Late Huns in the Carpathian basin

The European Hun Empire, which determinates the late ancient European politics,
established its centre in the Carpathian basin, from where Hun Emperors governed both
the Eastern and Western wings. 1
The late ancient chronicles gave us a detailed report on Attilas deeds and campaigns.
Unfortunately, only some fragments remained on those Huns, who settled down in the
Carpathian basin. In the second half of the 19th century some Western-European
historians created a special theory on the fast disappearance of the Huns from there, but it
lacked any real evidences.
In my paper I am trying exploring the traces of the Huns in the Carpathian basin or former
Hungarian Kingdom. I recline upon some late ancient sources and Hungarian historical
chronicles of Middle Ages, reports of contemporary Byzantine and Gothic sources and I
used archaeological findings and anthropological surveys.
Introduction
Regarding some questions of the Late Huns some dogmas and misbelieves, which have
been created in the 19th century, make orientations difficult for the historians. Although
some Hungarian scholars wanted to make the question of the history of the late Huns clear
using own Medieval Hungarian sources, but their theories were not taken into
consideration by academic scholars. In the 21st century using modern technology and
discovering huge amount archaeological findings and historical sources - we need to
rethink the life and history of the Late Huns in the Carpathian basin.
The first Hungarian royal clan, or Arpad traditionally originated from Scythia or Maeotisswamp, and it was the centre of Attilas youngest son, Irnek, who settled down there after
the great Gothic and Hunnic war in 454. It was an ancient centre of steppe people, from
Cimmerians to the Hungarians.
Arpad, the great-prince of Hungary was the descendant of Attila. Every historical source
and legal document of that time proved our historical traditions. After 1850, when the
Hungarians lost war against the Habsburgs, the winning Austrian officials wanted to
change the Hungarian identity and cancelled the heroic history of the rebellious Magyars
and tore the Hungarians from their original alliances or Turks forcing them into an
artificial, so called Finno-Ugrian relationship.
The Hungarians received not only a new linguistic theory from the Austrians, but also
Hunfalvy who violently changed the ancient history of the Huns and Hungarians using the
publications of some German positivist historians. He stated that the Huns after the
Battle of Nedao in 454 - suddenly disappeared from the Carpathian-basin without leaving
any traces, and their territory was occupied by German or Gothic nation. His theory was
based upon Jordanes who reported the following: After Ellac had been slain, his
remaining brothers were driven fleeing to near the shore of the Sea of Pontus, where we
have said the Goths first settled. 2 Jordanes even says that Hernac, the youngest son of

The western wing stretches from present-day Austria to Rhone-river, the eastern wing stretches
from Tisa-river to Caucasus-mountain.


http://www.harbornet.com/folks/theedrich/Goths/Goths2.htmJordanes, Getica L. 263.

Attila settled down far Scythia (today: Dagestan)3. It accedes to the Hungarian chronicles4
which recorded Attilas most favourite son (Chaba) and his followers, namely 15 thousand
men, had returned to his relatives to Scythia5.
So Chaba and his sixty brothers and their 15 thousand men went to his uncle, Honorius
Emperor, who ruled the Eastern Romanian throne of that time. But Honorius wanted to
settle down them in Greeceland. They didnt stay there, but returned to Scythia, centre of
ancestors land to live there. 6
Some German and Hungarian historians claimed that along with Chaba the whole
population of the Huns left the Carpathian-basin; they did not consider the fact of the
sources, which tells that only the royal descendants and their guides fled eastward, so the
Huns could leave their homeland. Based upon this theory, each finding from the second
half of the 5th century was identified as Gepids by archaeologists, although the treasures
show steppe impacts.
After the Battle of Nedao
The most Hungarian historians do not accept the reports of the Medieval Hungarian
sources which recorded surviving Huns in the Carpathian basin. Despite of its historical
concept, Jordanes mentioned some groups of Huns and their allied tribes, Sarmatians,
there.
First of all, let us investigate Jordaness records on the history of the Carpathian basin.
His main work, called Getica, reported the events after the death of Attila in details. The
main part deals with only those parts of the Carpathian basin which were under control of
the former Roman Empire. The Hungarian historian, Ferenc Salamon, emphasises that the
late ancient sources usually focused on two big territories Pannonia and Illyricum, which
were under foreign (Goth and Gepid) occupations. Jordanes says that the allied forces or
Goth-Gepids and Huns-Sarmatians wanted to obtain dominion over the Hunnic territories
and they fought near a so-called Nedao-river around 454, where Hunnic forces lost.
Nobody knows exactly, where this battle took places, only Tarihi ngrs supposes that it
must happened near the former Hunnic capital, or Sicambria and says that the bet of the
battle was the occupation of Pannonia. 7
It is likely that the place was close to Tarnokvolgy, or the present-day Kajaszo8, where big
Hunnic troops won over Roman forces in the end of the 4th century. 9

