History of Hungary before the Hungarian Conquest

Entrance to the archaeological site of Vértesszőlős where the occipital bone of "Samu" was found.

The oldest archaeological site which yielded evidence of human presence – human bones, pebble tools and kitchen refuse – in the Carpathian Basin was excavated at Vértesszőlős in Transdanubia in the 1960s.[8][9] The Middle Pleistocene site was situated in calcareous tuff basins with a diameter of 3–6 meters (9.8–19.7 ft) that the nearby warm springs had built.[2][10] The site at Vértesszőlős was occupied five times[2] between about 500,000 and 250,000 years ago.[10] The occipital bone of an adult male Homo heidelbergensis, who is now known as "Samu", and a child's milk tooth were found.[3][11] Tools of quartzite and silex pebbles collected at the nearby river were also found,[12] as well as a fireplace with hearths made from crushed animal bones, with remains of wild horses, aurochs, bisons, red deer, deer, wolves, bears, and saber-toothed cats.[12][11][13]

There is a gap in the archaeological record, with no evidence of human presence between about 250,000 to 100,000 years ago.[3] The earliest Middle Palaeolithic sites are dated to the transitory period between the Riss and Würm glacial periods around 100,000 years ago.[3] Remains of skulls show that Neanderthals inhabited northeastern Transdanubia and the Bükk Mountains during this period.[10][3] The Neanderthals who lived in the region of Érd between around 100,000 and 40,000 BC used quartzite pebbles.[14] They led hunting expeditions as far as the Gerecse Hills for cave bears, wild horses, woolly rhinos and other animals.[14] A Neanderthal community settled near the hot-water springs at Tata around 50,000 BC.[14] They hunted mammoth calves, brown bear, wild horses and reed deer.[14] A flat oval object made from mammoth tooth lamella, similar to the Indigenous Australians' ritual tjurunga, was found at the site.[14] A third group of Neanderthals settled in the caves of the Pilis, Vértes and Gerecse Hills.[15] They regularly visited the Bükk Mountains and the White Carpathians to collect raw material for their tools.[15] Ibex was the main prey of the Neanderthals of the Middle Palaeolothic sites in the Bükk Mountains.[15] In addition to local stone, they used raw material from the White Carpathians and the region of the river Prut.[15] Archaeological research suggest that the Neanderthals disappeared from the northern regions of the Carpathian Basin around 40,000 years ago.[16]

Latest research shows that the first communities of anatomically modern humans came to the Carpathian Basin between 33,000 and 28,000 BC.[16] Consequently, the cohabitation of the Neanderthals and modern humans in the territory, which was assumed by earlier scholarship, cannot be proved.[16] The Aurignacian group of modern humans who settled in the Istállóskő Cave primarily used tools made of bones and used the cave as a seasonal camping site during their hunts for chamois, red deer, reindeer and other local animals.[4] Their tools made of stone suggest that they came to the Bükk Mountains from the Northern Carpathians and the region of the Prut.[4] According to a scholarly view, a local archaeological culture – the "Szeleta culture" – can be distinguished, which represents a transition between the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic and was featured by leaf shaped spearheads from around 32,000 BC.[10][4][5] However, the existence of a distinct archaeological culture is not unanimously accepted by specialists, because most prehistoric tools from the eponymous Szeleta Cave (in the eastern side of the Bükk) are similar to those found in the Upper Palaeolithic sites of Central Europe.[5]

Attracted by the rich fauna of the lowlands in the centre of the Carpathian Basin, groups of "Gravettian" hunters penetrated into the territory from the West about 27,000 years ago.[4] The central grasslands were not covered by ice even at the maximum of the last glaciation (around 20,000 years ago).[4][17] The new arrivals settled on hilltops along the rivers Hernád and Bodrog.[18] They primarily hunted mammoth and elk and used stone blades to work skin, bone, antler and wood.[18] Artistic finds are rare; for instance, a disc with serrated edges, which was made of polished limestone, was found at Bodrogkeresztúr.[18] A second wave of "Gravettians" arrived during the warmer period that began about 20,000 years ago.[19] They primarily made their tools from pebbles, similarly to Lower Palaeolithic communities, but no continuity between the two groups can be detected.[19] The remains of semi-sunken huts were excavated at site on a hilltop near Sárvár where reindeer bones were also found.[19] The site also yielded a perforated (but not decorated) reindeer antler.[19] In addition to permanent settlements, the Gravettian hunters' temporary camps were unearthed in the plains of the Jászság and around Szeged.[19] About 15,000 years ago, new hunters came to the territory; their best-known settlements were situated in northeastern Transdanubia.[19] A pendant made of wolf tooth, a pair of red deer teeth and similar finds suggest that these hunters wore ornaments.[19]

