Tibor E. BARATH

THE EARLY
HUNGARIANS

IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT
HISTORICAL RESEARCH

MONTREAL 1983

Published by the Author
P. O. Box 697, Station "B"
Montreal H3B 3K3
Canada

CONTENTS

* The numbers given in parentheses in the text refer to the publications (P 000, P 001, etc.) in which the reader may find further information on the subject in question.

List of figures

Fig. 1. Physical map of the Middle Danube basin.

Fig. 2. Old Hungary's geographic location in relation to the Ancient Orient.

Fig. 3. The great river-valleys of the Ancient Near-East.

Fig. 4. Turullu, the lion-headed Sumerian bird which symbolized the divine ancestors of Hungarians. Uruk, c. 3200 B.C.

Fig. 5. Pictorial representation of the two Hungarian ancestors. Carved by a shepherd in Somogy county, XlXth century.

Fig. 6. Some of the most frequently used Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Fig. 7. 'Magyar country' written in Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Fig. 8. 'Ruler of the Magyars' written in hieroglyphs.

Fig. 9. In Egypt, the flat-horned ram was the favourite Kush-symbol.

Fig. 10. The Kush-symbol survives in Hungarian folklore. Example: the ceremonial walking-stick, 'Fokos'.

Fig. 11. The Kush-name written in Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Fig. 12. Anubis, the dog-like creature, was also considered as a Kush ancestor.

Fig. 13. The Egyptian kings' royal titles were Hungarian titles.

Fig. 14. The Old Hungarian sound-signs in their final stage of development.

Fig. 15. Old Hungarian inscription of Dalnok, Hungary. It reads from left to right.

Fig. 16. Old Hungarian inscription of Constantinople, Turkey. It reads from right to left.

Fig. 17. Old Hungarian inscription of Enlaka, Hungary, accompanied by a pictorial complement.

Fig. 18. Sun-door of Csik-Szent-Kiraly, with a geometric decoration.

Fig. 19. Elaborate Sun-gate of Harasztosi, Hungary, flanked by two idols.

Fig. 20. Wooden columns on burial sites in present-day Hungary.

Fig. 21. 'The Lion of Esztergom'. Wall-painting in the royal palace. Hungary, XIIth century.

Fig. 22. Ramses II, King of Egypt (1304 - 1232 B.C.), holding the God-symbol.

Fig. 23. Human-shaped divinity with the God-symbol. Hungary, Neolithic Age.

Fig. 24. A typical Troy-II vessel, c. 2300 B.C.

Fig. 25. Gold badge of a high priest. Mojgrád, Hungary, Bronze Age.

Fig. 26. Hungarian hammer-axe with disc for a butt. It was in great demand in the Bronze Age.

Fig. 27. Map showing the density of Hungary's population by the end of the Bronze Age.

Fig. 28. The world-famous Tatárlaki (Tartaria) clay tablets, found near the river Maros. They were used for the purpose of solar observations.

Fig. 29. The sound-signs of the Tatárki tablets, separated into words.

Fig. 30. The most beautiful Scythian gold-stag ever found in Hungary. Tápió-Szent-Márton, Vth century B.C.

Fig. 31. Scythian gold-stag from Zöld-Halom-Puszta, in an unusual posture. Hungary, Vth century B.C.

Fig. 32. Several vessels belonging to the Hun treasure of Nagy-Szent-Miklós bear this inscription: 'The adornment of this article was made by a skilled Hun'.

Fig. 33. Hungarian language message engraved upon a Hunnic gold tray.

Fig. 34. The great seal of King Oktár the Hun with legend in Hungarian.

Fig. 35. Dedication incised upon the pendent of a Hun necklace in Hungarian. Wolfheim, Germany.

Fig. 36. Decorated silver satchel-cover of a Hungarian army commander. Hungary, IXth century.

Fig. 1. The Middle Danube basin is a unitary land with natural boundaries. It was the geographic base of the Kingdom of Hungary for over a thousand years. (Mountains over 1,000 m in black)

Fig. 2. Old Hungary's geographic location in relation to the Ancient Orient.

PROLOGUE

The rough road of Hungarian Ancient History

Hungarian Ancient History deals with that period of the national past which begins around 3000 B.C. and ends in 895 A.D. when the last Magyar ethnic wave arrived and settled in the Carpathian basin. This delimitation is mainly based upon a longstanding tradition, but is justified by methodological considerations as well. Indeed, in the elaboration of ancient history, the so-called subsidiary studies of History play a considerably greater role than in more recent periods, on account of the scarcity of written documents, which are the usual sources of historical knowledge. The most helpful of such subsidiary studies are, first, linguistics and archaelogy, then mythology and paleography, to which most recently, the science of place-names or toponymy was added. This many-sided approach renders the task of the historians more difficult. The importance of their researches is however great, since the results have a strong bearing upon the national consciousness. Because of this, Ancient History is usually exposed to strong political interferences.

1. When modern historiography was born, in the middle of the XlXth century, Hungarian scholars found themselves before a difficult alternative: they had to adopt either the Finno-Ugrian conception of their past or the Orientalist conception. The foundation of the Finno-Ugrian or "Uralian" conception was laid down by Swedish, German and Russian scholars, and in particular, by August Ludwig Schloezer, professor at Goettingen University, Germany. Its basic thesis was the linguistic and ethnic kinship of Hungarians with Finns and Esthonians living in the Baltic area, and with the Uralian peoples in the Volga-Ural region. The holder of this theory placed the original homeland of the Finno-Ugrians in the vast Siberian plain. This theory was welcomed and strongly supported for political reasons by the Habsburg dynasty, which was anxious, after the tragic events of 1849, to curb Hungarian influence in the Double Monarchy just then, by injecting the leaders of that nation with an inferiority complex. They first sent Miklosits, the professor of slavistics at Vienna University, to Budapest, to supervise the program of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Miklosits had understood the point of his mission and prepared a long list of words which were all "borrowed" from the Slavonic languages, according to him. After Miklosits, a German scholar was sent to Budapest, J. Budenz (1836-1892), who became, with his companion Pál Hunfalvy (Hunsdorfer, 1810-1891), the main architect of the Finno-Ugrian conception of Hungary's ancient history.

The two pioneers proclaimed that the Hungarian people and the Hungarian language were of Finno-Ugrian origin, consequently, their original common homeland could not have been situated anywhere else than in the Uralo-Siberian region. They also found that the early Hungarians stood, in respect to civilization, on the lowest step of evolution: they were forest-dwelling nomads, living on the mere product of Nature, eating mushrooms, berries, digging up roots, fishing and hunting. As such, they were ignorant of the fundamental achievements of Higher Civilization: stockbreeding and foodproduction by farming. In short, the early Hungarians were depicted as a backward populace, in a state of semi-savagery, whose later civilization developed entirely from constant borrowings, first from the Turkish peoples, thereafter from Slavs, Germans and Latins, who were their teachers and instructors.

The second conception of Hungarian ancient history linked the Hungarian language to the oldest one of mankind, viz. the Sumerian, and placed the original home of the Nation in the Ancient Near East, between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers (Sumer and Babylon). This conception was also first outlined by Western scholars, namely by A.H. Sayce, J. Oppert, F. Lenormant and C. Rawlinson.

From a Hungarian point of view, the most important finding of the West-European sumerologists was the discovery that the Sumerian language was neither Semitic nor Indo-European in structure, but agglutinative, like the Hungarian. The far-reaching significance of this statement was obvious, because speakers of this early agglutinative language were the authors of the first Higher Civilization of mankind. A. H. Sayce summed up this thesis as follows: "The earliest civilized inhabitants of Babylonia did not speak a Semitic language and therefore they were not Semites... Eastward of Sumer, the type of language was thus agglutinative, as it was in Sumer itself. And in the days when civilization first grew up there, there is no sign or trace of the language we call inflectional... Babylonian culture owed its origin to a race whose type of language was that of the Finns, of the Magyars or the Japanese" (P 112 pp. 70-72). The same opinion was upheld by all later sumerologists, including Prof. Woolley, who writes in the most recent UNESCO manual: "Sumerian was unique amongst the languages of the Ancient Near East in being agglutinative; it belonged in this respect, to the same group as... Finnish and Hungarian (P 064 p. 635). Western scholars also stated that there was a steady outflow of Sumerian population towards Europe beginning the New Stone Age, and that they had introduced the Higher Civilization to almost all regions of Europe, including distant Britain. In short, this conception places Early Hungarians into a considerably higher historical status.

After the above mentioned discoveries, it became increasingly exciting for Hungarian scientists to find out the true ethnic and linguistic identity of the ancient Near-Easterners: Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and Anatolians. It was indeed hoped that the solution of this enigma, with the help of the Hungarian clue, might lead us to a global re-evaluation of the origin and affiliation of all European peoples and, in particular, to a re-evaluation of the place of Hungarians amongst them. A formidable challenge was thus awaiting Hungarian scholarship.

2. It seems incredible, but the fact is that Hungarians were not encouraged to take part in these researches; on the contrary, they had been removed from the field of sumerology and egyptology, and redirected towards the Uralo-Siberian wildernesses. The new Orientalist researches had already produced decisive results which were going to alter the traditional Semitic image of the region in question. In fact, they discovered that the myth of the Creation, the story of the Flood, and the many hymns and parables recorded in the Old Testament, were not the literary invention of Semitic Genius, as it was believed until then, but that of the previous agglutinative-speaking peoples, from whom they were simply taken over. Therefore, to avoid further erosion of the Semitic Miracle, it seemed appropriate to divert all the potentially dangerous elements from the field of researches. The chief instigator of this militant policy was Joseph Halévy (1827-1917), a Jewish-born Rumanian, who managed to become professor at the Sorbonne in Paris. Actually, he had waged a lifelong battle to maintain the antiquated belief, namely, emphasizing the exclusively Semitic character of the Ancient Near East, where no other race was ever present, according to him. At the Orientalist Congress in Paris (1901), Halévy encountered Hungary's delegate, Ignac Goldziher (1850-1921), who had a seat in the governing body of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and was, at the same time, general-manager of the Jewish Religious Community of Budapest for many years. So he was quick to understand Halévy's concern and, back in Budapest, emphatically declared that Hungarian scholars were wasting their time searching for their ancestors in the Ancient Near-East, it being a purely Semitic area. And Bernát Munkácsy (Munk), another Hungarian educated orientalist, also member of the Academy of Sciences and school-inspector at the Jewish Religious Community of Budapest, submitted his "expert's report" to the Academy, wherein declared "in good faith" that: "It is out of question... that we may envisage any closer relation between the Sumerian and the Hungarian languages. Therefore Hungarian scientists cannot rightly claim any part of the brilliant Sumerian heritage, nor can they take any credit from the Sumerians' merits, under the pretext that they were their ancestors. If anyone would, nevertheless, do so, he would make himself ridiculous" (P 051 p. 55).

After that, the Academy systematically sabotaged Sumerian studies in Hungary. It had refused to receive Zsófia Torma, the lady who wished to report on her epoch-making finding, that in Neolithic times there were close contacts between Hungary and ancient Mesopotamia. Professor Zsigmond Varga, another outstanding orientalist, who established several linguistic parallels between Hungarian and Sumerian in his imposing volume "At a distance of 5,000 years" (Debrecen 1942), was judged by his critics as an "impostor, charlatan, confused and unscientific." A third scholar, Vilmos Hevesy (alias F.A. Uxbond), who discovered the ancient links between Hungarians and Indians (P 130), was also rejected, because his findings disagreed with the official Uralo-Siberian doctrine. Many other similar cases are known, but let us recall only one, that of Flórián Mátyás. This scholar, in his inaugural address at the Academy (1859), talked, to no avail, about the deciphering of hieroglyphs; he was unable to capture the attention of Pál Hunfalvy, who simply laughed it off. It was not until a great, independent, international authority, Prof. G. Childe, stated in his fundamental work on the Danubian Neolithic and Bronze Ages (P 031), that scholars all over the world agreed that the Early Hungarians had a respectable share in the heritage of the Ancient Near East. Thus ended the stormy, first period of the modern researches on the origin of Hungarians, wherein the imposed Uralian conception seemed to prevail, to the detriment of the free researches.

3. After 1945 this situation totally changed, when swarms of intellectuals left Hungary, following the communist take-over. These exiles, free of any political pressure, once they were settled in the free world, have undertaken the renewal of the ancient Hungarian history in an Oriental light. Ida Bobula (USA, 1900-1981) was the first to perceive their new mission. She took up research where Prof. Varga left off in 1942 and was indefatigable in arousing interest for the arduous task. In his time, Prof. Varga was mainly dealing with grammatical parallels between Sumerian and Hungarian. As regards the vocabulary, however, he was unable to find more than about 80 common words. Consequently, Ida Bobula, focussed her efforts upon the enlargement of the vocabulary concordances and was instrumental in completing the existing list with over a thousand additional common words, amongst them the important one for 'God', Isten in both languages. With her work, she firmly established the Sumero-Hungarian kinship as a scientifically proven fact and summed up her results in an English language study, Sumerian affiliations (P 014).

Other exiled Hungarian scholars followed the trend as set forth by Ida Bobula, elucidating a surprisingly high number of common characteristics of the Sumerian and Hungarian languages. Amongst them, we have first to mention Ferenc Badiny Jos (Argentina), professor of sumerology at the University of Buenos Aires, who tried to fill the considerable time-gap between the end of Sumer in the Near East and the birth of Hungary proper in Europe, by means of a Hungarian language book, "From Chaldea to Ister-Gam" (P 006). The late Victor Padányi (Australia) concentrated his attention upon the migrating Hungarians in the Don region (P 101) and C. G. Gostony (France) produced an etymological dictionary of Sumerian (P 056), while Sándor Csöke (Austria) compiled a "Sumero-Hungarian grammar" (P 015). Finally, the comprehensive work of Sándor Nagy which was written in English, deserves special mention, The forgotten cradle of the Hungarian culture (P 098). All these works concerned Surner (Southern Mesopotamia) only and maintained that Hungarian is the direct continuation of the ancient Mesopotamian language, as it was spoken in the Illrd millenium B.C., or, as Sándor Csöke expressed it: "With a few phonetical and grammatical differences, the Sumerian folklanguage, i.e. the spoken language was, on the whole, the same as present-day Hungarian."

The next most important step in the elaboration of the orientalist conception was the extension of the field of investigation beyond Mesopotamia, to cover the whole Near-East. It was indeed discovered that innumerable Magyar words were used, not only in Mesopotamia, but elsewhere too, in the B.C. times, especially in the Nile valley, as well as in Syria and in Anatolia. In these areas certain texts written with hieroglyphs or with Phoenician-type characters, can be read in Hungarian. These surprising results definitely proved that the original home of the Hungarian speaking population was the entire Near-East and also that Magyar was a primary language, from which many others originated. The enlargement of the field of investigations and the above mentioned decipherings are due to Prof. Tibor Barath, author of this book, whose three volumes - Ancient History of the Hungarian speaking Peoples" (P 007) - are fundamental in this regard.

That ancient Egypt had been the most brilliant Magyar homeland, was first stated by F. Thomas in his Latin study: Conjecturae de origine, prima sede et lingua Hungarorum (Buda 1806). It must also be added that the eminent Finnish linguist, Helmi Poukka (Helsinki), has made an important contribution to the subject with her "Hungarian-Finn-Egyptian word-parallels" (P 105). In her publication, she lists 1,045 identical Egypto-Hungarian words. This work was recently expanded into an important manuscript of 307 pages, which its author has generously forwarded to the writer of these lines.

All these studies made almost exclusively by exiled Hungarian scholars resulted in the elaboration of a new Hungarian ancient history, whose starting point is in Ancient Near East, in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages.

4. In the light of these researches, the basic theses of the Finno-Ugrian historical conception became more and more untenable; above all the belief that Hungarian was a language of Finno-Ugrian origin. This must be a misnomer, declared the orientalists, in view of the fact that the Hungarian vocabulary includes a mere 7.3% of common Finno-Ugrian words, against 92.7% non-Finno-Ugrian. Moreover, if Old Hungarian antedates the Indo-European languages, how it could have borrowed words from them, when they were not yet in existence? Considering that the Hungarian and Indo-European common words are embedded in the oldest layer of the latters' vocabulary, the presumption is strong that these common words were borrowed by the Indo-Europeans from the Old Hungarian. And again, since the emergence of the Hungarians took place in the Ancient Near-East, it seems impossible that the people would have originated in Uralo-Siberia. The tiny Vogul (Manysi) and Ostiak (Hanti) peoples - 9,000 and 21,000 souls respectively - who are now living in Siberia, cannot vouch for the Northern origin of Hungarians, because anthropologically they are the farthest removed from them. These fragments of an original Uralian population were, in all probability, overrun by a break-away branch of Hungarians (cf. P 059 pp. 173-179), who taught them a few hundred words before being assimilated. This view is supported by the Vogul name, which is probably an old form of the present Hungarian Fogoly, meaning 'Captive'. In any case, the Finno-Ugrian theory of history never succeeded in proving its point to the general satisfaction. Large segments of the academic world - linguists, historians archaeologists in particular - remained skeptical and discussed it with great reservations. For all these reasons, those of the opposite conception openly rejected it as an obsolete theory.