In the late ancient time two places are called Lesser-Scythia. One is modern Dagestan. Strabon
recorded when Scythians moved westward and reached Danube-delta, this territory got the same
name or Lesser Scythia.

Hungarian historical chronicles of the Middle Ages as Kezai Simons chronicle, Chronicum Pictum
and Thuroczy-chronicle

Hernac, the younger son of Attila, with his followers, chose a home in the most distant part of
Lesser Scythia. Jordanes, L. 266. http://www.harbornet.com/folks/theedrich/Goths/Goths2.htm

Chronica Pictum, 20.

Salamon, 1882. 1. Tarihi ngrs, 112-113.

Kajaszo is a small village in Fejer country, near Martonvasar city.

Chronica Pictum, 8.

Although lots of historians read from a short report that the Nedao battle sealed the fate of
the Huns in the Carpathian basin, Jordanes mentions that it was not the only one battle
between the two parts but it was the beginning of the long-lasting Hunnic-Gothic war.
Jordanes himself enumerated at least two big Hunnic campaigns against the Goths, led by
Dengizich, the second son of Attila. One of them directed to Bassiana: When Dengizich,
king of the Huns, a son of Attila, learned this, he gathered to him the few who still seemed
to have remained under his sway, namely, the Ultzinzures, and Angisciri, the Bittugures
and the Bardores. Coming to Bassiana, a city of Pannonia.10
Because Dengizich was not able to get back the former Hunnic territories, Jordanes
summarised the Gothic-Hunnic war in the following way the tribe of the Huns had finally
been subdued by the Goths. 11
It does not mean that the Huns moved or disappeared from there in masses but that they
had been subdued by foreign powers and they lost chief-power in that region. According to
Jordanes, Salamon thought that not only the whole territories of Carpathian basin became
subdued by the Goths, but also Pannonia and later Moesia, Dacia, or the southern part of
the former Roman provinces.
Historians consider Pannonia as a Gothic ethnic territory where German tribes despised
their feet after the collapse of the Great European Hunnic Empire. Actually, the Goths and
Gepids and later the Longobards did not form a clear ethnic block because Scythians, Celts,
Romans and Huns lived among them who allied in some military purposes. Ammianus
Marcellinus mentioned that Sarmatians and Quads allied against the Romans in the
middle of the 4th century. 12
We must pay attention to the fact that the Goths reaching the Eastern-European Plain
accepted the Scythian way of life, the customs, the clothing and the military tactics. That is
why they were called Scythians. 13 The strong Scythian impact is reflected on their material
culture. Unfortunately, in the last century some scholars believed that the Goths were not
influenced by the Scythians but it was the evidence of the German peoples highly
developed art. 14
The presence of the Huns in the Carpathian basin was proved by Frankish chronicles. Peter
Kirly has published some historical sources which dealt with inhabitants of Pannonia in
the course of the 6th century. According to a Meroving source, in the year of 561/562
Hungari lived there.15 It is not the only one data on Hungari or Hungarus, because other
western sources also mentioned them under such names! The presence of Hungarus
proves not only that Huns survived and lived continuously after the collapse of the Hunnic
Empire, but also that Hungarians came to the Carpathian basin at last along with the Huns
in the 4th century.

10

Jordanes, Getica LIII. 263. Bassiana was a late ancient city in Pannonia Secunda, or southern part
of former Hungarian Kingdom.

11

Jordanes, Getica, LIII. 273.

12

Ammianus Marcelinus, 17:12

13

Wolfram, 1988. 28.

14

Bna, 1974. 48-49.

15

Kirly, 2006. 117.

