Burials with Whole Horse Skeletons in the Tiszántúl and Eastern European Steppe Region in the 6th —7th centuries AD

Abstract

After 567, a certain nomad group of Eastern European origin arrived to the CarpathianBasin with the Avars and occupied the territory east to the TisaRiver. This population differs from the Inner Asian Avars by their burial customs whose best analogies can be found among the contemporary nomads of the steppe region of Eastern Europe, called Sivashovka group. The main aim of this article is a special rite of the two regions: burials with whole horse skeletons. This element of the burial rite was treated as a foreign influence — Avaric or Turkic. This study proves that this element was well embedded in the structures of the funerary rite in both regions. Additionally, there are similarities, which show that both populations get acquainted with this custom at the same time. We can state that the difference between the burials with horse hides and the burials with whole skeletons is based on social, rather than ethnic grounds.

Cultural connections between the Eastern European steppe region and the Carpathian Basin in the 5th–7th centuries AD

“…While the horse remains were placed on the level of the ledges above the deceased, the horse bit was laid by his left forearm. 197 Also, the horse gear in Grave 190 Gulyás et al 2021a, 285. 191 Lőrinczy -Somogyi 2018, 241.…”