The pressure against the Uralian conception increased so heavily in the last ten to fifteen years, that the holders of this antiquated belief felt themselves cornered, and began a desperate fight for survival. But, instead of discussing and refuting the pretensions of the orientalists, they simply declared that the theses of their adversaries are unacceptable, 'because' they are contrary to the official doctrine. They soon lost their tempers and started a vilipending campaign. They everywhere proclaimed that the exiled historians "have been infected with a Western virus", and that they suffer from "spiritual inebriety", for whom the "Oriental mirage" (sumerology and egyptology) is but a "therapeutic gymnastic". They also labeled the orientalists "fanatics, lunatics, chauvinists, and fascists" (P 008). The Finno-Ugrists also used administrative measures to silence their opponents, especially the so-called press-closure, which means that the scientific promotion of the orientalist conception is banned from the media in Hungary. Since then in that country, the periodicals, newspapers, publishing houses, television and radio stations were exclusively reserved for scholars with Finno-Ugrian mentality. Along with the press-closure, writers in line with the official dogma were encouraged to prepare fresh publications in the obsolete spirit, saying nothing about the existence of the other way of thinking.

It would nevertheless be a mistake to think that the front of Finno-Ugrists is a solidly united one. As a matter of fact, there are, in Hungary itself, many scholars who already have assimilated several important elements of the Hungarian researches abroad. Antal Bartha, for example, has discarded the wrong belief that the early Hungarians had been forest dweller nomads. Instead, he teaches today that they were living in river valleys, engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry, and stood, in every respect, upon the level of contemporary Higher Civilization. He also maintains that the early Hungarians had come to the Kama-Volga "meeting place" (no longer "cradle land"), in successive waves, from a southerly direction, at the beginning of the first millenium B.C., starting from the area "where the food-production first had taken place," i.e. from the Near-East (.Magyar Hirlap, December 15, 1972). Furthermore, anthropologist Tibor Tóth has conceded that the skeletons do not support the existence of any early Hungarian settlement in the Ural-Siberian region. On the contrary, they clearly prove that it actually was in the Aral Sea region (Kisalföld, June 16, 1972).

This will suffice to mark out the place of the orientalist conception in the general Hungarian historical researches during the last hundred and fifty years or so. After a difficult start, it seems now to be closer to victory. In the following chapters, the author lets the reader become acquainted, in detail, with the orientalist conception only, avoiding all controversies.

PART ONE

WHO ARE THE HUNGARIANS?

THE PEOPLE

1. The anthropological build-up of the Nation

Reliable data concerning the anthropological structure of European peoples, can be found in the standard work of the Swiss anthropologist Eugène Pittard (P 103) and in the historical race-geography of the Soviet scientist V. P. Aleksejev (P 002). Information concerning specifically the Hungarians is available in the brief accounts of Mr. Kosonczi (Sorsunk, Australia, 1959-1960), and in the two more recent articles by Pál Lipták (P 090) and Tibor Tóth (P 128), leading anthropologists in Hungary today.

According to the authorities mentioned, the various peoples of Europe intermingled so much during the last two or three millenia that today they hardly differ from one another genetically. By and large, they are made up almost everywhere with the same racial elements, viz. the white skinned Caucasoids or Aryans;(1) the brownish complexioned Mediterraneans or Touranians, also called Kush; and a third element, especially detectable in Scandinavia and in Spain. The latter are probably the descendants of a pre-Neolithic population called Cro-Magnon-men. Within the said relatively uniform social structure, the individuality of each people is only characterized by the differing proportion of the common composing elements. In the case of Hungarians, the specific ratio is said to be c. 80 - 85% Caucasoids or Aryans and c. 15-20% Touranids or Kush. The representation of the Nordic (Cro-Magnon) type in Hungary is so minute that it is practically negligible.(2)

The great majority of Hungarians (the Caucasoids) is characterized by a height of 167 cm, a clear complexion, variable eye colour (40% fair and 40% dark) and medium brown hair. Their face and eyes are of a vivid tone, their nose is straight, but sometimes high and bridged. Their general demeanour is a friendly one. According to cranial measurements, their average cephalic index (CI) is 84.3, i.e. they belong to the short-headed racial group.(3)

E. Pittard was surprised to find, in a strongly mixed Europe, a relatively homogeneous population, especially in Central Europe, which was overrun so many times by foreign invaders since Neolithic times. But he himself gives us the necessary explanation, emphasizing the fact that before the arrival of the last huge Hungarian ethnic wave in A.D. 895, the numerically most important ethnic body in the country - the Avars - was racially akin to the Magyars: they resembled each other like "two overflows of a single and same ethnic lake", to quote the words of E. Pittard.(4) His evaluation holds good even for the periods prior to the Avars, including Neolithic times. In fact, the nearly 1,000 extant crania from this age prove that even the earliest settlers of the Land, almost exclusively consisted of short-headed Caucasoids (P 103 p. 36). This means that the same human race has perpetuated itself in Hungary from the earliest historical times in an uninterrupted continuity.

According to anthropologists, the greatest concentration of the short-headed population is to be found in the Caucasus region.(5) The farther one moves away from the area, the thinner is the density of the brachycephalic element. On this basis it was assumed, that the oldest detectable home of this race was in the Caucasus region, whence they got their scientific denomination: Caucasoid race. From their supposed original homeland, the Caucasoids or Aryans are said to have slowly moved southwards, extending their control over the whole northern part of Ancient Near-East already in prehistoric times. They were har-bringers of the so-called Higher Civilization, in which most people were farmers living in small villages.

The second racial element of the Hungarian ethnic body is the Kushitic one. Their distinctive anthropological characteristics were the darkish skin colour and the Caucasian (not African) face.(6)

In contrast to the Aryan agriculturists, the Kush were mainly a stock-breeding population and as such moved around extensively. For a long time, they lived in tribal communities, without any higher socio-political organisation. They disintegrated easily and many of them became absorbed into the ethnic bodies of other nations, most often in subject status, so that they soon lost their own ethnic identity through assimilation.

Amongst the written references to the existence of white and dark men in Hungary, the most explicit one is that of Adamar of Angouleme, author of Historia Francorum (XIth century). He described a monk's journey through Hungary and claimed that two distinct races existed there: a white one in Ungaria Alba and a dark one in Ungaria Nigra, so called after the skin colour of their inhabitants.(7) Hungaro-Kush relations were, however, almost always somewhat strained because of the lower cultural niveau of the dark men.(8) And when the Kush refused to become Christians, King Saint Stephen (1000-1038) dispersed them all over the country, where they lost their individual identity. Author Adamar of Angouleme writes in that connection the following commentary: "King St. Stephen of Hungary attacked black Hungary with the army and converted the whole country to the true faith, partly by sheer force, partly by intimidation and affection."(9)

The anthropological build-up of Hungarians links them to most of the European peoples, e. g. to the French, so far as they are of Gallic descent, and to the English as well, so far as they are Britons, Scots and Picts. On the other hand, Hungarians have genetic connections with the old Oriental nations (Sumerians, ancient Egyptians, Indians), and also with the youngest offsprings of the said great family: Scythians, Huns, Avars in particular. The kinship of Hungarians is large both in Europe and in South West Asia, and this circumstance explains why Hungarian ancient history is, in many respects, one of the most important keys to the general history of Eurasia.

2. The Hungarian language and its great antiquity

A language is characterized by its grammatical structure, vocabulary and phonetics. When these characteristics are compared with those of other languages, it can be established which languages are cognate, i.e. have a common origin. The cognate languages form language-families and have such names as Indo-European, Finno-Ugrian, Uralaltaic and so forth.

1. The principal characteristic of the Hungarian grammatical structure is that the root of the verb remains the same throughout the different variations (conjugations) and to this unchanging root the various particles are added, called suffixes, to express tense relations, modes and personal cases. The pattern is always the same: stem + circumstantial suffixes + case ending. In the following two words: To give and To write, the basic roots are AD and IR. The root, in itself, expresses the indicative present, therefore the personal case ending comes next here, thus: AD-ok, IR-ok: I give, I write. Secondly, the root, when enlarged with the conditional suffix N becomes AD-N-ek, IR-N-ek: I would give, I would write. Thirdly, when inserting the subjunctive suffix J, the following forms emerge: AD-J-ak, IR-J-ak: That I give, That I write. Fourthly, the sign of the past being T, the two verbs in question take the following forms: AD-T-am, IR-T-am, I gave, I wrote. The declension of the noun follows the pattern of the conjugation. There too, the various endings are affixed to the unvariable root, the nominative case excepted, which is the root itself, without a suffix. So the noun HÁZ 'House' becomes, with the plural suffix K, HÁZ-ak; with a second suffix BAN meaning 'In', we say HÁZ-ak-ban, In houses. All the elements of the word thus formed are written without a hyphen, and merged into a single block: Adtam, írtam, Házakban, etc. Due to its compact character, Hungarian is called a synthetic language, or, owing to the numerous suffixes it uses, a suffix-using (suffixed) or agglutinative language.

Two other features of the Hungarian grammar are, first of all, that it has no gender. So IR may mean 'She or He writes', depending on the context. Secondly, it has a fully developed unvaried definite article, used in two forms: 'A' or 'AZ'. 'A' stands before nouns beginning with a consonant, while 'AZ' is employed before nouns beginning with a vowels. So we say: A HÁZ 'The house', but AZ EG 'The sky'.

2. Hungarian has a comparatively large vocabulary, thanks to its great antiquity, and also to the ease with which new words can be made. Forty words which will frequently appear in the forthcoming chapters are listed below. They belong to the oldest layer of the vocabulary and, as such, they are mostly monosyllabic. Words denoting parts of the human body: 1. KÉZ 'Hand'; 2. KAR 'Arm'; 3. SZEM 'Eye'. Words for house and its equipment: 4. HÁZ 'House'; 5. HON 'Dwelling' or 'Land'; 6. TÁNYÉR 'Plate, Disk'; 7. FAZÉK '(cooking) Pot'; 8. SZÉK 'Chair'; 9. ÁGY 'Bed'. The environment: 10. EG 'Sky'; 11. FÖLD 'Earth, Ground'; 12. NAP 'Sun' and 'Day'; 13. VIZ 'Water'; 14. ÜT 'Road'; 15. MEZÖ 'Field'; 16. KERT 'Garden'; 17. FÜ 'Grass'. Food: 18. MÉZ 'Honey'; 19. ITAL 'Drink'; 20. SÖR 'Beer-'. Animals: 21. HAL 'Fish'; 22. MADÁR 'Bird'; 23. EGÉR 'Mouse'; 24. KOS 'Ram'; 25. CSIRKE 'Chicken'; 26. BÉKA 'Frog'. Implements: 27. KÉS 'Knife'; 28. HAJÖ 'Boat'; 29. SZEKÉR 'Cart'; 30. KERÉK 'Wheel'. Religion: 31. UR 'Lord'; 32. ISTEN 'God'; 33. KÉP 'Image'; 34. MÁS(A) 'Copy of, Deputy'; 35. PAP 'Priest'; 36. TUDÓ 'Magician, Scientist'. Numbers: 37. KETTÖ 'Two'; 38. ÖT 'Five'; 39. HÉT 'Seven'; 40. SZÁZ 'Hundred'.

How are compound words formed? The simplest way consists of putting the respective stems together, the determining word being placed before its dependent as a rule. Examples: Fut -I- Ar = Futár 'Messenger' (lit. Running man); Hord + Ar = Hordár 'Porter' (lit. Carrying man); Nagy + Ur = Nádor 'Governor, Deputy King' (lit. Great man). In compound words only the last part takes up suffixes and case-endings, the compound being considered as a single word. In addition to the above mentioned process called nominal composition, Hungarian has another method to build new words with new shades of meaning. It consists of adding derivative suffixes to the root in the case of nouns, and placing prefixes before verbs. The derivative suffixes are very numerous, e. g. - ság (ség) which implies the idea of 'multitude'. Its first form (-ság) fits to roots ending with a back vowel, while the latter fits to those ending with a front vowel, as in KATONA-ság and PÉK-ség: 'Army' (lit. Soldier + multitude) and 'Bakery' (lit. Baker + multitude), respectively. In the case of verbs, the most important prefixed particles are the directional ones, like In, Out, Up, Down, Forward, Backward, Under, Away, Retour, etc., which are in Hungarian: Be-, Ki-, Fel-, Le-, Előre-, Hátra-, Alá-, El-, Mellé-, Vissza-.

3. The phonetical structure of Hungarian is largely influenced by stress, which always falls on the first syllable of the word which is uttered with greater emphasis than the others. Now, when the tongue has taken up the necessary position to form a certain accentuated syllable, it is easier to remain in the same position when uttering the subsequent ones. The consequence of this laziness of the tongue is a sound-preference, called vowel harmony. It means that whenever the first syllable includes a back vowel (A, O, U), the following vowels must usually be of the same category. The same applies to the front vowels (E, I), mutatis mutandis.

The sound-preference goes so far as to influence even the simplest suffixes, which have two forms: the one fitting to roots with deep tonality (A, 0, U), the other to those with high tonality (E, I). The two forms of the suffix 'In' are BAN and BEN, and we say FAL-ban 'In wall' and KERT-ben 'In garden'. The law of vowel harmony also governs the formation of compounds and mercilessly brings all the vowels into the general tone of the first, stressed syllable. The result is a completely new word, in which the composing elements are sometimes hardly detectable. For example, a great city on the Hungarian Plain got its name from the fusion of two words, Kecske (goat) and Mat (pasture), and is today called Kecskemét. In the archaic period, the majority of nouns ended with a vowel. However, with the consolidation of the word-stress on the first syllable, the sound of the final vowel became weaker, and was eventually silenced. With the loss of the final vowel, the preceding one was usually lengthened as in the following examples: Old Hungarian Uru became Úr; Sassu became Száz, and Bharata > Barát.

In Old Hungarian there was a marked preference for deeper vowels as opposed present usage. Instead of the present 'A', 'O' was used; and instead of '0', 'U'. So the present word for 'Dust', Por appears in older texts as Pur; the word for 'Fatherland, Country' Hon appears as Hun; 'Ram' which is today Kos, was then Kus (pron. Kush); and Magyar, the native name for Hungarian, formerly was Mogur; while the word for 'Beer' Sör, was Sura.

In the process of softening the system of consonants, the 'P', 'T' and 'K' sounds often changed into voiced sounds: 'B', 'D' and 'G' respectively. The phenomenon of mutation of sounds is known in linguistics as sound-shift. Under its impact, almost all Old Hungarian words beginning with a 'P' sound, changed to 'F'. Examples: Old Hungarian Pal meaning 'Wall' became Fal; Palu 'Village' became Falu; Patek > Fazék '(cooking) Pot'; Pekete > Fekete 'Dark'; Penu > Fenyő 'Pine'; and Pono > Fonó 'Spinner'. In spite of the quasi regularity of the frontal P > F change, certain ossified words continue to be used in their archaic forms, such as Pallér 'Contactor', a compound of Fal + Ur, lit. 'Wall Man'; and Puszta 'Steppe' (in Eastern Europe) which is the compound Füs + Ta, lit. 'Herbaceous land'.

The softening of the Hungarian sound-system had a second phase around Christ's birth, which enriched the language with seven new voiced sounds, written today with double-lettered signs. These are 1. CS, which sounds like ch in 'Cherry'; 2. GY as d in French 'Dieu'; 3. LY as I in 'Volume'; 4. NY as n in 'New'; 5. SZ as s in 'Science'; 6. TY as t in 'Tuesday'; and 7. ZS like s in 'Pleasure'. For all these new sounds (exactly as for B, D and G sounds) there never was any special graphic sign in the Old Hungarian writing, because its origin antedates the soundshift.

The above listed 40 words may appear in the following phonetical forms in old Hungarian written documents: 1. Kete; 2. Kar; 3. Seme, Zum; 4. (H)asa; 5. (H)on, (H)un; 6. Taner; 7. Patek; 8. Seke; 9. At; 10. Ege; 11. Pod, Pot; 12. Nabu; 13. Pis; 14. Utu; 15. Mese; 16. Kerta; 17. Pu; 18. Medu; 19. Ital; 20. Sura; 21. Khala; 22. Matar; 23. Egur; 24. Kush; 25. Surke; 26. Beka; 27. Kesh; 28. (H)aiu; 29. Sekeri; 30. Kerek; 31. Uru, Ar; 32. Isten; 33. Khepe; 34. Massa; 35. Pap; 36. Tutu, Dudu; 37. Khetta; 38. Ut; 39. Hetu, Heth; 40. Sassu.

Now, if we imagine the Hungarian language in its archaic from, i.e. without voiced consonants, without diacritical signs, and with deeper tonality, and a vowel at the end of nouns, we will be surprised to see how closely such a script resembles the alphabetic transcript of certain Near Eastern languages of the Illrd and Ilnd milleniums B.C. Actually, with the Old Hungarian phonetic key, it would be possible to understand certain hieroglyphic texts and inscriptions written with the Phoenician type of letters. The following specimen shows what Hungarian looked like around 1200 A.D., two hundred years after the conversion to Chzistianity and the adoption of the Latin alphabet. The following two sentences are taken from the Funeral Pryer, which starts thus: LATIATUC FELEIM ZUMTUCHEL MIC VOGMUC. YSA PUR ES CHOMUV VOGMUC. Using the present orthography, this text would be: Látjátok feleim szemetekkel mik vagyunk. Izzó por és hamu vagyunk. Translated into English in the original sequence of the words and suffixes, it would be: 'See-you/brethren-my/eyes-your-with/what/are-we/. Glowing/dust/and/ash/are-we/. In this short sample, all the essential elements of the language are already in their final places and even the suffixes are solidly "glued" to their respective root-words. It should also be mentioned that this old text is comprehensible to every Hungarian of today at first hearing, so little has the language changed in the lapse of eight hundred years, while the changes, witnessed by other European languages during the same period of time are, however, very considerable. So we have to keep in mind that the tempo of the Hungarian linguistic change is and has always been very slow.

We have a significant assessment of the general build-up and inner structure of Hungarian by an eminent English scholar, Sir John Browning (1792-1872) who had a good command of that language and had translated numerous poems. He expressed his admiration for its unity, originality and exceptionally strong cohesion. He likened it to an Egyptian stone monument hewn out from a single block of granite and upon which not the thinnest fissure is detectable. Its origin dates back to the times when none of the presently spoken languages of Europe were yet in existence. "This language is the oldest and most glorious monument of national sovereignty and mental independence."