Connecting to Dengizichs western invasion, nobody realised a very important point of

view: he reached Pannonia or the territory beyond the river Danube that no foreign troops
wanted to stop him, but according to some historians in some in-between lands beyond
the river Tisa or Transsylvania - Gepids, or the enemy of the Huns lived. However, that he
passed over unimpeded up to the Danube means that alliance tribes must have lived in
those territories. We have only one data, which live between River Tisa and the Danube:
the Sarmatians, who are considered as the allied of the Huns, lived there under King
Babais leadership. So, we need to investigate the so called Gepid Empire in the Carpathian
basin, because this question brings us closer to the question of the remaining Hunnic
people.
First of all let us read Jordaness report on them: But the Gepids, by force taking over the
Huns land for themselves, ruled as victors over the extent of all Dacia, demanding of the
Roman Empire nothing more than peace and, as vigorous strongmen, an annual gift, given
their friendly alliance.16
Now when the Goths saw the Gepids defending for themselves the territory of the Huns
and the people of the Huns occupying the Goths own ancient abodes, they preferred to ask
for lands from the Roman Empire rather than to invade the lands of others with danger to
themselves. So they received Pannonia, which stretches in a long plain, being bounded on
the east by Upper Moesia, on the south by Dalmatia, on the west by Noricum and on the
north by the Danube.17
But the Sauromats, whom we call Sarmatians, and the Cemandri and certain of the Huns
inhabited part of Illyricum near the city of Castra Martis as settlement areas given them.18
We must deal with Dacia, since it is one key point of the survival of the Hunnic settlements
in the Carpathian basin. Most Hungarian historians and archaeologists state that Dacia
existed in Transsylvania and it served as a centre of the new Gepidian Kingdom. It is true
that Dacia as a Roman province situated in Eastern-Transsylvania in the 2nd-3rd
centuries. Around 280, after the Goth-Sarmatian invasion, it was evacuated and their
Roman inhabitants were resettled in Illyricum, or present-day Voyvodina (Serbia). It was
one of the richest Roman provinces, where military and trade routes passed over.
Occupying and controlling over it brought a vast income for everybody, namely Huns and
lately, Gepids.
We need to clear the position of the late ancient Dacia, what Jordanes meant, because the
above mentioned historians and archaeologists insisted on his report and based their
theory on his report. Jordanes describes Dacia as the following: Its southern neighbour is
Dalmatia, eastern is Moesia, northern neighbour is Noricum. The centre of this territory is
situated between Sava and Danube-river and some parts stretched northern bank of
Danube-river.19 According to the ancient Roman division, Dacia contains Pannonia Savia
and Pannonia Secunda. Besides Jordanes, some late ancient authors, e.g. Procopius
mentioned Dacia in the same place, and he emphasises its capital was Sirmium on the
bank of Sava-river. 20 We must notice that Bayan khagan, the Emperor of Avars, entered

16

Jordanes, Getica L. 264.

17

Jordanes, Getica L. 264.

18

Jordanes, Getica L. 265.

19

Jordanes, Getica L. 265.

20

Procopius, Gothic War VII. xxxiii.8.

