Recent results of research on the early medieval archaeology of Bashkortostan and the Southern Urals. A comprehensive overview from the perspective of early Hungarian history

Türk Attila – Kim Igor Konsztantyinovics – Vjazov Leonyid Alekszandrovics – Óvári Péter / Attila Türk – Igor Konsztantyinovics Kim – Leonyid Alekszandrovics Vjazov – Péter Óvári

Magna Hungaria nyomában – baskírok és magyarok. Baskíria és a baskír nép szerepe a magyarok korai történetében / Tracing Magna Hungaria – Bashkirs and Hungarians. The role of Bashkiria and the Bashkir people in the early history of the Hungarians

HUN-REN Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont Magyar Őstörténeti Kutatócsoport Kiadványok 10 (2024)

DOI 10.55722/Arpad.Kiad.2024.10_12

A Dél-Urál kora középkori régészetének pontos ismerete elengedhetetlenül fontos a korai magyar történelem folyamatainak feltárásához és megértéséhez. Megalapozott vélemény kialakításához tehát nélkülözhetetlen, hogy a legfrissebb régészeti eredmények nyomán átfogó képünk legyen a régió kora középkori tárgyi hagyatékáról. Ennek a területnek a központi része a mai Baskírföld, melynek népvándorlás és kora középkori régészeti eredményeiről összefoglaló szakcikk magyar nyelven még nem jelent meg. Munkánkban a természetföldrajzi sajátosságok számbavétele mellett bemutatjuk a régió népvándorlás kori régészeti előzményeit a Kr. u. 2. századtól kezdve a korai magyar történelemben leginkább ismert kusnarenkovói kultúrán át egészen a karajakupovói régészeti horizontig (Kr. u. 8–10. század). Bár az Urál nyugati előterének régészeti hagyatéka sokkal gazdagabb és jobban kutatott, valamennyi periódusban kitekintünk az Urál keleti előterére is. A két régió régészeti műveltségeinek összefüggései és a kultúrák időrendi szinkronja (1. kép) ugyanis elengedhetetlenül fontos a magyar őstörténet szempontjából. Dolgozatunk végén részletesen bemutatjuk azt a csijaleki műveltséget is, amely ugyan már nem az őstörténet közvetlen része, ugyanakkor meghatározó szerepet játszik a – nemrégiben az archeogenetika által is igazolt – keleten maradt magyarok hagyatékának meghatározásában.

Kulcsszavak: Régészet, Baskíria, Dél-Urál, Cisz-Urál, Transz-Urál, Délnyugat Szibéria, magyar őstörténet, korai középkor, régészeti kultúra, karajakupovói horizont, csijaleki kultúra

An accurate knowledge of the early medieval archaeology of Southern Urals is essential for understanding the processes of early Hungarian history. In order to form an informed opinion, it is therefore essential to have a comprehensive picture of the region’s early medieval archaeological heritage based on the latest findings. The central part of this area is the Bashkortostan, where a summary of the archaeological results of the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages has not yet been published in Hungarian. In addition to taking account of the natural geography of the region, we present its archaeological history from the Migration Period, from the 2nd century AD onwards, through the Kushnarenkovo culture, which is best known in early Hungarian history, to the archaeological horizon of the Karayakupovo. Although the archaeological legacy of the Cis-Urals is much richer and better researched, each period also looks at the Trans-Urals. The interrelationship of the archaeological cultures of that two regions and the chronological synchronism of the cultures are of vital importance for Hungarian history. At the end of our paper, we will also present in detail the culture of Chiyalek, which, although no longer part of prehistory, plays a decisive role in determining the legacy of the Hungarians left in the East, as recently confirmed by archaeogenetics. In the light of the recent research, we can say that the most important horizon of Karayakupovo for the formation of the early Hungarians can be connected with the ancestors of the Hungarians on the basis of archaeological and archaeogenetic parallels from the 10th century Carpathian Basin. This is why the term ‘Karayakupovo horizon’ is important and relevant, as it was introduced to designate a diverse archaeological legacy from the mid-8th to early 11th century in the Southern Urals. To the east of the Urals, the archaeological reference is the Uyelgi cemetery, while to the west it remains the Lower Kama valley Bolshie Tigani. A comprehensive publication of the material from these sites is therefore a major task for the future of archaeological research in connection with early Hungarian history too. Today, both cemeteries (or most of them) are mostly interpreted as cemeteries of Hungarian groups who lived in the Volga-Urals region and remained there in the 9th-10th centuries. However, their local roots are undoubted and the key to further progress lies in their detailed exploration. As for their descendants, the information of European travellers who passed by in the first half of the 13th century about the Eastern Hungarians living in the so-called Magna Hungaria area of the Lower Kama region is relevant. It should be stressed, however, that the Kushnarenkovo-Karayakupovo cultures should not be automatically and exclusively identified with the ancestors of the Hungarians. The population of the Karayakupovo horizon was certainly polyethnic. Sergei G. Botalov has proposed to distinguish between the early Hungarian and the early Obi-Ugric, Manysi lineages in the ethno-cultural development of the region. The latter can also be observed in the migration and further spreading of the Uralic population of Taiga origin and making cord-impressed pottery on the western side of the Ural in the vicinity of the Lomovatovo and Nevolino cultures. Botalov also distinguished between the Kushnarenkovo-Karajakupovo cultural development in the Cis-Urals, with the forest steppe variant, and the grass steppe variant in the Trans-Urals. The western Uralic variant is well researched, has precise chronological boundaries and can be divided into phases (mid-6th to late 8th century). The Trans-Uralic variant, however, is much less well known today. In the context of reconstructions of historical processes, it is highly probable that the population of the Trans-Urals variant with Ugric linguistic background was absorbed into the nomadic communities associated with the Western Turkic Kaganate, which is very intensively detected in the region. With the collapse of the Kaganate, the importance of the later Turkic-speaking tribes (Srostski culture) in southern Urals increased even more through the arrival of the Kimek-Kipchaks and probably the Kyrgyz of Yenisei. In the 9th and 10th centuries, they interacted actively with the Siberian populations of the local Yudina and Petrogrom cultures. Sergei G. Botalov believed that this cultural symbiosis was so rapid and successful because the contact dated back to earlier times. Oleksei Komar, on the other hand, suggested that the local Uralic-speaking tribes had been in contact with the bearers of the Srostski culture and its ancestors when they lived east of the Ob River, along the Baraba steppe in Southern Siberia. In summary, the results of recent archaeogenetic studies show that the Uralic and Trans-Uralic phases of the Karayakupovo archaeological horizon are related to some individuals of the 9th–11th centuries in the Carpathian Basin through identical provenance segments (IPS). These links are confirmed by the similarity of ADMIXTURE profiles.