4. Now, the important question is to know to which family of languages Hungarian belongs and what position it occupies within its group, according to the newest researches. If Hungarian cannot be classified as a Finno-Ugrian language, nor as a Turkish one, we have to examine the third alternative, its connections with the family of Indo-European languages, that is, we have to look whether Hungarian has connections with the

Greek, Latin, German, English and Slavonic languages in Europe (the "Kentum" group of the Indo-European) on the one hand, and with the Hindu, Sanscrit, Sumerian and ancient Egyptian in Asia and Africa (the "Satem" group of Indo-European) on the other.

Actually, Hungarian has been compared with all these languages. The most detailed comparison with Greek was carried out by József Aczél (1927). According to him, Greek and Hungarian have over two thousand words in common, in addition to the great number of Greek place-names, having a definite Hungarian meaning. A closer analysis has disclosed, however, that the common Hungarian-Greek words are to be found mostly in Old Greek, i.e. in the pre-Greek languages: Pelasgian, Cretan and Aegean. - The comparison with Latin disclosed that its grammatical structure is, in many respects, similar to that of Hungarian. Latin is also an agglutinative tongue, using a great number of affixes, both in declensions and conjugations. Moreover, its vocabulary has many words that are in common with Hungarian (11.5%), - according to Gy. Hary's word-statistics. The most extensive research in this regard has been done by Prof. László Szabédy (1974). The fact that several inscriptions, written in the pre-Latin Etruscan language, were read in Hungarian by this author, suggests that the Hungarian words in question must have found their way into Latin through the intermediary of Etruscan, an Oriental language from Asia Minor, and that these words are now embedded in the lowest and oldest stage of Latin, which is similar to the Hungarian words in old Greek.

The number of common Germano-Hungarian words accounts for 6.1% of the Hungarian vocabulary. We know little about the common English words, as no research has been made yet in this particular field. Their number might be, however, quite significant, proof of which are several hundred Old British place-names (cf. P 108) that, in essence, are Hungarian. The British scholar L. A. Waddell has found enough evidence (see P 132) to prove that the early Brit-Honi population originated from the Ancient Near-East, together with the very name of Brit, Prit which sounded originally like Barat, and had the meaning of 'Companion, Fellow-Traveller, Associate', exactly as in the Hungarian language of today. A particular British fellow-traveller ethnic group of the Bronze Age, was the Picti, whose name is unexplainable in English, but clear in Hungarian. Picti would be pronounced today, after the P > F change, as Fekete, meaning 'dark coloured'. We really know from authentic historical sources that the Picti were a dark skinned people. - The greatest number of French-Hungarian common words are to be found in Gallic place- and ethnic names, preserved in Caesar's famous report, De bello Gallico (P 030). But amongst the present French place-names there are also a great number of Hungarian words, proof of which is the Directory of the French communes (P 039 bis).

The Slavonic languages also have a considerable number of common words resembling Hungarian. Their proportion amounts to 13.5% of the Hungarian vocabulary, according to the above-mentioned word-statistics. It is important to mention that the great majority of these words occurs only in those Slavonic countries which border on Hungary, so that they do not seem to be of Slavic origin, but were most probably borrowed from the Hungarian. If the percentages of all common Hungaro-Indo-European words are added together, we get the impressive high figure of 31.1%. This fully justifies the conclusion that Hungarians must have had long-lasting contacts with the Indo-European-speaking population in the millenia before Christ. But vocabulary concordances alone, without stronger grammatical support, are not sufficiently strong to prove close genetic connections between them.

The relations of the Hungarian language are closer with the Satem-branch of the Indo-European and with Oriental languages in general. The internationally reputed specialist in Sanscrit, Alexander Csorna de Körös, summed up his findings on that score with the following sentence: "The Sanscrit language shows no stronger relationship to any other language than it does to Hungarian" (quoted in P 098 p. 217). And with regard to the highly developed Sumerian language of Mesopotamia, Prof. C.G. Gostony (Paris) discovered and mentioned in his book (P 056), that out of its 53 linguistic features, 51 can be found in present-day Hungarian. The same author lists over 2,000 Sumerian words which correspond to as many Hungarian ones. Finally, he mentions the well-known fact that the native term for the Sumerian language was E-Megir; the same as Magyar in the old phonetical form. All this is decisive data so that we must conclude that Sumerian (as we call it) was merely an early Hungarian language. - As for the ancient Egypto-Hungarian linguistic relations, they too are very strong, direct and genetic. Proof of this is the native name of this language: Makari, which is another old form of the word Magyari. Besides, Egypt's national name remained Misir to the present day, a derivation of the same root, like Masar, Magar, Makar. This author has also deciphered over a hundred short Egyptian texts in his three volumes: "Ancient History of Hungarian-speaking peoples" (P 007). Thus, ancient Egyptian must also be considered an old Hungarian language, in the light of the most recent findings.

From all the above-mentioned researches, which have been carried out with untiring patience and energy, it is clear that almost every language of Eurasia is related to the Hungarian with at least several hundred identical words, while the Sanscrit, Sumerian and ancient Egyptian languages were cognate with the Hungarian. The first explanation of this unexpected conclusion was given by the talented linguist István Horváth, who declared, already a hundred years ago, that Hungarian, in B. C. times, was a widely spread language in the Ancient Orient and also the most polished one, so that many younger languages could draw a great deal from its rich vocabulary. But no one has taken this bold statement seriously in Horvát's lifetime. However, it seems now that he has been vindicated. Today it is indeed clear that Hungarian is a very ancient language and it occupies the central place in an extensive network of old languages.(10)

5. The final important question to be discussed is this: what would be the most appropriate linguistic term for the collective appellation of all the languages having genetic connection with Hungarian? The most fitting would be, of course, the one which was historically used for such a purpose: the term Uri 'Aryan', meaning 'Illustrious, divine (language)', i.e. a civilized one. This term reappears almost regularly in the native names of every interrelated Hungarian, beginning with the "mother tongue" whose Sumerian name was E-Meg-Ir, the Egyptian one being Mak-Ari, and the Hungarian Mag-Ari.(11) The best known other Aryan languages were Uri, Sub-Ari, Na-Iri and Hurri in Northern Mesopotamia; Lig-Uri, Hetr-Uri in Europa; Mund-Ari, Kol-Ari and Ma-Uri in India; Ma-Ori in New Zealand, as well as many others.(12)

Our foregoing conclusions have been recently confirmed point by point by a team of Russian linguists, namely W. Illitch-Switytch, Prof. Dia-kanov, A.B. Dolgopolski and others. They were successful in proving that there was a "Primordial Tongue" (Ursprache) on the Eurasian continent, to which all the other languages were affiliated with c. 650 root-words at least. They also have determined the geographic area correctly, where the first original language was spoken, namely the tract of land from India to Anatolia and from the Caucasus to the Persian Gulf. Furthermore, the estimated age of the Primordial Language also corresponds to the Hungarian: it began at the end of the last glacial period, about 12,000 years ago. In addition, the Russian team had purposely included Hungarian in the group of descendants of the primeval language, because its antiquity has been "proven."(13) Thus, Hungarian and Russian linguists agree on this point with one another.

In our judgement, there is only one point the Russians have missed: they failed to discover the real identity of the primordial language. Instead of calling it by its own historical name "Aryan", they introduced the confusing "Nostratish" name first, then, discarding it, rebaptized the primeval language "Boreish". For us, the essential fact is, that Hungarian is recognized as a language in its own right, being, as the mother of many others, perhaps the oldest cultural language of all Eurasia. Consequently, when looking for the origin of the Hungarian people, we have to focus our attention first of all upon the Ancient Near-East.

3. Their two most frequently used ethnic names: Magyar and Hungarian

Hungarians are identified with two ethnic names: Magyar and Hungarian. The first one is used in the country's native language, the second in foreign languages. The different use of the names was already noticed by chronicler Anonymus, the unnamed notary of King Béla, at the end of the Xllth century. He said clearly that the Magyars per ydioma alienigenarum Hungarii, et in sua lingua propria Mogerii vocantur. Unfortunately, he did not disclose the reason for this twofold use; in his time, any difference between the two names no longer existed.

Scientists were always eager to find out the original meaning of the names in question. The Etymological Dictionary (P 084 bis) informs us that "Magyar' is "an obscure compound", with Magy + Ar, variously spelt Magar, Mogeri, Meger, Mogur and Miser and meaning, simply, 'Man'. Géza Nagy, a keen linguist, brings us nearer to the answer by teaching that Magari is a compound with two vocables: Mat 'Earth' and Ar 'Man, People' (P 117 p. 98). But he does not elaborate upon what the exact meaning of the resulting new word might be. Concerning the etymology of the second name, viz. Hungar, our linguists generally believe, that it is not a Hungarian, but an old Turkish word, the On-Ogur, meaning 'Ten Tribes', as the tribal federation was called, to which the Magari people belonged at one time in the first part of the Vth century A.D. Finally, with regard to the Ar element occurring in both names, our linguists are reluctant to be more definite. On this subject we read in a French publication that the term Aryan is not yet sufficiently clarified.(14) Thus, we come to the conclusion that we are not on firm soil when looking for the etymology of the Hungarians' ethnic names on the basis of the available literature.

In our judgement, both Magari and Hungari are truly compound words, as it was always supposed. Both of them consist of two vocables: Magy + Ar (<Mat-Ar), and Hung + Ar (<Hont-Ar) respectively, to which the adjectival suffix -i is appended. To our surprise, the lexical structure of Mag-Ar-i and Hung-Ar-i is identical with that of several ancient ethnic names, like Lig-Ur-i, Ill-Yr-i, Bav-Ar-i, Can-Ar-i in Europe; Col-Ar-i, Mund-Ar-i, Ma-Or-i in India and New Zealand; and Mak-Ar-i and Onk-Ar-i in ancient Egypt. Today Magari is no longer spelt with the -i suffix, but simply is Magyar, this new graphic form having come into practice towards the end of the XVIIIth century. The comparison of the lexical structure of Ma-gari/Hungari with that of the other old ethnic names suggests that their origin may reach far into remote historical times.

What is the meaning of the composing elements of the names in question? First, the suffix -i appearing at the end of both names, gives them the meaning of 'Coming from, Native of, Follower of and the like. The second common element Ar (< Ur) has manifold meanings, but it always implies an important personage, who has power of command, such as God, a king, a high official or any free man. And the first element in Mag-Ari: Mag (<Mat) means 'field, Land'. Thus the whole compound as a new word signifies 1. 'Subject of the Ruler of the Land', 2. 'Fellow citizen' or 3. simply 'peasant'. The first element of Hung-Ari: Hunt, is nothing else but the ancient phonetic form of the present Hon, Hont 'Country'. So the full compound name Hungari means 'Countryman, Native'. According to its etymology, it is a perfect Hungarian word, as is Magari itself, and seems to have nothing to do with the Old Turkish 'Ono-gur'. Finally, if we are looking for the difference which may have, in olden times, justified the separate use of the two ethnic names, we may suggest that Magari actually stood for peasant, tiller of the soil, whereas Hungari for keepers of animals. But whatever may have been the difference between the meaning of the two names in question at the beginning, it soon disappeared.

An allusion was already made to the antiquity of the Magyars' two ethnic names, which reach back into pre-historic times. Now, we can confirm it by recalling that the Mat vocable is in general use among Finno-Ugrian languages and always means the same thing, namely, 'Field, Land, Dwelling Place' (P 110 pp. 85, 88, 89). Considering further that Finns and Estonians have separated from the Hungarian speaking body at around 2000 B.C., the common Finn-Magyar word in question must have been in existence before the said d te, there having been no later contact between the two groups. Consequently, the Magari name may be as old as 4000 years. Let us add to the foregoing that Matu was also known in the Sumero-Babylonian language as a word for 'Country' (P 056 p. 64) and that "Mat Misir" was the current term for Egypt in the Old Persian, and "Mat Asyr" that for Assyria (P 041 pp. 129,146,148). The same can be said about the word Hon or Hont; it is also a basic word in the whole Finno-Ugrian language group, meaning in Finnish and Estonian Huona 'Dwelling place, House'. Furthermore, the same word is also included in the Sumerian vocabulary, in the form of (H)an, (H)anu, signifying 'Realm of God', as well as in Ancient Egyptian, where (H)an or (H)on was the name of the city where the Sungod lived, 'Sun-City', the Greek Heliopolis in the Delta. Finally, with regard to the second part of the word, Ar (< Ur): it is generally used both in Sumerian and Egyptian and several other ancient languages, meaning 'God, King, Ruler or Man', so that it does not require a detailed explanation. Thus, our inquiry has shown that the Magyar and Hungar names, together with their compound elements, can be historically traced back almost five thousand years. There is hardly another nation in Europe, or perhaps in the whole world, whose name could be tracked down for such a long time.

It is also interesting to have a look at the various phonetical forms the the Magari and Hungari compounds have taken during their existence as such. The names were first affected by the general softening tendency of the language. It brought about a soundshift after which the T sound, both in Mat and Hont, successively changed into D, G and H sounds, with the resulting phonetical forms of MaDar, MaGar or MagOr, as well as MaHar. Now, these phonetical forms happened to sound similar to the words for 'Bird' (Madár), 'Grain God' (Mag-ur), 'Big Nose' (Mag-orr) and 'Bee-king' (Méh-ar, Méh-ur), although the original name had absolutely nothing to do with them. Still, this evolution is of the greatest interest to us, because the homopbony between the national name Magyar and the quoted objects gave birth to the idea that shaping or drawing a bird, a bee, a face with a big nose, or grains (beads) arranged in a circle (necklace) showed so many appropriate ways to "write" Magyar, i.e. to display one's ethnic identity.

Archaeological discoveries, representing a human figure with a big nose, occur frequently, especially in ancient Mesopotamia and on the Aegean islands. In Egypt the picture of a bee constituted a regular part of the royal titulary, identifying the king as Mehar or Magyar. The figure of a bird, applied on a brooch, or a bird statuette in clay, or even real birds kept in the house, were, as many, identification badges of the owners.(15) There is no mistake in linking these graphic or artistic figures with the presence of a Hungarian-speaking population, because the homophony between the ethnic name and the mentioned objects exists only in that language, as far as we know. Besides, all this symbolism would have been senseless without the ethno-linguistic implications. Of course, it is not easy to discover such similarities without having a good command of Hungarian and a profound knowledge of its past and present phonetical system. At any rate, we can say that our ancestors had found a method to establish their first written documents about themselves, right at the beginning of the literate period of history. It was certainly a primitive way of writing, but an ingenious one, the so-called pictorial method, the first form of writing. Should we then conclude that the early Hungarians also were, perhaps, amongst the active forerunners in the invention of writing?

In summing up the results of our inquiry regarding the two most frequently used Hungarian ethnic names, we may safely say that both of them were products of the Hungarian language; that they originated in the earliest historical times, probably in the Ancient Near-East, and that they identify the Magyars in their religious and politico-social context.

4. The whereabouts of the Old Fatherland

The previous three chapters have already produced enough indication that the Old Magyar Fatherland was probably situated in the ancient Orient, dominated by three mighty rivers - Nile, Euphrates and Indus - and which we call Near-East. It appeared, indeed, that this particular area was the one where the representative of the two races, out of whose fusion the Hungarian nation has come into being, were simultaneously present; where easily workable soil was available for farming, as well as large grazing grounds for stock-breeding; and where the agriculturist Magyars and stock-breeding Kush population intermingled (Fig. 3). The following pages should prove that the Ancient Near-East was actually the Old Magyar Fatherland, the land where the Hungarian type of nations have come into being.

1. The presence of an agriculturist Magyar speaking population in the Ancient Near-East can be traced back in all the three river basins by the place-, ethnic and personal names, the former inhabitants of the area had used, and which include basic Magyar words, like Ur and Magyar.(16)

In the Euphrates valley, to begin with it, the most typical such place-name was that of the City of Ur, whose ruins are called even today Mugheir (= Magyar), and which had a Maguerre ( = Magyar) ruler. Not far from that city was located Eridu, the oldest settlement of the whole Land. Its Hungarian etymology (<H.: Ur-i To) discloses, that it was built on the shore of a lake, the Present Persian Gulf. Today, the city is far from the Gulf, but in the IIIrd millenium B.C. it still stood on the shore, the filling-up of the Euphrates delta with alluvial deposits having not yet been in an advanced stage. A third important Mesopotamian city with clear Hungarian name was Nippur (= H.: Nap-Ur), the 'City of the Sungod'. We know from other sources, that Nippur was the most important religious centre for the Sun-cult in Mesopotamia for over a thousand years; a fact which warrants the accuracy of our etymology. Other Mesopotamian place-names, with a striking Hungarian meaning were Sam-Ar-Ra (< H.: Szem-Ur) 'Residence of the Eye-God', a variant of Sungod; Mat-Ar-Ra 'The City placed under the protection of the Farmers' God', and Assour (<H.: A Só Ura) 'City of the Ruler of the Sand'. Apart of the above place-names, the geographic term Burattu deserves special mention. Its rootword is Bor, which is ancient Hungarian for 'Water, River', by which the Euphrates was meant. And the form Burattu is the rootword Bor enlarged with two suffixes, thus: Bor-át-i, to mean 'Land (or People) Beyond the River'. This name has taken up manifold phonetical forms later on, like Berut, Beyrout, Barat, Brit, etc., and it surfaced at numerous places which the Mesopotamians colonized in subsequent times (see map showing the diffusion of the Burattu-name in P 132 after p. 420). In Syria, Canaan and Anatolia, which were under Mesopotamian cultural and political influence for a long time, the most important Magyar city-names were: Árpád, on the great bend of the River, about which more will be said later, and Karkemish and Damask. The correct transliteration of the Egyptian hieroglyphs giving the names of Karkemish and Damask is : Karika-Masa and Dama-Szeke, meaning -according to the Hungarian key- 'Deputy of the Circular Divinity' (Sungod), and 'Residence of the Divine Lady' respectively.

