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The archaeological rescue excavation near Pecica resulted in the unearthing of nine graves with scant grave goods, which, on the basis of the aspects of the funerary ritual and 14C analyses, could be dated to the period between the second part of the 6th century and first part of the 7th century. Taking into account the fact that these graves were dispersed over a very large territory (cca 1.8 ha), at a distance of dozens of meters from one another, without an organised character of a funerary location (like other cemeteries), with a heterogeneity of orientations, we suppose that these individuals were not related biologically, and they did not form a community, but that they were buried by different mobile communities at different times (pastoral nomadism). At the same time, based on the 14C analysis, it became very clear that some of them, like the individual from the grave Feature 448 was part of the group of those “Avars” who conquered the regions of the Carpathian Basin before the year 568. From this point of view, we believe that we would not be too mistaken if we advanced the hypothesis that a certain nomadic life was maintained from the second half of the 6th century to the middle of the 7th century, adapted to the geomorphological realities of the Carpathian Basin, at least in a part of the community, in the frame of so-called mid-range nomadism.

The early medieval funerary sites near Vălcani have been unearthed beside other archaeological features from the Neolithic to the Modern Ages. In the case of the earliest funerary site, 37 graves have been registered, the main characteristic of them was the heterogeneity of orientations (E-W, NE-SW, NNE-SSW, W-E, SSW-NNE). It was the first time that Early Avar Age archaeological research was conducted in graves with niches south of the Aranca/Aranka River. On the base of the material culture, the funerary site (Szentes type Páhipuszta subtype earring, wire bracelet with a prolated end, beads) can be dated to the second third of the 7th century. The funerary site from the 10-11th centuries has been much more varied than the former one and is the biggest one in Banat. The 197 graves uncovered here constitute the biggest funerary site in the western part of today's Romania. The majority of the graves are orientated - with minor differences - in the W-E direction, but in some cases, we registered E-W orientations too. The deceased, primarily their arms were found in very heterogeneous positions. Burials with horses were documented in 10 cases, in four cases only the horse trappings were deposited in the burials (stirrups, bits, harness buckles). As food preparation, some parts of the animals were placed in the graves (probably sheep bones). The material culture, like the ritual practices, are very heterogeneous: jewelry was registered (earrings, lock rings, finger rings, bracelets), weapons (bows, quivers, arrowheads), horse trappings (pear- and trapeze shaped stirrups, horse bits, harness buckles), tools (needle case, needle, strike-a-lights), coins (Arpadian-issues). Some aspects of the material culture have connections with the material culture of the Late Avar Age (for example the needle case). In this article we have analyzed the Arpadian coins issued in the 11th century found in the necropolis - Stephen I (2), Andrew I (1), Solomon (3), unidentified (1) - and their analogies in the area of Banat, but also in the region extending to the north, delimited by the Cri River. While they correspond to previous finds in cemeteries in which the most recent coins are from the reign of Solomon (1063-1074), similarly to those finds, they do not provide new answers to the existing questions regarding the exact chronology or chronological sequence of the encountered monetary types of 11th century Hungarian coins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In the late Avar period (eighth to ninth century ad), vast quantities of utilitarian artefacts were produced in series in the Carpathian Basin, a phenomenon not seen since the end of the Roman period. The distribution of these articles reflects not only the region's settlement pattern, but also how these artefacts were disseminated. The communication network in the Carpathian Basin underwent a significant transformation between the early and late Avar period: its major nodes, equated with population centres but not necessarily with elite centres, contributed to moulding a social and cultural milieu that included specialized craftsmen. An early single hub in southern Transdanubia was replaced by multiple centres by the late Avar period. Around ad 700, a bipolar settlement pattern emerges in the southern part of the Carpathian Basin. It seems that the Great Hungarian Plain began to play an equal, if not dominant, role in the communication network of the Carpathian Basin at this time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two graves, with altogether four skeletons, discovered near Pecica and buried in W-E orientation, offer us the possibility of a more nuanced analysis of the cultural realities of the groups of people living in the Trans-Tisza region in the 6th and 7th centuries. However, the amber and earring finds allow us to contemplate communication networks in the early Avar Age and their significant transformation by the late Avar period. Placing these transformations in the first half of the 7th century, they explain the appearance of some rare goods, like ambers, in the region of Pecica. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Archaeological Materials & Research / Materiale şi Cercetǎri Arheologice is the property of Institute of Archaeology "Vasile Parvan" and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The subject of this article is the fragmentary silver plate of a gilded silver sheet braid ornament decorated with palmette motifs, which was deposited in the storage of the Gorgippia Archaeological Museum (Krasnodar Krai, Russia) in 2015, together with several other finds. The finds had been discovered at a site named Andreyevskaya Shhel, located a few kilometres south-east of the town, at the north-western hill area of the Caucasus. Among the artefacts deposited in the storage in 2015, there were other finds related to the 9-10th centuries (e.g. silver plate of a sabretache, gilded bronze belt mounts, bronze strap end, sabre, bow case or sabretache mount, fingering, etc). The braid ornament, with many analogies in the Carpathian Basin, could have reached the North Caucasian region by means of long-distance trade. This hypothesis is sustained by the considerable dirham-finds in the Carpathian Basin, which indicate the integration of this region - and of early Hungarian commerce as a whole - into the Eastern, Muslim trade network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]