The Avars, Byzantium and Italy. A Study in Chorology and Cultural History. (original) (raw)

2019, Varia Archaeologica Hungarica XXXI

3.4.3. Spatial and chronological indications of cultural differences �� 3.4.3.1. Regional disparities between adjacent regions �� 3.4.3.2. Chronological disparities in regional distributions �� 3�4�4� Costume �� 3�4�5� Identities �� 3.4.5.1. Group identities �� 3.4.5.2. Personal identities �� 3.4.6. Ethnic traits �� 4. The "Byzantine" connections of the Avar-period material �� over the past decades-Birds of a feather indeed flock together. My oldest friendship is with Tivadar Vida: I cannot think of any issue, nor of the tiniest detail, that I have not discussed with him. During the past years, we kept each other updated about our ongoing work: he was toiling away on his dissertation, 1 I on the present volume. He was kind enough to read through the draft version of the book's manuscript and suggest some additions and corrections. I have benefited immensely from Ádám Bollók's extraordinary familiarity with the academic literature and his capacity for fresh and imaginative analysis as well as from his insightful comments; he provided some of the much-needed literature and he was also kind enough to assist me with various administrative issues. I am greatly indebted to Ádám Bíró, Gergely Csiky and Gergely Szenthe for their many insights and valuable comments on the first draft version of this manuscript. I wish to thank Ágnes B. Tóth for her keen observations, Erwin Gáll for keeping me constantly updated on research in Transylvania, Erika Juhász for her assistance in navigating some of the Byzantine sources and Raimar Kory for guidance through the maze of less-known ethnographic and sociological literature. I am particularly grateful to Walter Pohl, with whom we worked simultaneously on many issues of Avar history and archaeology; he was always generous with his advice and knowledge. I have received constant support from my workplace, the Institute of Archaeology of the Research Centre for the Humanities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and its Director, Elek Benkő, and from the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut and its Secretary-in-Chief, Philipp von Rummel. I began writing this book as part of the "Byzantium in Central and Eastern Europe (Studies in Archaeology and Art History)" research project generously funded by the National Scientific Research Fund (OTKA Grant NK 72636, 2008-2012). I wish to thank the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and its President, László Lovász in particular, and the Ministry of the Prime Minister's Office for enabling the publication of this book. Thanks are due to Magdaléna Seleanu for the English translation and to the staff of Archaeolingua Publishing for seeing the manuscript through to publication. 1 Henceforth abbreviated as Vida (in prep.) 2. SETTING THE AGENDA: THEMES AND APPROACHES "The Avars and Italy"-although archaeological research on the Avars looks back on a long past, Attila Kiss can be credited with pointing out that this contact had actually existed and should therefore be discussed, and that it does indeed have a relevance for Avar studies. He first formulated this assertion as the title to a chapter in his book, 3 whereby he introduced an entirely new perspective to the study of the "Byzantine" (as well as the late antique!) connections of the Avar find material. In 2000, Falko Daim too opened new avenues of research in this field. 4 I myself personally realised the potential rewards of a more meticulous study of Avar-Italian relations in 1989, when I had the opportunity to visit the excavations at the Crypta Balbi and personally examine the finds, after which I strove to keep abreast of the early medieval finds brought to light in Italy. I first addressed this issue at an international conference, 5 and then in relation to the Nagyszentmiklós Treasure in 2004, 6 which ultimately inspired the conference held at the Hungarian Academy in Rome in 2008 with the goal of looking at this issue from a broader perspective and in an international context. 7 Some of the themes explored at greater length here were first raised in my paper, "The Avars and Italy", read at the conference. The issue of "What is Avar?", "What is Byzantine?" and of the direction whence "Byzantine" impacts reached the Avars has preoccupied me much longer, ever since I read Oleg Grabar's book in which he raised the question of "What is Islamic?" in the early 1980s. 8 Here, I shall pursue this earlier avenue, 9 although I shall principally focus on a single aspect of the Whole, the many potential components of the Avar archaeological material. In the wake of a comprehensive survey of the current state of Byzantine studies 10 and the meticulous studies on goldsmithing techniques 11 that are of interest to any student of Central and Eastern European archaeology, I am now aware that given the Byzantine Empire's continuous shifts in space and time and its immense cultural diversity, this question is essentially irrelevant and there is no universally valid answer. The lack of in-depth enquiries into Avar-Italian relations until quite recently is quite baffling, 12 particularly since the Avar Khaganate and the Langobardic Kingdom were neighbours. We know that Alboin and Bayan concluded a peace treaty in 566, which was renewed by King Agilulf between 591 and 593; additionally, a few solidi minted in Italy (Fig. 3. 2) have since long been known from the Carpathian Basin. Thus, the question inevitably arises as to whether there are any traces of these relations in the archaeological record. Yet, all that has actually happened is that works covering Avar history duly mention the peaceful relations or, conversely, the occasional hostilities with the Langobards, while the general practice in archaeological studies for long decades was to merely cite 3