Fig. 3. The great river-valleys of the Ancient Near East

In the second great Oriental river valley, that of the Nile, the two Magyar testwords Ur and Magyar again occur frequently. Ur is included in the name of about a hundred divinities, as anybody may notice it when opening the book of Wallice Budge, The gods of the Egyptians (P 026II Index). The same word reappears in other combinations as well, like in Horus (<H.: Ur-Os) 'Divine Ancestor', which was the regular title of the reigning Egyptian king. Another of his titles was Makar, the Egyptian form of Magyar. Contemporary records speak of a Makari Queen, of the XXth Dynasty (c. 1080-940 B. C.), who tragically died in childbirth at an early age. It is also recorded that during the reign of King Zoser (<H.: As Os Ur) 'The Divine Ancestor', a certain Madir ( = Magyar) was the governor of the Elephant City. The very name of Egypt was at that time, as it continues to be even today, 'The Land of Misir' ( = Magyar). Finally, near the Red Sea, in Eritrea, at the site called Matara, a Magyar language inscription has been found, and deciphered by the author.

In the third great Oriental river valley, that of the Indus, the two Magyar testwords come up also frequently. The whole tract of land from the Caspian Sea to the River Indus, for example, was called Aria 'The Land of the Aryans', as indicated in the Dictionary of Mechitar. In that same zone lies Iran, whose etymological meaning is not Persian, but Hungarian: Ur-Hon 'Abode of the Aryans'. Plinius, writing in the first century A.D., when listing the various peoples of India says this: Indum accolunt Megari... Uri and other peoples (P 092 p. 98). Toppeltinus writes in the same sense, stating that the inhabitants of India are called Magori even in his time, and that they are a powerful people, possessing a famous land, thanks to their victorius army.(17) The seven great ancestors of the Hindus were the Mahar-Ishi (<H.: Magyar Ös) 'Magyar Ancestors', and the most celebrated Hindu dynasty was also called 'Magyar': Maury. It was founded around 315 B.C., and at its hight, ruled over an immense kingdom, extending from Afghanistan to Ceylon. Finally, the first comprehensive name for India was Barat Varsha (<H.: Barát Városa) 'Land of the Barats'.(18)

Apart from the numerous place- and and ethnic names built with the word Ur and Magyar, the presence of the Magyar population in all three focal points of the Ancient Near-East can be evidenced by pictorially written documents as well. This writing, as already explained, communicates abstract ideas with the pictures of concrete objects, whose names sound identically. In this way, the Magyars of a given place, could be identified with the picture of a bird, for which the Hungarian word is Madar, sounding like Magyar. A second animal, which was used to identify a Magyar ruler, was the lion Oroszlan (<H.: Ur-Os-Leny) 'Primeval Divine Ancestor'. We have two good examples to illustrate the above. First, a lion-headed bird, Madar, found in the ruins of the City of Ur. It is represented with outstretched wings, hovering over two deer, Szarvas (<H.: Az Ur-Os) 'The Divine Ancestor (Fig. 4). The meaning of this combined symbol (bird and two deer) is Magyar Ur-Osdk 'Hungarian Divine Ancestors'. On the other hand, an early example of the use of the lion-symbol for identification purposes is the well-known image of Gilgamesh, the legendary ruler of the city of Uruk, who is depicted as holding a lion cub in his arm. The meaning is 'Primeval Divine Ancestor', a title similar to the pompous "king-of-kings". In Egypt, we have found the Magyar name spelt with hieroglyphs very clearly as M-A-Kh-aR (land) (Fig. 7) and in another instance as A Ma-Ti-aR-Ku-Ra 'The Ruler of the Magyars' (Fig. 8). Thus, it seems clear that the Uri ( =Ari) Magyar ethnic element was strikingly present in the whole Ancient Orient, in the B.C. times. This is a major historical discovery whose far-reaching significance hardly escapes the attention of the reader.

Fig. 4. Turullu, the lion-headed Sumerian bird symbolized the divine ancestors of Hungarians. Uruk, Mesopotamia, c. 3200 B.C.

Fig. 5. Pictorial representation of the two Hungarian ancestors, carved by a shepherd in Somogy county. XlXth century.

Fig. 6. Some of the most frequently used Egyptian hieroglyphs (above).
Fig. 7. "Magyar Country" written in Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Fig. 8. "Ruler of the Magyars" written in hieroglyphs.

2. The next question is whether the same can be said about the darkish complexioned ethnic element, which made up 15-20% of the Hungarian ethnic body. The comprehensive name of this people was Kush, and in the jargon of the anthropologists: Mediterraneans or Touranians. It appears in various graphic forms, such as Kush, Cush, Kushan, Cassi, whereas its Hungarian form is Kus (pron. Kush), and meaning 'Ram (people)'. Their Ram-name indicates, that they were, first of all, a stock-breeding population, keepers of sheep and swine. In the Nile valley, i.e. in Egypt, they were pictorially identified with a flat horned ram, whose most elaborate exemplar was found in the Nubian colony of Sulb (Fig. 9). At one time, a row of ram-statues flanked the far side of the road leading to the temple of God Amen, while the near side of the road was lined with lion-statues, the symbol of Magyars. They were also raising pigs, so their country was called Sertés-Hon 'The Pig Country', and its ruler was the 'Ruler of the Pig Country' (See in P 007 II ill. 20), also in plain Hungarian. In addition to the ram and pig, the Egyptian Kush were ethnically identified with the picture of their erect-eared, gracile hunting dog of a dark colour. This animal played the same role for the Kush as the lion did for the Magyars. It was considered as the ancestor of the dark people, and its name has been transliterated as Anubis, with an unknown meaning. If we consider, however, the hieroglyphs of the name (Fig. 12), it discloses that the right transliterataion is A nép őse (A Né-P U-Se), which is again in Hungarian and means 'The Ancestor of the Folk'. In later times, the spotted leopard and the wolf were also in certain places, substitutes for "Anubis".

The Egyptian Kush of the First Cataract had held a dark skinned lady in great esteem whom they considered their local forebear. Her name was written with four signs: with an arrow carrying the sound-group SAT or SET, then with two half-loaf shaped T and with a sitting woman figure NU. We also notice that the arrow transfixes an animal skin PAR (= H.: Bör). Thus this written source identifies the lady in question in full Hungarian as SAT-T-eT bőrű NU Setét bőrű nő, literally 'Dark skinned Woman', exactly as tradition had preserved her memory. From this example we altogether learn that the Kush were also called by the name of'Dark' Setét. King Ramses I (more accurately: Ra-Mása, 'Deputy Sungod') had been governor of the Nubian colony prior to his ascension to the throne of Egypt, and continued to keep his earlier title when king. That is what his double cartouche (Fig. 13) discloses, when read with the Hungarian key: Ra mása, Szudán ura; Ra méne, Feketék ura 'Deputy Sungod, Ruler of Sudan; Stallion of the Sungod, Ruler of the Blacks'. So, incidentally we also learn that the Kush were even called simply Blacks, Feketék.

In the Euphrates valley, i.e. in Mesopotamia, the regular Kush identifying symbol was also a ram, but one of local species with horns twisted in the form of a V. Its most beautiful exemplar has been found in the City of Ur, and dated from the Illrd millenium B.C. The animal is represented peering from the branches of a Tree of Life, indicating that it is the ancestor. In Mesopotamian cuneiform writing, the Kush are referred to as "The dark headed ones" and as NAM LULU. Considering that the sounds L and R have the same writing sign, and that duplication of a sign means plural case, the correct transliteration of the quoted expression should be Nem ur.ak, 'Non Aryans', which is what the Kush really were. - In the third great river valley of the Orient, the Indus valley, the number of Kush was exceedingly high, and the so-called "Indus valley seals" offer abundant information about them. Nevertheless, they have less significance in Hungarian ancient history, because the Danubian Hungarian ethnic body derived very little from them. Therefore, we are restricted to only one Hungarian written message they had left to us. It expresses, so to speak, the philosophy of every Kush ruler worth of this name. The seven worded sentence in question runs thus: Uralkodo kedves, ha ftivesiti a ronakat orszagaban 'A ruler is liked if he does grow grass on the open lands of his realm' (see details in P 007 II ill. 36). - As the reader may judge for himself, there is plenty of evidence to show that the darkish coloured Kush population had actually occupied large areas in and around the agriculturist Magyar domains in the entire Ancient Near-East, during pre-Christian times.

3. Mention must yet be made as to how the relations between Magyars and Kush developed, and how they finally led to the formation of "Hungarian nations" in the Old Fatherland. The connections between the two races in the Near-East lasted for over two thousand years. At the beginning of this long period, their contacts were characterized rather by mutual distrust and open hostilities. As a result, the Kush were defeated almost everywhere and subjected to political and culturel assimilation. They lost a great deal of their people but, in exchange, received the badly needed higher education, which contributed to their later development. The second phase of their contacts was characterized by large scale intermarriages and the coming into existence of combined 'Ario-Kush' or 'Cush-Ari' nations, as this process is well known in Mesopotamia, India, Egypt and Touran alike.

In the second millenium B.C., the Kush in Mesopotamia were already so strongly civilized that they were capable of taking over the government of the land for a while, and freely intermingled with the Aryans. In India the situation was similar, the Kush were on equal footing with the Magyars there, and the Indus-valley civilization, around 2500 B.C., was their common creation. In c. 1650/1500 B.C., however, a great catastrophe had befallen India when newly formed Aryan societies (Aryans II) violently penetrated into the Land, coming from the West, and while they were busy occupying the Ganges valley, they disrupted the previous population and split it into several blocks in bloody battles, which are echoed in the famous poem of Maha Bharata or 'The Great Barat'. During that general upheaval, the commixing of the two races advanced farther. Those groups which left India and went westwards peopled Makran, Iran, Afghanistan and Touran. Others fled through the passes and gorges of the Hindu-Kush and descended into the Oxus valley. Following these large ethnic displacements, several places were given a second name, or changed the existing one to reflect the new realities. The former Hyrcanian ( = Aryan) Sea, for example, was being called Caspian Sea, i.e. Kush Water, and the former Northern Sea changed into Sea of the Blacks or Black Sea. Double-named rivers and nations were born, like Araxes (Ario-Kush) river, and Casari (Kush-Arian) nation. Amongst the latter, people were found with so dark a complexion that "one would readily believe that they were descendants of the Hindus", - as observed by Ibn Haukal (P 092 p. 57). With the passing of time, the fusion of the two races advanced so far that almost everyone had both Aryan and Kush blood in his veins, and everyone considered himself, with full right, of Kushitic and Aryan descent at the same time. In other words, the terms Kush and Aryan became interchangeable. At that stage, Mechitar was right in saying in his Dictionary, that Aria is also called the 'Land of the Kush'.

In the Nile valley, the Kush first appeared in the region of Khartum around 6000 B.C. In the subsequent millenia, they inundated the whole length of the valley so that when the Magyars arrived under their leader Menes, in c. 3200 B.C., they had to fight against dark men to secure a homeland for themselves there. At the end of the first round of struggling, it seemed that a kind of political condominium would be established between the two peoples, as the simultaneous appearance of the Aryan bird-symbol and the Kush dog-symbol on the national armories of Egypt suggests. But shortly thereafter, a formal sharing of the Nile valley took place whereby the dark men agreed to evacuate that section of the river valley which lies above the First Cataract. This division had, however, not calmed the aggressiveness of the Blacks, who launched frequent incursions into the domain of the Magyars. As a result, their country was gradually conquered and transformed into a colony around 1500 B.C. The Kush were then pacified for a long period and did not regain their independence until 945 B.C. But, by that time, they were already a completely civilized, modern nation.

While these events unfolded south of Egypt, the Delta itself had been under Kush rule for about two hundred years, the so-called "period of Hyksos rule". The Hyksos were, however, driven out from Egypt in 1576 B.C. together with their native Egyptian helpers. The bulk of the exiles settled in Syria and Canaan, mostly in the city-states of Carchemish, Arpad and Damask. The Egyptian kings of the XlXth Dynasty relentlessly kept on pursuing them, always pushing them farther and farther, until they left Africa for good and settled in Europe, including Hungary. The fusion in Egypt of the remaining dark elements with the white ones was as thourough as it was in Mesopotamia and in Touran, and the Egyptians themselves finally believed that they too originated from two ancestors, Magyar and Kush.(19)

To sum up, our inquiry has shown that 1. the birth of the Magyar speaking 'Hungarian type' of nations has taken place in the Ancient Near-East through the fusion of two rival races: the Aryan with the Kush; therefore that area must be considered as the original Magyar Fatherland. It is also clear that 2. the population of Danubian Hungary originated from the Old Fatherland: in the first round directly from Mesopotamia and Egypt, and in the second from the Caspi-Oxus-Aral area (Touran); in wave after wave arriving according to the pulse of historical events (the Semitic and Turkish expansions in the same region) which forced them to leave their native lands.

1. The Old Hungarian script

1. Prior to the adoption of the Roman alphabet in the early XIth century, Hungarians used a set of sound-signs of Phoenician origin for writing. The historical term for this old system of writing is Rovás, meaning 'incised, engraved' or 'carved' script, the name describing the technique of writing. Foreign language scientists called it "linear" or "geometric shaped" script, thereby alluding to the form of writing.

On this subject, there is an abundant literature beginning with the very precious Latin language work of J. Telegdi from 1598 (reproduced in P 115 p. 91 and f.). More recently, two eminent comprehensive works were written, one by Gyula Sebestyén (P 115 and P 116), and the other by Dezső Csallány (P 035). Thanks to these and to similar other publications, we have a perfectly clear idea how this system worked: we know which were the sound-signs, the rules of writing and the writing material as well. In addition, some forty extant original inscriptions allow us to see the system in operation. The incised or linear script was, in all probability, invented in the ancient Orient, although the specific area remains unknown. It is, however, clear that the earliest form of this writing was simplified by Phoenician scribes who then spread it all over the Mediterranean from the XIth century B.C. onward. It is also known that a similar type of writing existed in the Indus valley already in the second millenium B.C. In subsequent times, this was also simplified and spread to Lower and Upper Asia, mainly amongst Turkish peoples. Finally, following the opinion of Sir Flinders, then Petrie, several scientists maintained that the earliest incised signs were used at Abydos, in the Upper Nile valley for the purpose of pot-marking, in Neolithic times around 3200 B.C. Thus, a higher chronology seems to be preferable for this invention, the more the ancient Hungarian word for scribe is Tudo, which is the same in ancient Egyptian (Tutu and Thot), in Sumerian (Tudu) and also in Finnish (Tataa).

After Hungary's conversion to Christianism, the carved script, like everything associated with paganism, became a liability. Therefore, its use was banned by King St. Stephen (1000-1038) who also ordered the destruction of all the existing records written with the "diabolical letters." With the passing of time, the existence of the Old Magyar writing was almost totally forgotten. Its last vestiges were swept away with the appearance of modern writing material and the invention of printing.

What we know about the sound-signs of the Hungarian carved script, may be summed up in the following. First., that in the XIIIth century, under the impact of the Roman alphabet, the list of the Hungarian sound-signs was gradually enlarged, to become a regular alphabet, i.e. having a special sign for each sound. But up to that period, and earlier in history, this writing used a considerably smaller number of graphic signs. The paucity of the signs required is explained by the fact that in this writing there is no difference between short and long vowels, consequently it needs only five signs to write them instead of fourteen. Furthermore, the scribes often used unvoiced consonants (T and P) to write their voiced counterparts (D and B), whereby new cuts could be made. The number of required writing symbols were even further reduced by eliminating the vowel signs. This was possible by the particular character of Hungarian, wherein vowels have no grammatical role, the root remaining always unchanged. The "vowel dropping" or "vowel jumping" as this practice was called, was further justified by invoking the phonetical particularity that every consonant already includes a vowel sound with which it is uttered. Thus, adding a special sign for this vowel, would be superfluous. At this stage, the names Barabas and Aladar could have been written as B-R-B-S and L-D-R respectively and the reader had to supply the necessary vowels in speech. With the almost total elimination of vowels, the consonants have taken over the leading role in the writing. Therefore, the carved script was also called a "consonantal script."

According to the principal rule of writing, all words were to be written phonetically, as they were uttered, irrespective of etymology, exactly as in present-day shorthand. A second rule required that the words of a given message be written immediately one after another, without separating them by a white space or in any other way. Thirdly, the direction of writing depended largely on the nature of the writing material. In the earliest times, and as long as the writing was done with a knife on small sticks or wooden tablets, the direction was usually from right to left. In more recent times, when paper, ink and pen came into use, the natural direction of writing with the right hand went from left to right, starting at the upper left end of the paper.

Writing by incision on wood, stone slabs or metal plates was a time-consuming operation, especially when the place of the individual signs had first to be marked out for some valid reason, such as symmetry or exiguity of space. Thus, the need for accelerating the writing appeared very soon. The easiest way to do this consisted of creating abbreviations for the most frequently used words, such as God and Sun. But the most effective method consisted of combining two or more signs into a single figure, saving strokes here and there. Such graphic contraction or "ligatures" most frequently resulted in the case of N and T, S and T, A and R, K and R, etc. (see the sign-lists, Fig. 14). The frequent use of combined signs was a special feature of the Hungarian incised writing at its zenith. The principal rules of the carved script must always be kept in mind, not only when we are deciphering inscriptions in Hungary, but in examining Ancient Near-Eastern inscriptions as well, the principles of old writings having been the same everywhere and in all systems. The Old Hungarian writing was often called a "Scythian script", "Hunnic way of writing" or "Siculi alphabet". These three denominations are as many indications warning us that several socio-cultural groups (Scythians, Huns, Siculs) were using the Magyar writing system in the Danube basin prior to the advent of the Arpad Hungarians in 895 A.D. In other words, they must all have been interrelated Hungarian type of nations.