the Carpathian basin, fought against Gepids at Sirmium in 568. If Gepids had lived in
Transsylvania, the battle between Avars and Gepids would have happened on the Eastern
gate of the Carpathian basin.
So, there are not any sources that could prove the existence of the Gepidian Empire neither
in Transsylvania nor in the heart of the present-day Hungary. Even, in the Gepidian
Kingdom Huns did not disappear, but they survived with other people, like the Sarmatians,
the Celts and the Romans. Transsylvania was not a part of the Gepidian Kingdom, they
occupied the territory of the former Pannonia Savia and Pannonia Secunda Huns and
Sarmatians also live. Jordanes reports the following:
Emnetzur and Ultzindur, kinsmen of his, won Utus and Scus and Almus in Dacia on the
bank of the Danube, and many of the Huns, then swarming everywhere, betook themselves
into the Roman Empire, and from them the Sacromontisi and the Fossatisii of this day are
said to be descended.21
But the Sauromat, whom we call Sarmatians, and the Cemandri and certain of the Huns
inhabited part of Illyricum near the city of Castra Martis as settlement areas given them.22
Of this race was Bliwila Duke of Pentapolis and his brother Froila and also Bessa, a
Patrician of our day.23
We take a look at a place named Almus. It is likely that it got its name after the local
Hunnic ruler, Almos. We can find the same name in Hungarian chronicles, he was the first
king of Hungarian tribes, but the name can be found among Volga Bulgarians (Almis).
Huns in present-day Hungary
Most European and Hungarian archaeologists highly emphasises the role of Goths and
Gepids after the collapse of the Great Hun Empire, and claim that they populated the
Eastern part of the Carpathian basin, namely Tiszntl (beyond Tisza), NorthernTranssylvania and the Great Plain after 453. Some scholars persist in this theory, despite
the archaeologist Bona, who draws attention to some unsolved problems connecting with
the early history of German settlements. It is not clear where the early Gepids were
concentrated before the invasion of the Huns. Bona supposes that they could have lived in
the middle part of Tisza-river. 24
Archaeologists and historians have made lots of mistakes since the end of the 19th century.
The biggest one is that they do not count with the survival of the Huns in the Carpathian
basin believing the theory that after Attilas death the Huns moved from there. The second
problem is that Goths and Gepids are considered as clear ethnical units, and they did not
take into account that getting chief-power does not mean that other ethnic groups or tribes
would disappear. Neither today nor in the Middle Ages clear ethnic blocks did not exist in
Eastern Europe. In the Hunnic Empire also different kinds of people such as Germans,
Romans and steppe lived together. Some scholars drew attention to the necessity of the reevaluation of the relationship between the Gothic and the Scythian-Hunnic tribes and also
their mutual connections in the field of material and intellectual cultures. According to our
knowledge, the Goths left their Scandinavian homeland and gradually moved southward

21

Jordanes, Getica L. 266.

22

Jordanes, Getica L. 265.

23

Jordanes, Getica L. 265.

24

Bna, 1974. 25.

and reached the Scythian territories and tribes. They were influenced a lot so that some
ancient sources considered Gepids or Goths Scythians.25 The Austrian scholar, Wolfram
stated the position of the German tribes in the Eastern-European plain as: Beset by
foreign peoples and by the ethnically related Gepids, the royal Scyths probably remerged as
the Greutungi or Ostrogoth. Both designations are names the same tribes: the Greatungi
are steppe-dwellers.26
By the end of the 4th century Goths and Gepids became Scythians in the EasternEuropean plain. It means that they had learnt horse riding skills and fighting methods
from the Scythians and additionally they accepted their special way of life. The same
happened in other fields such as in the organisation of their society and their art. The
Hungarian historian, Pter Vczy reasserts this impact; he suggests that around 250 AD
the Goths who moved to Pontus and the Lower-Danube steppe were influenced by
Sarmatians. They learnt special Hun-Sarmatian polychrome style and others. 27
Agreeing with the above mentioned process, Jnos Harmatta also suggests that the Goths
accepted the Hunnic symbols of power, and some titles and names also appeared among
them. 28
So, Goths moving gradually westward, brought and spread Hunnic elements of art to
Western-Europe and it determined the barbaric or late Roman fashion up to the end of
the 6th century. From the Eastern European findings scholars of the 19th century thought
they were originally German style that was taken over by the Huns. The Western scholars
drew attention to their mistakes saying that the findings do not belong to Germans but
Huns and Sarmatians, and their origin drew back to Central Asia, to the western slopes of
the Altai Mountain.
Earlier Russians have published some findings, e.g. Bernshtam excavated some
polychrome-style Hunnic objects and he concluded that the Gothic fashion had not existed
among the Huns before 375.29 The same observation was made by the Hungarian
archaeologist, Nndor Fettich in the 1940s.30 In the past few years Alexander Koch has
presented a paper on this topic, where he has showed that the Far-Eastern origin of the
polychrome style is in Boma, the western part of Xinjiang province, China. He has also
emphasised that the Goths brought this fashion to Western Europe even up to Belgium,
where it survived until the 6th century.31
Along with Nndor Fettich and Jnos Harmatta, those archaeologists also expressed
criticism who intended to narrow the period of the Hunnic findings between the years of
375-453, although their significant parts extended up to the 6th century. 32He stated
referring to Fettich- that from the archaeological findings in the near of the Tisa-river can

25

Wolfram, 1988. 28.

