Horse and rider burials in the Meroving era from Pannonia

Szűcs Melinda / Melinda Szűcs

Hadak útján. A népvándorláskor kutatóinak XXIX. konferenciája. Budapest, 2019. november 15–16. / 29th Conference of scholars on the Migration Period. November 15–16, 2019, Budapest

MŐK Kiadványok 4.1 (2022) 277–296

DOI 10.55722/Arpad.Kiad.2021.4.1_15

A Meroving­kori Európában általánosan elterjedt szokás a lovak vagy lószerszámok halott mellé helyezése, vagy az állat külön, önálló sírba temetése. Az európai leleteket két nagy gyűjtésből ismerhetjük (Michael Müller­Wille és Judith Oexle munkái), bár a kiadásuk óta eltelt időben jelentősen megnövekedett a jelenségek száma is.

Kulcsszavak: Meroving­kor, langobard, temetkezés, temető, rítus, ló, lószerszám, 6. század

The burying of the horses and the horse furnitures with the deads or in separeted graves are widespread habits in the Merovingian-era Europe. The findings from Western Europe are known from two studies (from Michael Müller-Wille and Judith Oexle), although the number of findings increased significantly since their release. In 1970 Michael Müller-Wille collected the horse burials from Europe in the migration period, and made a detailed analysis about the spread of certain phenomena. His work focused on the horse burials and the horse bones from graves of dead persons, the horse furnitures was not involved in this research. In 1984 Judith Oexle made a summary about the horse and rider burials, and analyse the question, that the buried horses are grave goods or sacrificial animals. In 1992 Oexle made a monography, where she collected the horse furnitures from the Merovingian-era Europe, and she made a typology for the bits. In the Carpathian Basin I collected from the literature 17 graveyard from the Langobard era, where are horse or rider burials. These graveyards have graves from the early and from the late Langobard period too, so we can conclude that the habit is present in the total period of the Langobard residence. The rituals and the findings of these burials are similar to the general habits in Pannonia, and they show connections to the other parts of Europe.

Keywords: Merovingian era, Langobard, burial, graveyard, rite, horse, horse furniture, 6th century