Fig. 14. The O.H. alphabet

A similar conclusion results from the fact that the knife, which was the principal writing instrument all over South-Western Asia, was known everywhere by the Hungarian word Kés (pron. Kash). For example, the deadly knife every Scythian kept in his boot-leg, was A Cina Kesh. This word Kés is mentioned several times by Ptolemy in his Geography when describing the Oxus region. Knife, even in the ancient Egyptian language was Kesh. These data will help researchers figure out the vast area where the Hungarian version of the carved script was in use.

2. Let's now consider three specimens of the Old Hungarian script. The first one (Fig. 15) was found on the old wall of the Presbyterian church of Dálnok in the Háromszék county during repairs. It uses frequent ligatures and reads from left to right. We transliterate it thus: eSZ.T aR-éG.I Fa(l)-R-A. Ró-Ja Ó-Ko.Ri Ma-G.aR R.O-N-A-/K-aL/. With present Hungarian spelling: Ezt a régi falra rója ókori magyar rúnáikkal/. In English: 'This is being incised on the old wall /with/ archaic Magyar rune/s/.(20)

The second inscription shown (Fig. 16) was incised on the wall of the Ambassadors' Hostel in Constantinople (Turkey). It records, in three lines, the rough handling of the members of the embassy, sent to Sultan Selim I by King Ladislas of Hungary in 1515. The inscription was first deciphered by William Thomsen (Copenhagen), then completed by Gyula Sebestyén, and corrected by Dezső Csallány (P 035 p. 77). It reads from right to left, the first line (only reproduced here) saying: 'This was written in the year 1515 when King Ladislas' five envoys were kept there waiting.'

Fig. 16. Old Hungarian inscription of Constantinople, Turkey. It reads from right to left.

The third inscription shown (Fig. 17) was painted on the ceiling of the Unitarian church of Enlaka in Udvarhely county, in 1688. It reads also from right to left and proclaims the fundamental doctrine of the Unitarian confession, that God is only one person (contrary to the Catholic doctrine of Trinity). The same principle is repeated twice nearby in Latin thus: "Deus unicus" and "In honorem unius veri Dei". The message in Hungarian runs thus: Egy az Isten. Deut.VI. Georgyius Musnai deakon, 'God is (only) one. Deut. VI., George Musnai deacon.'

3. A pleasant feature of the Old Hungarian script was that its inscriptions were quite frequently accompanied by some pictorial drawing, as is the case in the Enlaki (Fig. 17) inscription. These pictures are not only added for the sake of illustration; they are fulfilling a more important role: they usually emphasize the main point of the message. As such, they constitute a special kind of writing with pictures. As was already illustrated when dealing with the Magyar and Kush symbols, this method of idea-communication was based upon the homophony existing between two different words, mostly between a noun and a verb, i.e. between a concrete and an abstract idea. Examples: Fog as a noun signifies 'Tooth' and as verb it means 'To grasp'; and Hal is 'Fish' as a noun and 'To die' when it is a verb. Now, to write the abstract idea 'To grasp' or 'To die', the scribe had to revert to the concrete object to write the pictorially inexplicable idea. In such cases, either the context or some additional sign warns the reader that the sound-signs signify something abstract. Given the very special character of the pictorial writing, if we can successfully decipher such writing in Hungarian, we thus have the decisive proof that the text is in Hungarian.

In the case of the Enlaki inscription (Fig. 17), the pictorial complement includes a paragraph-like sign on the four sides of the frame; this is the regular sign for the double-lettered GY-sound. With its built-in vowel, it means eGY, egy 'one'. Then, in the centre-stage, there is a milk-jar with flowers. The Hungarian word for milk-jar is Köcsög, whose Old Hungarian form Kétség is homo-phonous with Kétség 'Doubt'. The flowers in the jar are tulips, in Hungarian Tulipán, a homophon of Tele-van, 'Is full'. Now, when all these homophonous elements are put together, the following sentence emerges: EGY-KETSEG-TELE-VAN.

In present day Hungarian: Egy kétségtelen van, indicating once again the Unitarian dogma: 'One (divine person) doubtless exists.' Of course, for a reader not versed in Hungarian, it is not easy to follow the acrobatic stunts displayed by the scribes of pictorial messages.

In conclusion, we may say that the Hungarian carved script dates back considerably farther than was supposed until now and that its importance goes far beyond what was acknowledged by certain foreign authors. The Old Hungarian script is a strong link which binds the Hungarians to the Near-East where the first literate nations of the world had emerged. All that has a considerable bearing upon the historical role of the early Hungarians.

2. The Old Hungarian faith

1. It is a foregone scholarly conclusion that zealous Magyar kings of Christian Hungary put all their energy into eradicating the last roots of the old pagan creed from the Magyars' soul.(21) These kings, indeed, ordered the destruction of the heathen altars and temples, and severely punished the venerators of rivers, fountains, groves, trees and stars. The kings also persecuted the diehard servants of the ancient divinities, treated them as pariahs and committed them to the care of Saint Lazar. Whatever element of the old belief and custom escaped the purge was baptized and incorporated into the new religion, or relegated into the realm of folklore.(22)

It would be, nevertheless, a hasty conclusion to say that the Magyar kings totally succeeded in brainwashing all segments of the population. There remained, indeed, much evidence proving the survival of the old faith, not only in folklore and place-names, but even in the royal administration. Moreover, the elements constituting the old faith were to a great extent brought into the Christian religion, including the very name of the heathen god, so that Christianization cannot be interpreted as total break with the past. As a major proof of this, Arnold Ipolyi, author of a monumental "Hungarian mythology", was able to collect a more than ample documentation about the old faith as late as the second half of the XIXth century. Moreover, the work of Ipolyi has been completed since then, with plenty of new, detailed data. What the otherwise successful scientists were unable to prove, however, was the positive identification of the chief Magyar divinity: the Sungod. Therefore, they also failed to established the relationship of the Magyar faith to the great Oriental solar religion, especially with that of Egypt.

2. An Arab historian, Ibn Rusta, in reporting about Hungarians of the IXth century, observed that "they are worshippers of the Sun and the Moon." This summary statement emphasizes the root of the matter, which can be advantageously completed with Magyar sources. In a pagan Magyar hymn to the Sun, we read for example this: "Thou art the primeval Tree of Life... from which everything springs; by which the night of evil spirits is chased; to which everything in this world returns" (P 130 p. 7). The rising Sun was greeted by the farmers of the Csik county with their hats off, and with the following words: "Be welcome, oh Sun, thou bringest us daylight and giveth warmth to our soil. Be blessed, thou, who disperses the dark clouds, and ripens our ears. Be glorified thou, who waters our crops and adorns our fields with flowers" (P 125 p. 339 and f.; P 020). These quotations prove that their idea of God included the belief in a divine creation, and that God governs the created world. It is also clear that the Sungod was mostly venerated in his capacity as tutelary deity of the agricultural population. His most important task was to illuminate the Earth, which he did by means of a shining globe that travelled daily across the firmament from east to west.

God's principal residence was supposed to have been in Heaven, inside the fiery disk, called Nap 'Sun'. He also had dwellings on Earth, especially in stone idols, called Bálvány (< O.H.: Baluan = Bál-Hon), 'Idol', literally 'God's home', in Latin Simulacrum 'Hiding place'.(23) The numerous stone idols served as appropriate places for God to keep a close watch over the behaviour of his creatures. Other earthly houses reserved for God were the temples, built in a round shape and therefore called Rotundae in Latin. The inside diameter of such temples hardly measured over four to six meters and they were erected during the XI-XIIIth centuries; about a hundred of them have already been identified. In spite of the fact that they were erected in the Christian era, they could not have been intended for Christian rites, because all the believers could not attend the ceremonies in such a small space. Several place-names refer to the former existence of Rotundae, being compounded with the word Kerek 'Round', such as Kerek-Egyház a, 'Sacred House of the Round Shaped God'; Kerekes-Kápolna 'Circular Chapel.' Many other villages in Hungary are called Eger-szeg (Ég-Ur-Széke) 'Throne of the Heavenly Lord', suggesting that in such places too, regular divine services used to be held. Still other places were reserved for religious feasts. These were often hilltops, as their names indicate, like Bálvány-Kö 'Place of Idol'; Áldó Kö 'Place of Blessings'; Oltár-Kö 'Altar Stone'; Isten Széke 'God's Throne'; Áldomás-Tető 'Celebration Peak', etc. (P 082 p. 365 f.).

The general name for God was Isten, with no certain etymology. For this word there was a special sign in the carved script, resembling a combination of three consonantal signs: S-T-N. While the special sign for Sun resembled an inverted S crossed with four oblique strokes (see the sign-list, Fig. 14), God's name was often preceded by the word Ur 'Lord' to say Ur-Isten 'Lord God'. Because of God's round-shaped appearance, he was called Kör-Isten, 'Circular Shaped God', a name, which may be the origin of our word Keresztény (<O.H.: Körösztén), 'Christian'. Living in the Sky (H.: Ég), God was also called Ég-Ura 'Sky God'. But he was also referred to by the well-known Oriental name of Ra 'Sungod', especially to indicate places, mountains, and rivers enjoying divine protection. Such names were like these: Ra-Monya, Ra-Mocsa, Rá-Tót, Rá-Kos, Rá-Dóc, Ra-Hó; and in reverse word-order: Nyit-Ra, Mu-Ra, Tát-Ra, Fát-Ra, Mát-Ra.

The name of the Sungod was evoked several times each day, whenever people met. In the morning, they greeted one another — as they do even today — with the saying Jó reggelt 'Good morning', literally Jó Ra Kelt 'The good Ra has risen'. And in the evening the greeting formula was — and is — Jó estét 'I wish a good Sundown'. Of course, the original meaning of these expressions has long been forgotten and nobody thinks of the daily movements of the Sun any more. The ancients, however, automatically linked every phenomenon of the daily life to God's intervention.

The Sungod in Hungary had over a thousand Sun-symbols. One group of such symbols was usually geometric in design, consisting of spirals, circles, globes, rosettes, inverted S-forms linked to one another, and sun-beams radiating from a central spot. These symbols are seen everywhere, cut in stone, painted, or artistically represented. A typical object upon which several of these elements appear simultaneously is the Sun-gate, as the decorated entrance to many Magyar houses in Eastern Hungary is called. Upon such a door of Csik-Szent-Király (Fig. 18), the rising Sun is represented with its beams, and the door of Harasztosi, in Torda Aranyos county (Fig. 19) has spirals carved upon the door-posts on both sides which are flanked by two attending stone idols, with globe-like heads. And on the top of the door, a series of pigeon-holes allow these birds to nestle there. Birds and deer appear most frequently amongst the animal symbols. Birds without outstretched wings usually indicate sorrow and grief; with outstretched wings (as the eagle and falcon), they symbolize the glorious Sun. The deer as solar symbol was used in the winter solstice ceremony. Its role was to bring back the shining disk of the Sun between its horns, after it was reborn on December 25th.

Fig. 18. Sun-door of Csik Szent-Király, with a geometric decoration.

Fig. 19. Elaborate Sungate of Harasztosi, Hungary, flanked by two idols.

Fig. 20. Wooden columns on burial sites in present-day Hungary.

Anthropomorphic representations of God were less frequent. Hungarian archaeologists have nevertheless unearthed a beautiful terracotta divine statuette, representing a man, sitting on a throne and holding the Isten-symbol in his hand (Fig. 23). On the other hand, the human eye was often used to represent God on numerous occasions, probably because the Sun was considered as an all-seeing One-Eyed Giant. In this connection he was called Szem- Ur and Szemes 'Eye God' and 'He who has an Eye'. The eye-motive is one of the most frequent decorative elements in Hungarian folklore and is called Isten szeme 'God's Eye' (P 014 p. 78). Several villages and rivers were placed under the protection of the Eye-God, e.g. Szemes-on-Lake Balaton, Szomoroc and the river Szamos (= Szemes).

In spite of the many traces of this Suncult in Ancient Hungary, it is almost unbelievable that no major research has been devoted to this problem of paramount historical importance. Shorter investigations have only been made during the last few years and shed some light upon certain aspects of the role of the Sungod in Hungary (P 004; P 003; P 121; P 020 and P 122).

3. Under whatever name the solar divinity might have been venerated in Hungary, it always had a multitude of servants at its disposal called Papok in the plural, and Pap in the singular, meaning 'Priests'. They had a lot of things to do. Their duties included star-gazing, and the observation of the yearly path of the Sun, especially for the purpose of calendar-making. Certain other priests were assigned to special tasks, as was the case of the 'Eye priests' or 'Sem priests', whose distinctive garment was the spotted leopard skin thrown across over the shoulders when officiating. A further group of special priests consisted of 'Male priests' (Kan papok), whose exact duties have, however, not yet been elucidated with sufficient clarity. At any rate, this saying was associated with them: Kár a kanpapnak a rák, which reads identically from both ends and means that "it is futile serving crab to a male priest." This is because he dares not eat it, crabs being sacred to the solar divinity. Every priest used holy water extensively when officiating, exercised many charms and often wore a mask. When he was not wearing one, a feather was his usual head ornament.

Amongst the intermediaries between God and his followers, the Táltos or Tátos, 'Scientists' had a somewhat spectacular role, similar to that of the medicine-men. Their name originates from the word Tudó (< O.H.: Tutu), meaning literally 'He who has knowledge.' They also were known as Bölcsek 'Wise men'. They were capable of curing diseases, averting elemental catastrophes, knew how to purify wells, and could reveal the whereabouts of stolen objects, and so on. Their ceremonial garment was made of feathers, and a long one was fixed upon the head. Their footwear was also decorated with bird-claws. They spoke the bird-language (bird = madár = Magyar), and their equipment included a ladder (P 040; P 047; P 086). The Tátos had the power of ascending to Heaven and entering into direct contact with the Sungod. To this end he used his high ladder. The presence of a ladder, Létra in Hungarian, was to emphasize, pictorially, the sense of the ceremony, this word being homophonous with the abstract idea of Lát-Ra: "Ra (the Sungod) sees me."(24)

Fig. 21. 'The Lion of Esztergom'. Wall-painting in the royal palace, Hungary, Xllth century.

Fig. 22. Ramses II, King of Egypt (1304-1232 B.C.), holding the God-symbol.

Fig. 23. Human-shaped divinity with the God-symbol. Hungary, Neolithic Age.

The most important religious feast was the winter solstice on December 25th when the Sun, after having reached the lowest point of its yearly wanderings, began to rise again. The 'Returning Sun' or 'Reborn Sun' was celebrated in all corners of the country with the performance of a drama whose central theme was a miraculous deer coming through the clouds from Heaven, bearing and bringing back between its horns, the shining disk of the Sun (P 015 p. 71). The summer solstice on June 21 was another great religious holiday in Ancient Hungary. Its purpose was to celebrate the glorious rising of the Sun to the peak of its yearly path. It was marked with colossal mountain-top fireworks.

In Old Hungarian religious thinking, death was not considered the end of man's existence-, it was rather regarded as the most important turning point of a life which continued thereafter in eternal happiness in the company of the Big Bird, as an 'Associated bird', i.e. a semi-divine being. The transition from earthly to eternal life was marked with great solemnities. The coffin of the well-to-do farmer was carried to the grave on a cart drawn by six oxen and various objects were put into the coffin, a custom proving belief in an afterlife. Amongst such objects, a needle and thread were also included to enable the deceased to mend his garment when necessary. Money was also put into the hand of the deceased so that he could pay for the toll when marching over the plank leading to the other world. And the grave-digger had to be reminded to make a 'window' on the new home of the defunct, so that he might come up on certain days to see his divine master the Sun (P 077 p. 59-62).

The memory of the defunct was kept alive by a stone monument erected upon the grave and provided with a short inscription and geometric symbols. A special Hungarian feature was the equilateral cross sign MAS carved within a circle (AR or RA), stating that the defunct had become Mas-Ar or Ra-Mas 'Deputy for God' or a 'Hero'. Another widely spread custom was — and is even today — to mark the burial place with a beautifully-carved wooden column made by the deceased himself before his death. This column reveals to the initiated the sex, age, rank and wealth of the dead person. In the case of a male, the top of the column is usually conic while that of a female is hollow or tulip-shaped. The column commemorating a child is usually smaller in size and light in colour (Fig. 20; P 135 and P 069).

4. How long may the suncult have been practised by the Hungarians? In connection with this question we have to remember that Estonians and Finns originally lived together with a group of Hungarian-speaking peoples until their ways parted around 2000 B.C. and, notwithstanding the great time-span separating them, they too have kept alive a substantial number of identical Sun-symbols in their folklore. The giant tree reaching into Heaven is called in Finnish Sam-Po, pronounced Szem-Fa in Hungarian (after P > F), 'Eye-God's Tree'; while Sam-Mas in Finnish resembles the Hungarian Szem-Mas 'Deputy for Eye-God'. Such and similar concordances suggest that the Suncult belonged to the spiritual heritage of all Hungarians of any denomination before 2000 B.C. Another time-element is to be found in the Old Hungarian ballad "Julia, the beautiful girl." Reference is made therein to the spring equinox which was then celebrated during the zodiacal constellation of the Bull (Taurus) group of stars. It is now known from astronomical calculations that said constellation occurred just around 2000 B.C. (P 122). As mentioned above, this chronological evidence confirms that the Suncult was practised by early Hungarians in the New Stone Age, or perhaps even earlier.

