Bijelo Brdo culture

The Bijelo Brdo culture^[1][2] or Bjelo-Brdo culture^[3] is an early medieval archaeological culture flourishing in the 10th and 11th centuries in Central Europe. It represents a synthesis of the culture introduced in the Carpathian Basin by the conquering Hungarians around 900 and of earlier cultures existing in the territory (in present-day Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia) before the Hungarian conquest.^[4] Female dress accessories, including "jewellery of plaited wire, two-piece sheetwork pendants, snake-head bracelets and S-shaped temple-reings" (P. M. Barford),^[4] are the most characteristic items of the culture.^[3] The culture disappeared around 1100, most probably not independently of laws adopted under Kings Ladislaus I and Coloman of Hungary which prescribed the burial of dead in graveyards developed near churches.^[3]

Initially it was thought that the poorer Hungarian(Magyar) gravesites were Slavic and that only the rich horse-warrior burials were Hungarian. This view was challenged in the 1940s and is now rejected by Hungarian scholars, who see the poorer burials as Magyar commoners, such as Béla Szőke.^[5]

It is named after an archeological site, a medieval graveyard found near the village of Bijelo Brdo, Croatia and excavated since 1895.^[6] The dating at 7th Century of Site 1 was established by Zdenko Vinski.^[7]

Map showing the basic territory of Bijelo Brdo culture (10th-12th century), according to the book of Russian archaeologist Valentin Vasilyevich Sedov.^[8][9] By this view, the area of the village of Bijelo Brdo itself is excluded from this territory.

According to the Russian archaeologist Valentin Vasilyevich Sedov, the basic territory of Bijelo Brdo culture included territory of present-day Hungary, southern Slovakia and part of Serbian Vojvodina.^[8]

See also

• History of Christianity in Hungary
• History of Christianity in Romania
• History of Christianity in Slovakia
• Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin

Footnotes

1. Engel 2001, p. 17.
2. Spinei 2003, p. 57.
3. Curta 2006, p. 192.
4. Barford 2001, p. 231.
5. Geary, Klaniczay, Patrick (2013). Manufacturing Middle Ages (First ed.). Brill. pp. 221, 223. ISBN 9004244867. Retrieved 01-08-2015. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
6. Vodanović, Brkić & Demo 2005.
7. Bože Mimica Slavonija u XX. stoljeću 2009 Page 332 "Nalazište Bijelo Brdo I. arheološki je pouzdano datirao Zdenko Vinski (1913-1996) u sredinu ili drugu polovicu 7. stoljeća."
8. Valentin Vasiljevič Sedov, Sloveni u ranom srednjem veku, Novi Sad, 2013, pages 419-421.
9. http://www.dodaj.rs/f/3d/PP/bVFVG7O/bijelobrdo.jpg

References

• Barford, P. M. (2001). The Early Slavs: Culture and Society in Early Medieval Eastern Europe. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-3977-9.
• Curta, Florin (2006). Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-89452-4.
• Engel, Pál (2001). The Realm of St Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary, 895-1526. I.B. Tauris Publishers. ISBN 1-86064-061-3.
• Spinei, Victor (2003). The Great Migrations in the East and South East of Europe from the Ninth to the Thirteenth Century (Translated by Dana Bădulescu). ISBN 973-85894-5-2.
• Vodanović, Marin; Brkić, Hrvoje; Demo, Željko (February 2005). "Paleostomatološka analiza humanog kraniofacijalnog osteološkog materijala sa srednjovjekovnog nalazišta Bijelo..." [Paleostomatological analysis of human cranial osteological material from the mediaeval site of Bijelo Brdo near Osijek]. Journal of the Zagreb Archaeological Museum (Archaeological Museum, Zagreb) 37 (1). ISSN 0350-7165. Retrieved 2013-04-10.