26

Wolfram, 1988. 86.

27

Vczy,1940. 125.

28

Harmatta,, 1951. 6.

29

Bernstam, 1946.

30

Fettich, 1951. 78.

31

Koch, 2008. 67.

32

Harmatta, 1951. 4.

be shown the surviving Hunnic metallurgy even in the Avar period, probably Huns
remained there. 33
As I mentioned above, foreign and Hungarian archaeologists listed almost every finding
from 453 to 568 as Gepids. They evolved theories of the so-called ethnical characters, e.g.
fibula and bone-combs. Objects made in polychrome style and those vessels which were
originated in the steppe mythology have not been taken into consideration. They took no
notice of Fettichs observation and of the fact that the remnants of the Hunnic tribes and
people usually made their objects from silver after the collapse of the Great Hun Empire
since they had no chance to get such a huge amount of noble metal, than in Attilas time. 34
I refer to the treasures of Szilgysomly or Apahida which remind us to Hunnic art, but
they were listed among the Gepid ones, but their richness and characters of the objects
remind us of the Huns.
Shortly I make some comments to the above mentioned ethnical characters. These objects
did not belong to the Goths or Gepids but to other steppe tribes who lived in the
Carpathian basin or in the Eastern European plain. Sarmatians, Scythians and even
western Romans had also used these objects before the Goths. 35 The same observation is
related to the bone-combs. Earlier steppe dwellers also used that, they used them not only
as an everyday tool but also as sacrificial objects. Moreover, it is clear that the Goths and
Gepids borrowed lots of motifs and ornaments from the rulers of the steppe.
We must mention the anthropological results of the research of the Late Hunnic period in
Hungary. Anthropologists while searching anthropological features in Gepidian graves got
an interesting result.
They stated that there are big differences between the early and late Gepidians. Among
Gepids early period Nordic or Northern types were dominant, and they mixed with Huns
and Alans and some transitive or mixed types were formed.36 It means that in the
Carpathian basin the Gepids did not retain their Nordic type but gradually lost it and
assimilated into the Scythian or/ and Hunnic types.
The anthropologists have found slight Mongoloid characters in lots of Gepidian graves
which prove an Eastern- or Inner-Asian influence. Among the 5-6th century so-called
Gepidian graves Eastern-European types can be found and can be related with Sarmatians
or Scythians who populated in that territory. The gracil-Gediterraen types referred to
Roman population who also survived the collapse of their Empire and settled down in
some villages or cities of the Huns. Anthropologists discovered such Turanic traces which
did not belong to Gepids but steppe people as Scythians and Huns.
Despite the anthropological evidences, which showed surviving Scythian-Hunnic types of
people in Hungary, the archaeologists based their theory upon the fact that European
skulls belonged to only Gepids who were the only, non-Asian population. 37

33

Harmatta, 1951. 5.

34

Fettich, 1951. 77.

35

Fibula can be found even in the early Etrusk graves.

36

Bna, 1974. 33-34. According to great Hungarian anthropologists as Kiszely Istvn, Bartucz Lajos,
Maln Mihly, Tth Tibor

37

Holl, 2009. 14.