The age of the Suncult in the Danubian basin itself can be guessed upon the basis of archaeological finds adorned with solar symbols. Numerous such relics have been unearthed since 4000 B.C. Danubian farmers, in particular, carried the spiral, the meander and the other geometrical designs everywhere across Europe (P 064 p. 332). Hungarian archaeologists have brought to light miniature cart-models — Sungod chariots — at seventeen different places, all fitted with discwheels and dated c. 2700 B.C. and 2300 B.C. Sun symbols continued to appear in Hungary, without interruption, during the Copper Age (3500 B.C. - 1900 B.C.) and during the Bronze Age (1900 B.C. - 900 B.C.). And later, when the Roman Empire ruled in large parts of Hungary, in the first three centuries of the Christian era, a magnificent Sun-temple was erected in the City of Savaria, the present Szombathely. It was the greatest such temple ever built in Europe (16.5 m X 9.5 m), displaying a giant Sun-disc above its altar.

All the quoted data prove that Sun-worship was a regular feature in the spiritual life of Hungary from the beginning of Neolithic times until the adoption of Christianity. It survived even after that turning-point, as witnessed by the great amount of evidence found in folklore, place-names, mythology and history.

Concerning the geographical origin of the Danubian Sun-cult, all our evidence points toward Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Hungarian scientists working on this specific field, prefer, nevertheless, to emphasize the primary importance of Mesopotamia (Sumer). To support their view, they cite the numerous concordances existing between the two countries' mythology, they mention the absolute similarity of the Sumerian and Hungarian names for Sun (Nap), Lord (Ur) and God (Isten) and insist upon the parallels existing between the two countries' inhumation practices. All these concordances, as well as many others are undisputable. Non the less, the concordances between Hungary and Ancient Egypt are by far more numerous and far more important. Not only were the general names of the Sungod identical: Ur, Isten, Nap, Madár, but also the specific names: Sky-God (Ég Ura), Eye God (Szem-Ur), Travelling Lord (Ut-Ur), as well. A similarly striking resemblance exists between the priestly class of the two countries, beginning with the generic name Pap 'Priest'. Egypt had also its Eye-priests (Sem-priests) whose ceremonial garment, also of spotted panther skin, was thrown across the shoulders. Egyptian priest, gods and high-ranking officials also often appeared in ornitomorphic garments, as did their Hungarian counterparts who had, at least, one bird-feather fixed upon their heads. The feast of the reborn Sun (December 25) was celebrated all over Egypt with the same ardour as in Hungary, and so was the important date (June 21) of the summer solstice. The Sungod's paramount symbol was, on both occasions, the shining disc. The burying of the deceased was just as ceremonial in Egypt as in Hungary. The Egyptians also believed that the soul of the deceased departed from the body at the moment of death and flew on wings to his heavenly creator to become his companion for ever. In Egypt the physical remains of the dead person were also put in a grave, accompanied by such objects the deceased may have need for in his new life, which is also similar to Hungarian practice. And in the 'house' of the deceased in Egypt, an opening or shaft had to be made so that sunbeams could penetrate through it at certain hours of the day. Even a ladder was put into the grave, or at least the picture of a high ladder, to enable the deceased to climb on it and see the Sun. Without adding any more to the list of Egypto-Hungarian concordances, we may conclude by saying that Hungary has preserved almost the entire mythological heritage of Ancient Egypt of the IIIrd and IInd millenia B.C., even two thousand years after Egypt's beacon had been extinguished.

5. Traces of a second religion can also be detected in Hungary's folklore. This was the so-called fertility cult which was totally different from the Suncult. Its purpose was earthly: to insure fertility both in the human and animal worlds. Its central divinity was the Mother Goddess whose two main Hungarian names were Great Lady (Nagy Asszony) and Happy Lady (Boldog Asszony.) Her memory is preserved in anthropomorphic symbols, the so-called Venuses, which are small statuettes representing a naked woman.

Ample anthropological evidence suggests that the fertility cult is as old in Hungary as the Suncult itself. Scholars have, indeed, dug up a considerable number of Venuses dating from the Neolithic Age (3000 B.C. — or even earlier). These figurines are of two kinds: elaborate, ornate anthropomorphic Venuses, and small statuettes of baked clay. A particularly ornate Venus statuette was found on the Neolithic site of Kökény-Domb, near Hód-Mező-Vásárhely which possesses all the characteristics of a Mother Goddess, including her strongly accentuated femininity. Small Venuses were found on almost every excavated Neolithic site. In Méhtelek, however, near the Upper Tisza river, a single place has yielded over sixty such figurines. Amongst these statuettes several were of steatopygous type, indicating the presence of African elements in the population.

Comparative archaelogy has established beyond a doubt that the Hungarian fertility cult originated in the Eastern Mediterranean, especially Canaan, Syria, Phoenicia and Anatolia, which were the homelands of the Baals, As-Tart, As-Turat,

Kedves, Telepinus and others with clear Hungarian names which seem rather coarse to-day. The fertility cult seems to have been the apanage of the darkish coloured ethnic element whose principal lifestyle was stock-breeding, while the Suncult may be attributed to the agricultural, white population.

3. The Oriental background of the first Hungarian dynasty

1. The origin of the first Hungarian dynasty is shrouded in deep mystery. One thing is however certain, namely that Prince Almus, father of Arpad, was its first great figure. His throne-name, Almus, is a compound-word of two elements: Eld + Masa and signifies 'Deputy for the Living (God)', an Oriental title, perfectly suited to describe the office Almus held, that of the native ruler of the autonomous group of Hungarians, subjects of the Chasar Great-King, the 'living god'. That Almus was a ruler's title is confirmed by the additional fact that the native ruler of the Bulgars, who lived on the shores of the river Volga in c. 921, had an identical throne-name.

Further evidence that Almus was the first important figure of the Hungarian dynasty is his divine origin. In the Ancien Orient, it was indeed a widespread belief that great kings, especially founders of dynasties, were superhuman beings and were therefore fathered, not by ordinary earthly beings, as the common mortals, but by the Heavenly God. This god was supposed to return to Earth in the shape of a bird, on the very night of the conception of a future sovereign, to impregnate the expectant mother personally. In ancient Mesopotamia the divine impregnator took the form of an eagle, called Turullo; in ancient Syria the fertility god was As-Tur, and in ancient Egypt the Pharaohs were conceived directly by Ra, the Sungod.(25) The mother of Almus was also visited that specific night by a divine bird called Astur (< Az Túr) or Turul (< Túró Ló) 'Fecundator, Impregnator', who foretold that from her womb glorious kings would be born.(26) Because of their divine origin through the solar bird Turul, the descendants of Almus were known as the Turul progeny.

In addition to the "Turul legend", the Oriental background of the first Magyar dynasty again becomes visible in the physical features of the first divine infant, Almus. "He was pleasant-faced, but darkish coloured; had big eyes, a tall and slender stature, with big hands and puffy fingers."(27) The description of Almus' general appearance baffled scholars ever since, because the Prince resembled an Egyptian Pharaoh of the late dynastic times much more than the presumed Uralo-Siberian white man. The features of Almus are no longer a problem: on the contrary, they provide further strong evidence of the dynasty's Near-Eastern origin.(28)

In the year 895, when the military conquest of Hungary was in progress, Prince Almus led the southern wing of the army-group, scheduled to penetrate into the Carpathian basin from the southeast, by way of the Lower Danube. His son, Prince Arpad, headed the northern army-group, which was equipped in Kiev, and was supposed to enter into the selected land through the northeastern pass of Verecke (841 m). Father and son both were to meet inside the Carpathian arc, on the lowland, the military target of their giant pincer-movement. Almus was however unable to complete his task in time due to the unexpected assault of the Petchenegs from behind. For his misfortune, it seems, he was ritually killed by his followers on the outer foothills of the Carpathians. This barbaric custom of eliminating an unsuccessful leader was another Oriental practice, similar to that of Biblical Moses who would not see the promised land, but had to die before he reached his goal to atone for some sin he had committed.

2. Arpad, is the most illustrious name in Hungary's history. According to records preserved in medieval chronicles, this Prince was a descendant of King Attila, the world-conqueror (+453). His illustrious kinship with him might have been, however, only a distant one, considering that more than four hundred years separated Arpad from his presumed forebear. Anonymus, the unnamed medieval historian (c. 1200), when discussing this subject seems to share this view, stating simply that Prince Almus, father of Arpad, descended from an offspring of King Attila. Be it as it may, the real or fictive kinship with Attila helped Prince Arpad tremendously to consolidate his grip upon the entire central Danubian basin, the future Hungary. He proclaimed indeed, everywhere and repeatedly, that he was not coming as a vulgar conqueror to create bloodshed, but as the legitimate successor to his forebear King Attila, to take possession of his heritage. And the inhabitants of the land, hearing this and seeing Arpad's mighty armies, bowed before their new master.

The name Arpad was also a throne-name with a definite meaning. Chronicler Anonymus, the often cited notary of King Béla, spells the name on one occasion thus: ARpad (P 120 I p. 57), with the intent perhaps to warn us that the name is a compound, made up of Ar + Pad. If so, he was right, because Ar-Pad follows the pattern of Mat + Ar and Hung + Ar, with the difference that in Arpad the composing elements appear in an inverted sequence: Ar-Pat instead of Pad-Ar. Now, the meaning of Ar is known: 'Lord, Ruler, Sovereign'; and so is that of Pad or Pod (to-day: Fold) 'Earth, Land' (after P > F soundshift and the elision of the jammed L in Fold). Accordingly, Arpad means 'Sovereign Ruler of the Land'. Once again, the indication of the Prince's status is exact: it reflects the Chasar king's policy to gradually promote the Hungarian native ruler to a more independent status.

Further light can be shed upon Arpad's Oriental connections by examining his Near Eastern homonyms. There was, indeed, a "Kingdom of Arpad" in ancient Syria in the first millenium B.C. It was a city-state located near the great bend of the Euphrates river, some 20 km north-west of Aleppo. Its former site is known today as Erfet (after P > F soundshift), to which an important ford on the Euphrates belonged. The Kingdom is mentioned several times in the Bible (II Kings c. 18/34 and c. 19/13). Its mortal enemy was the Semitic Kingdom of Assyria, against whom King Mati'ilus (= Magyar) organized the common defense with the Urartian king Sarduris III. The formidable Assyrian army had to lay a three-year siege around the city before reducing it into submission in 740 B.C. A few years later, the ruler of the kingdom tried to regain his independence, but he failed and his domain was completely obliterated. The population fled on the only escape route that was still open: northwards, through the Euphrates valley, to settle beyond the Caucasus mountains. All these tragic events must have been linked somehow with the emergence of a Caucasian Hungarian Kingdom, proof of which is that in both areas — in Syria and in the Caucasus — Magyar place-names are o found in super-abundant numbers.

Regarding the throne-name Arpad, it goes back into history even farther. The ancient Egyptians revered, e.g. a ruler of that name as their very first king.(29) The name Arpad or Erpet is mentioned several times in the Egyptian "Book of the Dead" (P 027 pp. 18, 138, 435 and 649). It was again an Arpad who, after having reunited the desintegrat-ed country, assumed the royal dignity in Thebes and founded the XIth Dynasty (P 025 II p. 196 and f., see hieroglyphs ibidem). Due to the great role Arpad played in ancient Egypt, Prof. Gardiner and W. Budge made extensive researches to find out more about this legendary name. They concluded that it was written with four sound-signs as AR-P-A-T or AR-P-A-D, followed by two determinatives. The first one was that of 'Cloth, Earth, Land', and the second, a human figure, indicating that the person so named was a great-man. Thus the Egyptian name Ar-Pad meant literally 'Land Lord', i.e. owner of an important agricultural domain somewhere along the fertile shore of the river Nile.(30) When the determinatives were omitted, as was usually the case in well-known names, the expression became a simple name. These data prove that 'Arpad' was a very ancient royal title and that its bearers had sojourned at length in Syria and especially in Egypt, before entering into Danubian Hungary.(31)

3. How were the titles of the Hungarian kings written pictorially? It was done with the figure of a lion, because the name of this animal, Oroszlán, sounded like the expression Ur-Ös-Lény 'Primeval Being of Divine Origin'. The earliest extant lion symbol used by the Arpad dynasty in Hungary was the one carved upon the crystal globe of the coronation sceptre, originating from the Xth century. According to archaeologists, the crystal in question is of Egyptian origin, this being the only country where it is found (P 003 p. 59, 62). A more elaborate lion-symbol was found painted on an interior wall of the royal palace in Esztergom, built in the XIIth century. It could be reconstructed into its original form with what remained of its former parts (Fig. 21). Other lions kept close guard before an interior well of the royal palace of Visegrád (XVth century). Furthermore, the seven sovereign Magyar princes who elected Arpad to be their ruler and commander, also had lions on their coats of arms. The custom of representing royalties by lions also goes back to Mesopotamia, Egypt and India, as mentioned before. In Mesopotamia, the lion had already been the royal symbol of Gilgamesh, the legendary ruler of Uruk, who was usually shown with a lion cub. In Egypt, the lion was the regular companion of the kings and farther east, in India, it was particularly in evidence during the Maury (= Magyar) dynasty. These kings erected huge columns with lions placed on top throughout their vast domain. Thus, there can be no doubt as to the origin and meaning of the lion symbol which clearly indicates the Oriental background of the Arpad dynasty.

The Arpadian coat of arms had seven horizontal stripes, four red and three white. It perpetuated the memory of the Seven Magyar Princes who concluded a contract of mutual blood-relationship to henceforth form a single nation. The stripes, in horizontal arrangement, signify, in the old

Egyptian hieroglyphic system, as many 'Land Lords', Hon-úr (Aner). Thus the seven stripes mean Hét Honúr 'Seven Land Lords'. The number seven was considered the lucky number all over the Ancient Near East.(32) In addition to the striped escutcheon, Hungarian kings used a second shield as well, consisting of a double cross rising from a three-arched base. When these elements are read according to the rules of the carved script, the following word emerges: the double cross carries the syllable eGY, one arch is the sign for the Sh sound, three arches signal the plural case: Sh.ek, and these sounds, put together, form the word egy-esh.ek, i.e. Egyezség, meaning 'Agreement, Pact, Alliance', which is another reference to the contract of blood-relationship.(33) The stripes and the double cross were later placed upon a single shield, which was divided into two halves by a vertical line. Thus, the shield conveys the following meaning to us: Hét Honúr egyezsége 'Agree-ment of Seven Princes'. This combined figure became Hungary's heraldical symbol until it was officially discarded by the communist régime.

At first, Hungary, had two royal crowns, a Corona Graeca and a Corona Latina, so named after their respective origin. A few centuries later, the two crowns were welded together, to form a single one. There is no plausible explanation for this act, says Prof. Áldásy, a leading authority in Hungarian heraldry. The mystery may, however, be solved since a similar event had taken place in ancient Egypt. Originally, there were two crowns in this country, one for Upper and another for Lower Egypt. And when the two lands were reunited into a single domain, and the fusion of the two states had reached an advanced stage, the two crowns were reunited into one. It is possible that the fusion of the Hungarian crowns may have been prompted by this or by some other similar event.

Through the various facets of the first Hungarian dynasty (1000-1301) which we analyzed, we were led to the conclusion that this dynasty was deeply imbued with Oriental thinking. And what regards the founder of this dynasty, Prince Arpad, there cannot be the slightest doubt that he descended from a, long line of ruling families, experienced in leadership.

4. How the Nation remembered its origin

Most of the existing traditions relating to the origin of the Hungarians have been recorded during the XHIth and XIVth centuries. These written accounts, called Gesta (deeds of valour) or Chronicles (annals) are continuous narratives, usually in the Latin language, reflecting a religious and patriotic spirit.(34) The earliest and most valuable Gesta Hungarorum was written by the unnamed (Anonymus) notary of King Béla, between 1196 and 1203. The author, a former student at Paris University, served in the royal Hungarian Chancellery, and was later elevated to the rank of bishop. The topic of his work is the successful re-conquest of the Middle Danube basin by Prince Arpad, leader of the Magyar tribal confederation at the end of the IXth century. The next important national chronicle was written in c. 1282 by Magister Simon de Kéza ('Kézai' in Hungarian), court chaplain of King Ladislas IV (1272-1299) a ruler with avowed heathen leanings. The freer atmosphere prevailing in the king's court permitted Kézai to devote a large part of his book to the old fatherland and to assert the identity of the Magyars and Huns, regarding Attila as a Magyar king. Therefore, in his view, the advent of Prince Arpad and his followers in 895 appears as the "second entry" of Hungarians into the chosen land. After Anonymus and Kézai, several other national chronicles were written, one of the most eminent having been the admirably illustrated Chronicon Pictum (c. 1385). There is also a Tarihi Ungurus (History of Hungarians), translated into Turkish from an unknown Latin original, after 1543.

What the chronicles knew about the Hungarians' ancient history is briefly summarized on the following pages, namely: (1) the genesis of the people, (2) the geographic location of the old fatherland, and (3) their migration toward the West. Both Anonymus and Kézai were convinced that the Magyars are an ancient people, originating right after the Flood, when all human beings were drowned, except a single family: that of Noah. They assert that the early Magyars were the direct descendants of two sons of Noah: Japhet and Cham. Those who recorded the descent from Japhet claimed that Magog, the first king of Scythia, was the namegiver of the Magyars.(35) The scholars holding the second version say that the Magyars originated from Kush (Cush), the dark complexioned offspring of Cham. While studying the contradictory versions of the Magyars' ethnic origin, later chroniclers stressed their own case more emphatically. The advocates of the Japhetist descent underscore the fact that the Hungarians, being white, could not have originated from Kush, who was a dark coloured man.(36)

A similar controversy arose about the brothers Hunor and Magyar, the direct forefathers of all Huns and all Magyars. At one time they were said to have been the children of Menrot, the giant (an Egyptian?),(37) who was a descendant of Japhet (the white) through Tana; and at another, as the sons of Nemroth (Nimrod), a Babylonian, descendant of Kush (the dark). The chroniclers did not consider the possibility of a dual origin of the Nation, according to which the main branch, the agriculturist white Magyars, would have absorbed a notable number of dark-complexioned, mainly pastoral elements in the earliest phase of their formation. The fusion of the said two ethnic elements was first ascertained only later by De-seritzky (P 092 p. 179). Disregarding the above differences, there exists a general agreement amongst our medieval historians that the Hungarians were a very ancient people and the Scythians and Huns were closely related to them and spoke the same language.

