The Avar Kaganate collapsed early in the 9th century and the Carpathian Basin remained
in disintegration until that time when the Hungarians arrived and united this region
under their rule. 895 is known as the date of the Hungarian Conquest. Nevertheless
some scholars started to re-examine the chronology of the late Avar and early Hungarian
period both in historical and archaeological sense, but avoiding the mixed argumentation.
Do we need to rewrite this chapters of the migration period? This paper agrees with
this scientific endeavour, because it seems to be justified by the sources both from
the „Avar” and „Hungarian” aspect. The end of the Avar State (or steppe-empire) did
not mean the extinction of the Avar ethnic community. Using the written sources we
can demonstrate the surviving Avar groups from three regions. The first of them was
baptized ca. 863 and lived in Pannonia under Frankish rule 870/871. The second community
remained independent and these Avars lived in the plains (889). The third group settled
amongst the Croats and their Avar-like features were identified even in the middle
of the 10th century. The archaeological traces of the Avars are demonstrable after
the fall of the Avar Kaganate, too. Meanwhile the Hungarians appeared first in 862
on the pages of western annals when their army devastated Frankish lands.
In 881 the Hungarians and their allied Kabars were fighting in the region of Vienna.
Wher did they come from and where did they return? Considering the aspects of military
history it is possible that the first Hungarian settlements within the Carpathian
Basin have been founded ca. 862. We have to
emphasize that the relations of the surviving Avars and the conquering Hungarians
was conspicuously good. On the one hand the Hungarians showed fierce warlike attitude
toward Franks, Bulgars and Moravians, on the other hand they remained peaceful staying
the plains of the Avars. Therefore the distance between the late Avar and early Hungarian
period is not as long as it seemed to be earlier. Nevertheless we can not point at
certain years as finishing or starting dates of an era. Only the place of the „Avar–Hungarian
appointment” looks clearly: of course the Carpathian Basin. The time of this meeting
must be defined as a long transitional process, which started ometime in the middle
of the 9th century and lasted untill the Hungarian Great Principality united the Mid-Danube
region.
