (bottom)
• 
  The basement of the Basilica II
• 
  The basement of the Horreum

Handicrafts and archeology

Germanic grave goods, from the culture's graves.

From the very beginning of the culture, two types of arrowheads were found, the three-fingered arrowhead typical of the Avars and other nomadic peoples of the steppe, and the spherical arrowhead typical of the Germanic peoples. It is important to note that the typical Avar weapons such as the armour-piercing arrow, the reflex bow, the kopja, or the single-edged sword were not found, but the Germanic double-edged axes were found several times. Weapons are rare in graves, but the finds are only of Avar or other nomadic or Germanic type only. This has been observed since the beginning of the culture.

Late Roman artifacts are very rare, and it is very rare for a female tomb to contain both a Roman needle and a fibula. Less than 12% of the graves contained fibulae, and also hairpins. The decorations are not uniform, there is hardly any Roman decoration on these woemn's jewellery, but there are many jewellery with Germanic motifs.

One of the most interesting finds is a hairpin with the Latin word BONOSA (meaning good) written on it. The archaeological results have established that the needle was buried long after the burial, which is confirmed by the fact that the tomb contains typical Avar finds, which is also true of the 30 other graves around it. The same can be said of the few other tombs that show a typical Byzantine or Latin influence. The condition of the jewellery also shows that it was placed there only later. This leads to the conclusion that the cemetery could not predate the Avar conquest, and that the culture cannot be linked to a hypothetical remaining Roman population.The Byzantine and Latin artefacts are presumably Avar spoils of war.

In 1967, Károly Sági excavated several tombs around the Southwestern Corner Tower, of which 17 tombs are definitely from the Avar era, 14 are probably from the Avar era, and 5 are uncertain, which maybe late antique.

From the late period of the culture, many griffin-tendril belt sets have been found.

Controversy

Several researchers call the term "culture" inappropriate, as the archaeological evidence is not uniform, and apart from Christianity, there is nothing common in the graves from the excavated cemeteries.

Research history

The image of the culture has changed a lot over the past 130 years, according to archaeology and history, at the beginning of the culture's research the archeologists thought that the culture was a group of late Roman remanant and barbarian Christian immigrant population, but now it is clear that it was not a single population, and the late Roman idea has become obsolete. Archaeological finds show that Germanic and Avar influence predominating in the second half, and between the two period the Christianity being the only common factor. Towards the end of the culture, Avar finds become the overwhelming majority.

See also

• Avars
• Early Christianity
• Germanic Tribes
• Lombards
• Keszthely
• Pannonian Latin

Further reading

• A Keszthely-Kultúra Ma, Müller Róbert 2020
• Mócsy, András. Pannonia and Upper Moesia: A History of the Middle Danube Provinces of the Roman Empire. Routledge. London, 1974 ISBN 0-7100-7714-9