Where was the Old Fatherland located? Somewhere in the "Hot Zone" (torrida zona), "where the climate is not temperate and where snakes of all kinds, frogs as large as small pigs ( = tortoises), basilisks, many venomous animals, also tigers and rhinoceroses are to be found." That was a land where great quantities of gold and silver were mined and many pearls discovered. It is unfortunate that the chroniclers did not elaborate and that they omitted to give the name and the precise location of this country. In the absence of precision, we can only rely upon conjectures, concluding that the description given fits best to the region west of the Red Sea, the S-form bend of the Nile where ancient Nubia and Magaria were situated. There were the famous gold fields, wherefrom the Egyptian Pharaohs obtained their enormous gold supply and where all the tropical animals mentioned are common. Giant tortoises are the typical creatures abounding in the Red Sea.(38)

There are indications in the national chronicles which suggest that a second old Hungarian fatherland may have existed, south of the Caucasus, extending to the Mediterranean and including Syria, Canaan and Asia Minor as well. It was in this same area that the Hittite Empire had come into being, called the 'Land of Seven', because it started with the unification of seven provinces governed by as many princes. The chronicles mention that the same region has been an old Hungarian fatherland. In fact, the chronicles say that "the sons of Japhet / from whom the bulk of Hungarians originated / owned the northern region in Cilicia and Syria, extending from the Taurus and Amanus mountains to the river Don, which is already in Scythia" (P 12G I p. 243 f.). We even have certain evidence of the existence of a third Hungarian homeland which was situated in the hinterland of the Babylonian Empire and included Upper Mesopotamia and Caucasia. Our chroniclers believe that Nimrod (Nemproth) was the first ruler of Babylon.

The making and the breaking-up of old Hungarian fatherlands was usually accompanied by vast ethnic movements or 'migrations'. Their direction was mostly northward and westward. In the national recollection, the earliest recorded migration started in the desert region of Dancalia (today: Danakil), between Somalia and Eritrea, and proceeded northwards, bypassed Memphis and Babylon (today: Old Cairo) and stopped for a while in Eiulath, at the end of the Gulf of Aqaba (P 088 p. 17; P 120 I pp. 143-145; P 014 p. 167). The two hunting heroes, Hunor and Magyar, who happened to be born in Eiulath, later crossed the Caucasus and entered Scythia at the Marshes of Maeotis (the present day Azov peninsula).

The Magyar chronicles are, of course, primarily interested in the ethnic groups which moved westwards and eventually reached Hungary. One such migration started from Troy in Asia Minor and went through the Balkan peninsula. It was the people of Priamos, the last king of Troy, who went that way after the fall of their city-state in c. 1260 B.C. They settled in Hungary, near the great southward bend of the Danube, where they built a stronghold called Sicambria. They remained in the country for about four hundred years, when many of them moved over to France, settling in the Paris region. They had fled in panic fearing that other Oriental nations were already on their way to the Danube basin (P 120 I p. 245).

The chronicle writers had preserved more details on a second overland route, leading from the Orient to Hungary. It ran above the Black Sea, through a large and open country called Scythia (the present southern Russia). Although Scythia's climate was a healthy one and favourable for the propagation of a human race, it was nevertheless considered as a transit country only. This land was, indeed, overcrowded with various peoples and had become more and more insecure. As is known, the Hun-Hungarians were the first great group to set out from there, marched westwards and were successful in establishing a new empire in Central Europe, with its capital in Hungary, near the confluence of the rivers Tisza and Maros. After the collapse of their rule, they were followed by the Magyar-Hungarians, whose group first concentrated in the Lower Don region, called Dentu-Moger by Anonymus. Chronicler Kézai enlarges the territory of the Hungarians in Scythia considerably, insofar as he includes the Touranian Lowland around the Aral Sea and the Oxus river into it, which he calls Magoria.

In short, these are the outlines of the image the Hungarians kept alive in their collective memory of their origin, old fatherland, and wanderings. We must feel a certain admiration when studying their records, all the more so since modern historical science appears generally to support their claims.

Fig. 24. A typical Troy-II vessel, c. 2300 B.C.

Fig. 25. Gold badge of a high priest. Mojgrád, Hungary, Bronze Age.

PART TWO

THE GENESIS OF THE
DANUBIAN HUNGARIANS

THE NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE HUNGARIANS

1. Implantation of the Higher Civilization into the Danubian basin

1. "Higher Civilization" is the comprehensive term for the major material and spiritual innovations made by man during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. It signifies a settled way of life characterized by food-production through agricultural activity and stock-breeding. In view of the scarcity or total absence of contemporary written evidences, this early period of human life is usually reconstructed with the help of its material remains, whose study is archaeology. In the following account, we frequently use another scientific term as well, which is "historical Hungary". It means the unitary area of Central Europe which is bounded on three sides — north, east and southeast — by the Carpathian mountain ranges, in the south by the Low Danube and the river Sava, and to the west by the first elevations of the Alps (Fig. 1). After its principal mountain-range and principal river, it is also known as the "Carpathian Land" and "Middle Danube basin", or, more precisely, the "Carpatho-Danubian area". For over a thousand years (until 1920), this area formed a single political entity, the Kingdom of Hungary.

'Historical Hungary' is rich in archaeological remains. The most significant finds which were made there until the mid-fifties, have been described by Edith B. Thomas in her German language Archaeologische Funde in Ungarn (P 125). Since that time the soil has yielded so much valuable new material that this basic work needed to be completed. The two most important complementary publications are from Nándor Kalicz: Archaeology of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages in Hungary, in Hungarian (P 074) and Neolithic Finds at Méhtelek (also in H., P 075). The international connections of the Hungarian New Stone Age have first been recognized by Gordon Childe in his fundamental work The Danube in Prehistory (P 031), while the great role the Middle Danube area played in spreading Higher Civilization westward, has been summarized by Jacquetta Hawkes in several of her comprehensive studies (P 064; P 065 and P 066). The excellent maps of H. T. Waterbolk (P 134), showing the diffusion of food-production-methods, especially into Europe, are indispensable even for the student of Hungarian archaeology. These publications may give the reader a perfectly clear idea and up-to-date information about the various archaeological aspects of early Hungary.

2. Neolithic agriculture found very favourable conditions in Hungary, where it flourished rapidly, especially on the great Central Plain and where mighty rivers — the Danube, Tisza, Maros and Körös — assure abundant year-round water supply. Moreover, Hungary has extensive loess soil, which is easily handled, even with primitive implements, because it consists of very minute, windblown particles of high capillarity. In addition to agriculture, breeding of domestic animals (cattle, sheep, pigs, goats and dogs) played an important part in early food-production. In this regard, a long-horned, Oriental cattle-race deserves special mention because their descendants can be admired even today in the Hortobágy National Park near Debrecen. Manufacturing of pottery, spinning and weaving were the most important industrial activities. Large vases were made for storage purposes, smaller ones for every-day use, while ceramic statuettes and other artistic products satisfied the needs of the Church. Timbered houses above the ground and small, self-sufficient villages, as well as incipient writing completed the Neolithic way of life in early Hungary.

There are over 200 known sites that bear testimony of the material remains of Hungarian Higher Civilization. All were located on virgin soil, i.e. they form the oldest layer in excavated sites. This is an important fact because it indicates that there is no trace of previous more primitive food-production in the Carpatho-Danubian area. There, the Neolithic appears unprecedented and suddenly, in a fully developed form. Consequently, this was not a phenomenon of local origin but was caused by immigrants coming from another region.

The Neolithic Age began in Hungary in the fifth millenium B.C. It first appeared along the Körös river, in the central part of the Great Plain, hence its name: Körös culture. It remained the dominant neolithic group for a period of over a thousand and five hundred years, until about 3200 B.C. and has left lasting marks upon all subsequent, similar Danubian cultures. The most sensational remains of the Körös culture have come to light at Méhtelek in 1973. This tiny village is in the Upper Szamos valley in an isolated location: about 200 km away from the centre of this culture. This unique location is explained by the presence of enormous quantities of obsidian, a very precious industrial material during that epoch, for whose exploitation a whole colony was set up. In order to fathom how important this exploitation was, it is significant that the five pits which were open so far by archaeologists yielded several thousand raw lumps and finished wares, as compared with barely a hundred which were previously inventoried for all of Hungary. Another surprise: nearly sixty Venus-statuettes were dug out in that area, as compared with a total of forty that were previously discovered. No other such rich obsidian centre has ever been found elsewhere in Europe (P 096 and P 075).

During the era of the Körös culture, Transdanubia and Upper Hungary were covered with another neolithic culture, the so-called Danube-I, radiocarbon-dated c. 4430 B.C. From its decorated pottery, it is also known as Linear Pottery Culture, or Bandkeramik and its preference for loess soil is particularly visible. A third major Hungarian neolithic culture was the Banatian culture (c. 3200 B.C.-2300 B.C.), which included the Transylvanian Olt basin (Erősd) and formed a link with the more extensive Tripolje culture in Eastern Europe, famous for its painted pottery. The fourth was the Tisza culture (c. 2800 B.C.-c. 2500 B.C.) which produced the finest and most valuable pottery. The fifth or last one was the Péceli culture (c. 2100 B.C.-1900 B.C.). It already covered the whole territory of Hungary and the Vienna and Moravian basins as well.

Hungary's five neolithic cultures cover an uninterrupted period of over two millenia and show a surprisingly high degree of uniformity over the whole area. They have successfully incorporated almost all the material and spiritual innovations of the world's first Higher Civilization which flourished in the Ancient Near East, and became a secondary centre of diffusion for the benefit of all central and north-western Europe.(39)

3. Metal-using cultures appeared in Hungary in the middle of the IIIrd millenium. The first period, from c. 2500 B.C., is characterized by an abundant use of copper and gold; the second, from c. 1900 to 800 B.C. by its preference for bronze. Hungarian archaeologists therefore like to speak of separate Copper and Bronze Ages, yet the two periods constitute but a single one, bronze being an alloy of 90% copper with 10% tin or antimony. That Hungary was capable of developing a brilliant metallurgy before any other European country is due to the rich copper mines in her mountains, and the abundance of alluvial gold deposited in the tributary streams of the Tisza.

A good illustration of Hungary's richness in precious metals at that time is the gold plate of Mojgrád in Szilágy county (Fig. 25). It weighs 750 gr and reflects a neolithic pattern, insofar as only the eyes and the nose are represented on it, while the mouth is omitted. The plate was, in all probability, a sacred object whose brilliant face represented the Sungod. It may have been the identification plate of a high priest when officiating. The most distinctive Hungarian product was, however, the hammer-axe, with a disc for the butt (Fig. 26). It was a native form, derived from an earlier copper shaft-hole axe, this last being the derivative of a stone axe. The metallurgic centres of Hungary were so productive that they literally inundated contemporary markets with their daggers, swords, spears, arrow-heads, goblets and bracelets. The proper evaluation of Hungary's metallurgical activities, both in the Copper and Bronze Ages, can be derived from Prof. Dawson's remarks, who summed up his findings thus: "It is clear that during this period Hungary was the centre of a brilliant development of culture which, from the artistic point of view, surpassed anything that existed elsewhere in Central Europe... The splendid Hungarian swords and axes, often ornamented with elaborate spiral decorations, are perhaps the finest specimens of European bronze work, and supplied the models for similar types of the Nordic Bronze Age" (P 039 p. 326).

Fig. 26. Hungarian hammer-axe with disc for a butt. It was in great demand in the Bronze Age.

4. As already pointed out, the neolithic way of life was not indigenous to Hungary, but came from an outside geographic area. According to our present knowledge, this can but be the Ancient Near-East, where all the wild ancestors of domesticated plants and animals were present and where food-production was achieved at an earlier date. The accuracy of this fact has subsequently been proven with comparative archaeology. Scholars of that study discovered, indeed, a strong affinity, both in form and style, between the earliest Hungarian artifacts and their Oriental counterparts. It was, in particular, noticed that the Hungarian axes strongly resembled those found in the Royal Cemetery of Ur, that Transylvanian sickles originated from Mesopotamian forms and that the oldest Hungarian pottery was similar to that found in the oldest layers of the ruins of Ur, Kish, Assur and other ancient cities of Mesopotamia. Concordances found in the Nile valley were just as convincing: long-horned Egyptian cattle, native of the Delta, survives 3000 years later in the Hungarian National Park of Hortobágy. In the same park, specimens can be seen of a special breed of sheep with twisted horns, spread horizontally at an angle of about 120 degrees, now called Racka. In ancient Egypt these sheep were sacred to the God Khum, the ram-headed divinity. This race has since become extinct there. In the grave of King Hasekhe-mui of the Second Dynasty (c. 2703 B.C.-2686 B.C.) a gold object was found, whose material may originally have come from Hungary. It is indeed covered with a thin layer of antimony (Sb) and tellurium (Te) which occur only in the gold of the Carpathian basin. Another proof of the ancient Egypto-Hungarian connections is the splendid jar found in Egyed, in Sopron county. The God Thot recording the sins of the deceased is depicted on its sides.

The civilization of the ancient Near-East embraced not only Mesopotamia and Egypt, which we just mentioned, but Syria and Anatolia as well, with which countries the Carpatho-Danubian region was already directly connected. Such contacts were numerous, as shown by two enormous rapiers, over 90 cm in length, which were found in the heart of Transylvania. They correspond exactly to the so-called Shardina-sword from Palestine (now in the British Museum). There were also bracelets and beads made from Mediterranean shells. Moreover, certain idols of Hungary are the exact duplicates of those found on the Island of Cyprus (Élet és Tudomány, 1974 no. 38). The Boghaz-Kői (Hittite) pottery designs from the XIVth century B.C. had their duplicates in the Maros valley in Hungary. Hungarian gourd-shaped vessels were like Cappadocian specimens, while Hungarian bronze jars found in Ózd near Miskolc, and elsewhere, were similar to their Trojan prototypes from around 2100 B.C. And the gold plate from Mojgrád shows a close resemblance to a similar figure from Troy II. Thus Higher Civilization from the Orient reached Hungary overland, through the Balkan corridor formed by the narrow valleys of the Vardar and Morava rivers. This route was in use for over two thousand years and its importance only began to decline after the fall of Troy II, c. 1200 B.C. The route has been practically closed since the Vllth century B.C.

In spite of the close links with its Oriental model, the Higher Civilization of Hungary was not a simple copy of it, since it could boast of several original features. One of the most important of these was dry-farming. As a matter of fact, the Hungarian rivers, unlike those of Mesopotamia and Egypt, had no regular floods. Therefore,-production by irrigation was not practised to a great extent here. Instead, the Danubian farmers selected the windblown, porous loess soil for cultivation, after having cleared it of its small growth. Later, with the appearance of metallic tools and other more efficacious agricultural implements (plough), it was possible to include heavier but better clay soil as well into the cultivated area. Thanks to this and to similar inventions, Danubian farmers were highly superior in production to those on the Balkans, including Greece. The adaptation to European environment was a significant innovation; it opened the door for Hungarian farmers to spread out westwards, into Central and Western Europe.

Besides the Danubian Neolithic, early Europe possessed two other neolithic cultures: the Tripolje or Black Earth culture, with its painted pottery, and the Lake Dwelling culture in Switzerland. The first one unfolded in Eastern Europe, between the Dnieper and the Low Danube. Its exact origin is still unknown, although it is certain that it owed its existence to the same source that gave rise to the Danubian neolithic civilization. The Tripolje culture disappeared, however, quite soon after the so-called Battle-axe people appeared, whereas the Lake Dwelling, on account of its very special conditions, could not be introduced elsewhere. As a result, the Hungarian or Danubian neolithic culture remained without rival in central and western Europe. This privileged situation explains its lasting influence over vast areas for about two thousand years. The westward extension of the Danubian civilization proceeded along the Danube and its interconnections on the one hand, and along the Vistula and Oder on the other. In the words of Prof. G. Childe: "for over two thousand years it (the Danube) formed the channel by which the influence of the Higher Civilization of the Eastern Mediterranean basin, including Anatolia and Syria, was transmitted to the barbarian North and even to distant Britain" (P 073 p. 413).(40)

2. The advent of the first sedentary population

1. In the two thousand years immediately preceding the Neolithic Age from c. 5500 B.C. to 3500 B.C., neither the Middle Danube basin nor Central Europe in general had any permanent population (P 134). This fact excludes the possibility that the Danubian cultural and technical upswing might have been the result of borrowing through commercial contacts, no one being present at the receiving end. It is therefore generally assumed that the introduction of the Higher Civilization in the Carpatho-Danubian area was the work of actual colonization by immigrant farmers and metal workers.

In fact, the first colonists began to reach Hungary immediately after the climatic change, in the so-called Subboreal Period. During that period the average rainfall was less than today, and the yearly temperature was 7°C above the present average. With the increasing dryness, dense forests thinned out, marshes shrank to a smaller size or even disappeared, more room becoming available for ethnic movements. The Vardar-Morava corridor, which cuts the Balkans right in half, opened up and funnelled migrant groups of cultivators and herdsmen in an ever increasing number into Hungary. The bulk of migrants came from the western parts of the Ancient Near East: from Syria and Anatolia, although the original point of departure of many of them was Mesopotamia and Egypt.