They insisted on an old pre-concept that Huns were mostly Mongoloids. This theory is not
accepted among scientists now; we have huge portrayals of Central Asian and Inner Asian
Huns, where they had European characters. Moreover, Hunnic graves in Mongolia
contains European characters, certainly they had a few Mongolian ones, too. According to
the Mongolian anthropologists in the Hunnic Empire at least six types of anthropological
characters could be differed. As Tumen presented her research, in the Western and Central
part of present-day Mongolia European characters were dominant, 38 it means that
European characters in Carpathian basin also refers to Huns and Scythians, not only
Gepids or Goths.
The Hungarian archaeologists have made another big mistake. They listed as Gepids those
skulls on which an artificial skull distortion could be observed.39 Some scholars noticed
that this custom was specific among the Sarmatians and those Huns who brought it from
the Central Asian Scythian civilisation. They are unable to find out why only Gepidians
inherited this foreign custom. 40
I assume that most Gepidian graves belonged to Huns and Sarmatians who did not escape
from Hungary but they lived scattered, in clans or in tribal communities.
As a consequence of the above mentioned we can find evidences of surviving Huns in the
former Hungarian Kingdom, too.
Huns in Moldavia
I have mentioned Jordaness notice above, the fact, that Dengizich led some military
campaigns in Pannonia 41 refers to his near settlement. Some historians think that he was
the ruler of Kutrigur Huns who established his centre in Moldavia (Bessarabia). 42
According to some points of view, he was allied with the Onogurs who also lived at the
Eastern border of the Carpathian-basin. 43
It is likely that the Onogurs are equivalent with the Hungarus or Hungarians who
remained in Pannonia after the collapse of the Hunnic Empire. In the Hungarian literature
Jzsef Thury drew attention to the question of Onogurs, 44 or Hungarians. Bolgarians were
never mentioned as Onogurs. We can find only one reference for the Bolgarian-Onogur
connection, namely Kovrats reign, when he led Onogundur-Bolgars to a new homeland,
where Onogundur meant belonged to Onogurs. Osman Karatay held Onogur as the
early name of Hungarians, so did Pter Kirly, who identified the name of Hungars and
Onogurs only with Hungarians.

38

Tmen, 2011. 374.

39

Holl, 2009. 17.

40

Bna, 1974. 34. Wolfram, 1988. 34.

41

This campaign has taken place in 456, when Dengizich suddenly attacked Gothic Walamir, other
Goths hadnt heard about that. Jordanes, Getica L. 268.

42

Bury, 1958. 302.

43

Bury, 1958. 302. Kutrigurs closely allied with Bulgarians or Onogundurs (Belongs to Onogurs)

44

Among Eastern sources, only Byzantine do not spell h voice in front of the words, that is why they
report Hungars as Onogurs. Latin sources wrote Hunnuguri (L. Jordanes).

Nobody identified the Dengizich centre. In February 2010 Ukrainian scholars found a royal
kurgan near the Yalpug-lake, 45 and some professionals think that it belonged to Dengizich
or some Attilas sons.
In the territory of Moldva and the neighbouring Moldavia we can find some traces which
refer to the ancient name of Hungarians or Onogurs. Onglos was a geographic name of a
part of Moldavia in the 8th-century Byzantine sources. Most scholars think that it was
Asparukhs centre from 678 to 680, before he occupied a homeland of ancient Scythians.
As Theophanes recorded: At last the third of them (the brothers), called Asparukh, after
crossing Dnepr and Dnestr rivers which are to the north of Danube, and after capturing the
Oglos (Onglos), settled in the lands between it and the aforementioned rivers, because he
noticed that that place was protected and difficult to attack from any side; being swampy in
the front and from the other sides - surrounded by a ring of rivers, it offered great security
against enemies for the weakened by the parting people46
Nikephoros also mentioned Onglos or Oglos: And the emperor Constantine, learning that
a ungodly and filthy people settled in the lands beyond the Danube, in the Oglos, and that
they attack and devastate the lands near the Danube, i.e. the presently held by them
country, previously held by the Christians, was very upset and ordered for the departure of
all troops to Thrace.47
Academic scholars have not accepted Onglos or Oglos as a settlement or place of the
ancient Hungarians, although this place is equivalent with Etelkuzu or the former territory
of the Hungarians, before entered the Carpathian-basin48 in order to get back Attilas
sacred land. Among scholars, Bolgarian Zlatarski and Pter Kirly agreed that Onglos or
Oglos refers to the name of the Hungarians in the course of 7th century. 49
We have additional sources of the Hungarian appearance in Moldavia. Byzantine sources
recorded Nicephoross campaign against Krum in 811. When they reached the Dnieper,
Bolgars got help from local vegre or egre people who were identified as a group of
Hungarians. 50
During 818-820 Omurtag, the King of Bolgars led a campaign against Hungarians, who
lived along the lower Dnieper.51 We can assume that in the territory of Moldavia (Etelkuzu)
Hungarian tribes lived not only in the end of the 9th century but at least a century earlier.
We do not have a decision whether it was the centre of the Hungarians or it served as a
wing. The Hunnic and Hungarian history is also connected there.
Seklers, descendants of Huns

45

Ukrainian archaeologists think this magnificent finding belongs to Dengzich or any other son of
royal Hunnic clan in the 5th century.