Mesolithic sites are rare, but start to appear after systematic surveys, especially in the Jászság area (Latin Jazygia) in northern Hungary (Jászberény I). Neolithic settlement begins with the Criş Körös culture, carbon-dated to around 6200 BC. The Middle Neolithic sees the Western Linear Pottery culture in Transdanubia and Satu-Mare (Szatmar) and Eastern Linear pottery (called "Alföld Linear Pottery" in Hungary) in the East, developing into Želiezovce (Slovakia) and Szakálhát and Bükk, respectively. The Late Neolithic Tisza culture is followed by the Eneolithic Tiszapolgár and Bodrogkeresztúr cultures.

"Baden culture" (circa 3600 – 2800 BCE) was a Copper Age (Chalcolithic) material culture found in Central Europe. In Hungarian and Slovakian sites, cremated human remains were often placed in anthropomorphic urns, whereas in Nitriansky Hrádok, a mass grave has been found. The only known cemetery with individual graves was found in an early Baden ("Boleráz phase") site is Pilismarót, in Komárom-Esztergom County, which also contained a few examples of goods possibly exported from the Stroke-ornamented ware culture (centred in what is now Poland). The Baden culture is claimed by some scholars to have been an early example of an Indo-European culture in Central Europe.

Makó (a town in modern Csongrád County) lends its name to a 3rd millennium BCE material culture (also known as the Makó-Caka or Kosihy-Caka culture) and other archaeological finds from the Copper/Bronze Ages. There are more than 180 registered archaeological sites around Makó, the most important of which are at Kiszombor. The Makó culture is often regarded as a subset or offshoot of the broader Vučedol culture, centred on Vukovar). While there is no consensus on the cultural affiliations of the Makó sites, kurgans, buckles, jewelry and equestrian equipment found near Makó may suggest links to nomads migrating from the Eurasian steppe. And in later phases, these sites contain very large numbers of objects associated with the Sarmatians.

The Ottomány culture (also known as the Otomani-Füzesabony culture) was a Bronze Age culture (circa 2100–1600 BC) stretching from eastern Hungary and western Romania to southeast Poland and western Ukraine. Amber exported on prehistoric trade routes from the Baltic is often found at Ottomány sites and the people of this culture appear to have held a central part of the so-called "Amber Road", which connected the powerful and rising ancient Mediterranean states to the south-eastern Baltic region.

In the Carpathian Basin, the Iron Age commenced around 800 BC, when a new population moved into the territory and took possession of the former population's centers fortified by earthworks.[20][21] The new population may have consisted of ancient Iranian tribes that had seceded from the federation of the tribes living under the suzerainty of the Cimmerians.[20][21] They were equestrian nomads and formed the people of the Mezőcsát culture who used tools and weapons made of iron. They extended their rule over what are now the Great Hungarian Plain and the eastern parts of Transdanubia.[21]

Around 750 BC, people of the Hallstatt culture gradually occupied the western parts of Transdanubia, but the earlier population of the territory also survived and thus the two archaeological cultures existed together for centuries.[20] The people of the Hallstatt culture took over the former population's fortifications (e.g., in Velem, Celldömölk, Tihany) but they also built new ones enclosed with earthworks (e.g., in Sopron).[20][21] The nobility were buried in chamber tombs covered by earth.[20] Some of their settlements situated along the Amber Road developed into commercial centers.[20][21]

