Avar pusztalakók és birodalmi nagymorvák : a 9. századi Kárpát-medence politikai és ethnikai viszonyairól

The Avar Kaganate collapsed early in the 9th century and the Carpathian Basin remained in disintegration until 895 when the Hungarians arrived and united this region under their rule. In this period it is very difficult framing the history of the Carpathian Basin. At first we have to make a distinction between the political and ethnic aspects. The best example for it is the case of the Avars: the end of the Avar State did not mean the extinction of the Avar ethnic community. From the three groups of the sources - linguistic, written and archaeological ones - the first is practically unavailable, therefore we can use the two last ones avoiding the mixed or circular argumentation. Using the written sources we can demonstrate the surviving Avar groups from three regions: the first of them lived in the western parts under Frankish rule (c. 870), independent Avars lived in the plains (c. 900), and the third group settled amongst the Croats and their Avar-like features were identified even in the middle of the 10th century. The archaeological traces of the Avars are demonstrable after the fall of the Avar Kaganate, too. Some scholars say that the surviving Avars became Slavs but it is not probable, because there was no Slavic power to force the Avars to change their language. Only the Great Moravian Empire could have been able to turn the Avars into Slavs, but this empire never existed: its name is a misinterpretation of Elder Moravia which can be located south of the rivers Sava and Lower-Danube. This Elder Moravia was destroyed in 894 by the conquering Hungarians. Therefore the surviving Avars took part in the Hungarian ethnogenesis and even it is possible that there were Hungarians amongst them according to the theory of „double conquest"