46

Theophanes, 358.

47

Nikephoros, 34.

48

49

Kirly Pters head word for Onglos/Oglos. In: Bartha-Erdlyi, 2005. 327-328.

50

Kirly, 2006. 132, 134.

51

Kirly, 2006. 138.

Etelkuzu is mentioned by Byzantine Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, the real place name of
Hungarian land is Hungaria.

Westward to Moldavia, in the eastern part of Carpathian basin a special community lives
who has preserved their Hunnic origin until now. The Hungarian chronicles from the
Middle Ages also confirm their ancient origin. According to them, after the Nedao battle,
3000 Huns decided to move eastward and settled down Chigle-plain52 and they got a new
name: Sekler, and they preserve the Hunnic heritage. As the Chronicle Pictum records:
Only 3000 men remained from those Huns, who fled after Krimhilds battle. They decided
to gather in Chigel-Plain. Fearing from unexpected western attacks thats why they went to
Transylvania and they called themselves not Hungarus, but chose another name, or
Seklers... These Seklers are the remnants of Huns and until the returning of Hungarians
settled down the above mentioned place. 53
We have no other sources for the purpose of this group there. If we want to know it, we
must find some ethnographic analogies of related tribes. Some Inner Asian Hun related
tribes, Turks, Mongols, Khitan and even Korean have preserved an ancient cult of great
kings. They erected special memorial places where they commemorated on their material
and intellectual heritages. Not only in history, but also until nowadays we can find a place
where this ancient cult is a living tradition, a part of some groups of people it is Ordos,
were a group of Mongols or Shara Darkhats- preserved the ancient cults of bowstretching people. It is likely, that the Seklers went on such a tradition and erected some
sacrificial places in Seklerland, e.g. Budvar, which was their centre of ancient cults.54
According to the Chiki Sekler chronicle55 they elected a rabonban who stood above them
and facilitate the ceremony. One of their sacrificial tools was a cup. This is not an
outstanding object, but a widespread tool of sacrifice throughout the great Eurasian
steppe.56 In Seklerland Balzs Orbn collected numerous ancient traditions of the Huns
and Attila. Some places are also connected with them, such as Rekas grave or Attilas
route, but we have a legend of Irnek sword, etc. 57
In the past two centuries lots of publications have been printed on the Seklers. The local, or
Sekler-origin researchers proved similarities between their ancient customs with Scythians
and Huns, but Pl Hunfaly attacked this ancient tradition in the end of the 19th century
and created a new one. He stated that the Seklers are not the remains of the Huns, but
frontier-guides who were settled by some late Hungarian kings. He presented strange
evidence as if it was a historical source. He mentioned Andras II privilege for Saxonians,
where Pechenegs served as frontier-guides of Hungarians and he added the following:
probably Seklers has the same function. 58It is not historical evidence but only an
assumption. So, this strange theory is not considered related to the ancient history of the
Seklers.
Balzs Orbn said the following: The ancient inhabitants of Seklerland had no any
writings of privileges from Hungarian kings, because they homeland posses not by

52

Chigle is equvalent to Chik-basin in Seklerland.

53

Chronica Pictum, 23.

54

Orbn, 1868. 60-61.

55

Orbn, 1868. 61. He refers to Chiki Sekler Chronicle.

56

Such a cup can be seen in Idols (Balbal) in the vas Eurasian steppe.

57

We can find this place in Orbn Balzss main work or Descriptions of Seklerland. He has gathered
legends connecting to this sacred land.

58

Hunfalvy, 1878. 301-302..

privileges, but by inheritance according to ancient Sekler constitution, which is earlier than
the Hungarian Kingdom.59
Elek Jakab, the Hungarian-Sekler historian also refused Hunfalvys theory. He wanted to
discover relatives of Seklers among the Hungarian population that is why he visited those
groups that consider themselves as the descendants of Huns and Avars. Together with
some scholars he drew the conclusion that the Seklers have a strong connection with the
Paloc and the people of Gochey.60 According to his point of view, they did not wander
throughout the Carpathian basin or were made to settle down by royal decrees, but they
are the remnants of those Huns who survived and stayed in their ancient land. Arpad, the
leader of the joint Hungarian forces, did not lead a war to them61 rather they concluded an
alliance.
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