Original scientific paper
Power centers of the 9th century in the Carpathian basin
Miklós Takács
; Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Institute of Archaeology, Dept. of Medieval European and Near-Eastern Archaeology Budapest, Hungary
Beatrix F. Romhányi
orcid.org/0000-0003-1121-2933
; Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary, History Department, Budapest, Hungary
Abstract
This paper explores the centers of power in the 9th century in the Carpathian Basin. While reconstructing the power structures of those who inherited parts of the former Avar Khaganate poses little difficulty, pinpointing the exact locations of their power centers is a much greater challenge. The territorial distribution of these centers during the 9th century was highly uneven. Evidence suggests that the network visible in the 9th century was actually the periphery of an earlier system of power centers that existed during the final phase of the Avar Khaganate. These peripheral centers retained or even strengthened their roles, while those in the central regions of the Carpathian Basin disappeared. However, the territorial distribution of power centers as mentioned by the Hungarian Anonymous presents a completely different pattern compared to the so far confirmed centers of power in the 9th century. This discrepancy leads to the conclusion that the locations described by Anonymous were fictional,
and his idea of the expansion of power during the Hungarian conquest period is merely a projection of the territorial expansion of the Kingdom of Hungary during the Árpád dynasty.
Keywords
Carpathian Basin; centers of power; Avar Khaganate; Hungarians; Hungarian Anonymous
Hrčak ID:
329650
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2024.
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