Between 550 and 500 BC, new people settled along the river Tisza and in Transylvania.[20][21] Their immigration may have been connected either to the military campaigns of king Darius I of Persia (522 BC - 486 BC) on the Balkan Peninsula or to the struggles between the Cimmerians and the Scythians.[20][21] Those people, who settled down in Transylvania and in the Banat, may be identified with the Agathyrsi (probably an ancient Thracian tribe whose presence on the territory was recorded by Herodotus); while those who lived in what is now the Great Hungarian Plain may be identified with the Sigynnae.[20] The new population introduced the use of the potter's wheel in the Carpathian Basin and they maintained close commercial contacts with the neighboring peoples.[20]

The Pannonians (an Illyrian tribe) may have moved to the southern territories of Transdanubia in the course of the 5th century BC.[20]

In the 4th century BC, Celtic tribes immigrated to the territories around the river Rába and defeated the Illyrian people who had been living there, but the Illyrians managed to assimilate the Celts who adopted their language.[21] In the 290s and 280s BC, the Celtic people who were migrating towards the Balkan Peninsula passed through Transdanubia but some of the tribes settled on the territory.[20] Following 279 BC, the Scordisci (a Celtic tribe), who had been defeated at Delphi, settled at the confluence of the rivers Sava and Danube and they extended their rule over the southern parts of Transdanubia.[20] Around that time, the northern parts of Transdanubia were ruled by the Taurisci (also a Celtic tribe) and by 230 BC, Celtic people (the people of the La Tène culture) had occupied gradually the whole territory of the Great Hungarian Plain.[20] Between 150 and 100 BC, a new Celtic tribe, the Boii moved to the Carpathian Basin and they occupied the northern and northeastern parts of the territory (mainly the territory of present Slovakia).[20]

The Roman Empire subdued the Pannonians, Dacians, Celts and other peoples in this territory. The territory west of the Danube was conquered by the Roman Empire between 35 and 9 BC, and became a province of the Roman Empire under the name of Pannonia. The easternmost parts of present-day Hungary were later (106 AD) organized as the Roman province of Dacia (lasting until 271). The territory between the Danube and the Tisza was inhabited by the Sarmatian Iazyges between the 1st and 4th centuries AD, or even earlier (earliest remains have been dated to 80 BC). The Roman Emperor Trajan officially allowed the Iazyges to settle there as confederates. The remaining territory was in Thracian (Dacian) hands. In addition, the Vandals settled on the upper Tisza in the 2nd half of the 2nd century AD.

The four centuries of Roman rule created an advanced and flourishing civilization. Many of the important cities of today's Hungary were founded during this period, such as Aquincum (Budapest), Sopianae (Pécs), Arrabona (Győr), Solva (Esztergom), Savaria (Szombathely) and Scarbantia (Sopron). Christianity spread in Pannonia in the 4th century, when it became the Empire's official religion.

The Avars around 650

Europe around 800

Roman influence in Pannonia had begun to decline as early as the arrival of the Huns in the 4th century. The remaining romanized Pannonians created at the end of the 5th century the Keszthely culture, around the Balaton lake.

The first Slavs came to the region, almost certainly from the north, soon after the departure of the Ostrogoths (471 AD), together with the Lombards and Herulis. Around 530, the Germanic Lombards settled in Pannonia. They had to fight against the Gepidi and the Slavs. In 568, pushed out by the Avars, they moved into northern Italy.

The nomadic Avars arrived from Asia in the 560s, utterly destroyed the Gepidi in the east, drove away the Lombards in the west, and subjugated the Slavs, partly assimilating them. The Avars, just as the Huns had decades before, established a large empire. This empire was destroyed around 800 by Frankish and Bulgar attacks, and above all by internal feuds, however Avar population remained in numbers until the arrival of Árpád's Magyars. From 800, the whole area of Pannonian Basin was under control between two powers (East Francia and First Bulgarian Empire). Around 800, northeastern Hungary became part of the Slavic Principality of Nitra, which itself became part of Great Moravia in 833.

Also, after 800, southeastern Hungary was conquered by Bulgaria. Western Hungary (Pannonia) was a tributary to the Franks. In 839 the Slavic Balaton Principality was founded in southwestern Hungary (under Frank suzerainty). During the reign of Svatopluk I northwestern Hungary was conquered by Great Moravia.[23] Pannonia remained under Frankish control until the Hungarian Conquest.[24][25]