Early Slavs’ Production and Subsistence Activities Case Study ‒ The Area of the Upper Tisza River Basin (Ca. Second Half of the 6th Century ‒ First Half of the 7th Century Ad)

Abstract

The geographic area broadly corresponding to the Upper Basin of Tisa delineates the north-eastern extremity of the Carpathian Basin, which has given the evolutions taking place there over time specific characteristics. Regardless of the historical period, this area has been a connecting space between the regions north of the Carpathian Mountains and territories situated in the direction of the Superior Danube, but mostly the entire Tisa Plain and the Transylvanian Basin towards the south-east. There are many settlements that can be dated roughly to the second half of the 6 th century and the first half of the 7 th century, alongside some funerary discoveries. However, there are few sites that were investigated extensively, at least according to current publication records. The inventories of the dwellings and of the few reported graves are lacking in diversity as handmade pottery is the norm. The current examination offers indirect proof of the agricultural activities and the domestic crafts that were undertaken there at the time, which were potentially connected to a certain degree of specialization in tool and iron utensil production, and the manufacturing of the raw matter this required. A simple, autarchic economic model can be reconstructed from the data as there are few indications of external contacts -thus, a model similar to the one commonly attributed to the Slavs of that period.