The described ethnic movement can best be followed with the study of old place-names, the 'toponymy'. Its usefulness for detecting ethnic movements stems from the general human behaviour that immigrants, as soon as they settle in a free place, give names to the surrounding geographic features. When correctly interpreted, these names may disclose the geographic origin of the first colonists, the time of their arrival, the state of their civilization, their language, their ethnic appurtenance, and even the area of colonization in the new land. For all these advantages, toponymy has become one of the most productive subsidiary branches of history; it may open "dazzling perspectives," — as the French linguist Albert Dauzat expressed it (P 037 p. 70). The historical interpretation of place-names needs, however, a very careful analysis, because they were themselves subject to phonetical distortions, following the various sound-shifts, the vowel harmony and the shifting of accent. Therefore the first task of the toponymist consists of elucidating the oldest spelling of a given place-name, which usually conserves the original meaning of the name most clearly. In this respect, however, the effective contribution of Hungarian linguists to our knowledge in this particular field was, until recently inadequate, due to their rather conservative frame of mind (cf. P 009 p. 56 f.). Under these circumstances, this author had to supply the basic documentation for this chapter.

2. A first group of Hungarian place-names, throwing light upon the geographic origin of her inhabitants, includes such names that are identical to those of their previous dwelling places. The immigrants, indeed, make use of the same vocabulary in christening, to which they were accustomed. This habit is verifiable even in our days, and it explains why we have so many 'London', 'Paris', 'Athens' and other European names in America, duplicating the toponymy of their former country. In a similar way, there is, in Hungary, a series of place-names which are repetitive to those of Anatolia, Syria, Mesopotamia and Egypt. Let us quote a few such names. First, the name of Troy (anc. Turia), in western Anatolia, also occurs in Hungary as Torja and Tiirje. The name of Arzawa in southern Anatolia is duplicated in southern Hungary as Orsova. The Phoenician city of Arad has its Hungarian namesake in the great city of Arad. Two Hungarian villages called Haláp (located in the counties of Zala and Bihar) correspond to the important city of Haleb (today: Aleppo). The Syrian Bukk valley has its namesake in Hungary in the Bükk mountain and Bükk town. The Palestinian Pilis country or Pilis-Ta is identical to the Hungarian Pilis name, used as a county, mountain and village name. The Palestinian river Kishont also re-appears in Hungary in the same form as Kishont, a county-name.

The list of similar place-names continues with Egyptian and Mesopotamian names. Ancien Egypt had a border-land called Zala or Sala. It was a marshy region in the north-eastern Delta, where a fortress was located to guard the military road to Syria. The same name occurs in Hungary, in both forms as Zala and Sala, a county which formerly resembled a marshy border-land in its southern parts. Egypt's Nitra is duplicated in Hungary with Nyitra (anc. Nitra) as a county, city and river name. The southern part of the Sinai peninsula, under Egyptian rule since the unification of the "Two Lands" in c. 3200 B.C., was known as Bakon; its Hungarian homonym is also Bakony, a forested area to the northwest of the Balaton Lake. Even Egyptian king-names were used as Hungarian place-names, so that Tata, Papa and Menes are Tata, Pápa, Ménes, Ménfő, Ménfa.

There are several duplicates of the Mesopotamian river names in Hungary. E. g. Kherka and Sajur, both tributaries of the Tigris, appear in Hungary as Kerka and Sajó. The Mesopotamian native name of the land beyond the river Euphrates was Burattu; its Hungarian equivalent is Berettyó. The Hungarian Karas, Körös and Krassó correspond to the Mesopotamian Karasu. Finally, northern Mesopotamia was called Subaru and Subartu to which the Hungarian Szabar village-names in the Vas, Györ and Nógrád counties correspond, as well as Sabaria, the capital city of former Pannónia. Such parallels are not merely coincidental, since certain Arab historical sources mention that the Hungarians were formerly called by the ethnic name Sabartoi-Asphaloi.

A second series of Near-Eastern — Hungarian common place-names are those that contain the name of an Oriental pagan divinity. We have already mentioned some of them in a previous chapter dealing with mythology. So it suffices here to remind the reader that the most frequent divine names in question are the Sungod's various names, such as 'lord' {Ur, Ra); 'Eye God' {Szemes); 'Sky God' (Ég-Ur); 'The Enthroned God' (Szék-Ur); 'Heavenly Horse' {Égi Ló). The second popular pagan divinity whose name is used in Hungarian place-names is Bál (Baal), the Syrian Fire God. Places bearing the name of this god are most frequent in the southern half of the country, in the Balaton Lake area and in Transylvania. This regrouping suggests that the Baal-worshipping colonists may have arrived after the Sun-worshippers. The third most frequently occurring divinity name was that of the God Thot, protector of arts and letters in Egypt. Finally, a third series of Hungarian place-names of Near Eastern origin are those which are formed with Oriental ethnic or tribal names. These are e.g. Hetés or Hetis, meaning 'Seven Ancestors' and Hetény, recalling the descendants of the Hittites, who were led by exactly seven (Héth) princes. Another Oriental ethnic name is Pilis, which was already mentioned. These three series of specific Hungarian place-names — duplicating names, divine names and ethnic names — prove that ancient Hungary received the greater part of its first permanent population from the Ancient Near East during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. The first wave was made up mostly of agriculturists coming into the Carpatho-Danubian area through the Balkan corridor of the Vardar-Morava valleys.

3. Having clarified the geographic origin of Hungary's first sedentary population, our attention will be focussed next upon their territorial expansion in the land. Our research in this connection is based partly upon the three series of place-names just discussed, and partly upon place-names which include one of the following six Old Hungarian formative suffixes denoting dwelling places: 1. Ta (variant: Da) meaning 'Land'; 2. Hon (var. On, An, Ony) 'Home'; 3. Szék (var. Szeg, Szik) 'Residence'; 4. Kö (var. Ka, Ke, Kev) literally 'Stone', also 'Village'; 5. Pis (>Biz, Viz) 'Water'; and 6. Mat (var. Ma, Mad, Mata) 'Field'. Proof of the great antiquity of these six formative suffixes is the fact that today they are no longer used for name-giving purposes, that they are common in the entire Finno-Ugric language group and that the words in question were in continuous use in the Ancient Orient since the IIIrd millenium B.C. at least.

We begin our illustration with the word Ta. It occurs in the following Near Eastern place-names: Pilis-Ta, Heti-Ta, Cre-Ta, Kushi-Ta, Subar-Tu, Urar-Tu, etc. In European Hungary the following names are formed with the same element: Ágo-Ta, Bago-Ta, Bak-Ta, Bó-Ta, Bucsu-Ta, Cinko-Ta, Csaj-Ta, Csász-Ta, Galán-Ta, Ino-Ta, Kádár-Ta, Kalo-Ta, Laj-Ta, Panko-Ta, Pilis-Ta, Pusz-Ta; further: Ab-Da, An-Da, Or-Da, Ra-Da, Tor-Da, Var-Da. The suffix Hon (frequently without the first letter, H) was also common in place-names both in the Near East as well as in Hungary. In the Orient the most widely known such names are: Ir-An (<Ur-Hon), Tour-An (<Tó-Ur-Hon), Makr-An (< Magyar Hon), and Macar-On ( = Magyar Hon); and in Hungary: Bak-On, Bak-Ony, Balat-On (<Bál-Ott-Hon), Mos-Ony, etc. Place-names to which the formative suffix Szék is added are: Bakony-Szeg, Báta-Szék, Bor-Szék, Bükk-Szék, Eger-Szeg (<Ég Ur Széke), E-Szék (< Ó-Szék), Fehér-Szék, Három-Szék, Kis-Szék, Kö-Szeg, Róna-Szék, Szi-Szek, and Szék-Ács, Szek-Szárd, etc. With Kö: Barát-Ka, Szabad-Ka, Pát-Ka, Dobo-Ka, Raj-Ka, Resz-Ke (< Réz-Kö), Pisz-Ke, Bél-Kö, Kö-Szeg. Names with Pis: Danu-Bis, Ti-Bis, Cola-Pis (the medieval form of the present Kulpa), Fischa (< Pis); and the dwelling names Pis-Ki, Pis-Kö, Pis-Káros, Pisz-Ke, Pozsony (< Pis-Hon), Pös-Tyén. And finally place-names in Hungary with Mat: Doz-Mat, Dai-Mat, Ko-Mádi, Kecske-Mét, Madi, Máta, Modor.

After having selected, by the above-mentioned method, all the eligible place-names of Oriental origin — over 2,000 names — from the Directory of Hungarian place-names (P 094 and P 095), and located on a map showing the 63 counties of Hungary, the following statistics emerged:

Number of Old Hungarian place-names by counties

  * Notwithstanding that Pest county has 73 ancient place-names, its territory is not marked with squares on our map, because of its oversized extension, but with dotted lines only.

** Our data relating to the counties between the rivers Drava and Szava are incomplete.

The results of the above statistics have been illustrated on a map (Fig. 27), including the eight counties between the rivers Drava and Sava. Marked with squares are the most densely settled counties, i.e. in which at least 45 Old Hungarian place-names have been found. The less densely populated areas are marked with dotted lines, i.e. counties having at least 30, but not more than 44 Old Hungarian place-names, while the sparsely populated counties, with less than 30 old place-names, are left in white.

This precious map, issued as a result of a minute inquiry, reveals that the first permanent population of the Carpatho-Danubian basin was not spread out evenly over the whole country. It concentrated upon two major areas: 1. Transdanubia, with prolongations northwards into the Vag valley and southwards into the Drava and Sava regions; and 2. Transylvania with extensions into the valleys of the right-bank tributaries of the Tisza. The two areas were separated from one another by sparsely populated, marshy zones. Thus, as far as the degree of civilization and geographic conditions allowed it, the land was already filled to capacity in the Bronze Age (c. 1900 B.C.) by a permanent, mostly agricultural population. The areas that were still available for future migrants consisted of flooded and mountainous regions, excellent places for pastoral population that soon came wave after wave.

Fig. 27. Map showing the density of Hungary's population by the end of the Bronze Age (squares indicate the most densely settled areas).

3. The identity of the first settlers

The reader has no doubt noticed that most of the old place-names which were handed down by the first population of the Carpatho-Danubian area had some definite meaning in Hungarian. This fact suggests that they probably spoke Hungarian. This question shall now be analysed in more detail.

The archaeological remains of the epoch allow us to distinguish the presence of three closely related but different ethnic groups. The largest one was made up of farmers, usually referred to as Magari (Magyars) or Ari (Aryans). The second largest consisted of those engaged in animal husbandry, and were called Siculi, Sikeloi (Székely), while the third and smallest group were pastoralist people, an occupation frequently connected with the Kush. The following explanations support the threefold division, based upon the respective economic activity.

1. That the Danubian farmers were Aryans and first practised their trade all over Central Europe, was first noticed by L.A. Waddell, who stated that "the Aryans were the forerunners of the agricultural stage in the world's civilization" (P 132 p. 49). That these farmers were MagAri, or Magyars, appears from the analysis of the Magyar name itself, whose etymological meaning is, strictly speaking, 'farmer'. It was used, and still continues to be in that sense, both in Hungary and its neighbouring countries. In Hungarian, indeed, a 'farmstead' was Major (pron. Moyor), and in the Austro-Bavarian German dialect, the word for 'peasant' is similarly Mayer and Meyer. Farther west in Germany, however, the common word for the same term is 'Bauer'.

In addition to the semantic connection of 'agriculturist' with the Magyar name, there is much evidence suggesting that the bulk of the Neolithic and Bronze Age inhabitants were really Magyars. Such evidence includes the ethnic symbols, with which they identified themselves in pictorial writing. The most widely used ones were: (1) the bird (Madár), because it sounded like Magyar; (2) the lion, which was Magaru (= Magyar) in Sumerian-Hungarian; and (3) a bee (Méh), which combined with the wearer (Ur) formed the symbol Mehar, which also sounded like Magyar. The role of the first two symbols as Magyar ethnic identification badges was already discussed, therefore there is no need to return to this subject. For the use of the bee-symbol, however, we mention two instances: first, that the famous neolithic obsidian factory was operating in Hungary at Méh-Telek, i.e. on a 'Bee-Plot' and secondly that Herodotus records that in the Carpatho-Danubian region there are great multitudes of 'bees', so that it is impossible to visit that land (P 067 Book V cap. 10).

At this point we wish to introduce a unique statuette as well, found in a site of the neolithic Tisza-culture (Fig. 23). It represents the harvest divinity, holding a sickle in his right hand, an implement whose form is the wellknown abbreviation in the Hungarian carved script for Isten 'God'. The statuette in question belongs to the category of the so-called 'talking statues', because its posture coveys a message (P 074 p. 21). We can read it by naming its conspicuous elements one after another: the clenched hand (MArok), the arms in the plural KAR.ok, the face AR, and the belt RA. These elements identify the God as being Isten, MA-KAR.ok Ura 'God, Lord of the Magyars'. The ancient Egyptian kings, who were also considered earthly deputies for God, were frequently represented in exactly the same posture, as for instance King Ramses II, whose image is shown above (Fig. 22). The strong Egypto-Hungarian relations, which are apparent even here, do not surprise us for all three major Magyar ethnic symbols originated there. In ancient Egypt, the bird was the paramount divine symbol, the lion usually accompanied the royal image, while the bee in the royal cartouche was used to render the king's title as ruler of Lower Egypt. This suffices to conclude that the bulk of the first sedentary population of Old Hungary consisted of Hungarian-speaking, agricultural Magyars. These early settlers transplanted Egyptian agricultural know-how, tradition and mentality into the Middle Danube basin.

2. Hungary's next most numerous people of the Bronze Age, known by name, were the Siculi or Sikeloi inhabitants, whose descendants are called Székely (pron. Sakaly). They form a solid block of two and a half million Magyar-tongued inhabitants in the heart of Transylvania, the eastern province of historical Hungary. Their admirable folklore is their most characteristic ethnic feature and is fully permeated with the old solar cult. The visible image of their pre-Christian divinity, the Sundisc, is usually displayed in their coat of arms, together with the waxing Moon and the eight-pointed star. They are identical to those seen on ancient Mesopotamian documents. The Siculi believed their God was a human shaped giant, riding on a horse or in a brilliant chariot in the sky. All the words used by the Siculi in connection with the said idea-complex — Sun, Sky, Horse, Chariot, Way, Seat and so on — belong to the oldest layer of the Hungarian vocabulary. The etymological meaning of their name is also Hungarian, and corresponds to their intimate religious life. Sikeloi is, indeed, a compound with the following elements: S-IKE-LO-I, which would be spelt today Az Égi Ló-i, meaning 'Follower of the Celestial Horse' or, more plainly, 'Believer in Sungod'.

The Siculi or Sikeloi always played a significant part in Hungary's history. Prior to their alliance with Prince Arpad, they were allies of the Hun-Hungarians, in the Kingdom of Attila, according to our national Annals (P 120 I p. 101). They also took part in the decisive battle which brought about the downfall of the Hun Empire. Three thousand Siculi cavalry-men managed somehow to escape from the bloody battle and went into hiding in the unidentified Chigla-Field, waiting for the return of "other" Hungarians (usque ad aliorum Hungarorum reditum, P 120 I p. 279). As a matter of fact, when they found out, at the end of the IXth century, that a new Magyar group was on the way to Hungary under the leadership of Prince Arpad, the Siculi horsemen, who had been living in the land for a long time, galloped to the Carpathian passes to great their brethren. Then, according to their agreement, they helped unify the land into a single dominion. From that moment on, the fate of the Siculi merged with that of the Arpad Hungarians.

During the reign of King Attila, the bulk of the Siculi-Hungarians still dwelt in the western borders of the Carpathian land: in Upper Hungary and in Transdanubia. They were the stockbreeders of the epoch, belonging to a semi-military organization in charge of the defence of the western boundaries of the Hun Empire. They were directed by chiefs called Lófö, literally 'Great men', a title equivalent to the medieval marquis. After the Hun-era, when the disintegrated country was re-united by Prince Arpad and the Nation was converted to the Christian faith, the eastern borders of the land became the most sensitive ones. Therefore, the first Magyar kings transferred the Siculi frontier-guards from Upper Hungary into Transylvania for further duties. This displacement is evidenced by a series of medieval charters and more recently by a toponymic study showing that 36 village-names of Transylvania are the exact duplicate of as many Upper Hungarian place-names (Magyar Múlt, Sidney, 1977 no. 2). The Transdanubian Siculi, who were not involved in the massive transfer, remained in their original location in the West. Their long stay here explains the surprisingly high number of solar place-names, especially in Zala county, and also the existence of certain common dialectal particularities between the Transylvanian and the Transdanubian populations of today.

The fact that the Siculi's first places of habitation were in the western parts of historical Hungary, suggests that they may have entered into the land via the Adriatic Sea. The probability of this itinerary is dramatically confirmed by the presence of other Siculi on the western side of the Adriatic, namely on the Italian peninsula. This fact also suggests a simultaneous arrival into both lands in question, around the XIth century B.C. (cf. P 100 'Sicel'). That the Italian Siculi formed the integral part of the great Siculi migration is further evidenced by the fact that they too were led by chiefs called Syc-Lo-Pe and Laes-Turi-Gones, as reported by Thukydides in a distorted form (P 126 Book VI cap. 18). These terms would be, in the more correct spelling, Sikel Ló-Fö (after the P > F soundshift in Lo-Pe),meaning 'Siculi Great Men'; and Lovas Túri Honös 'Mounted Trojan Ancestor' respectively.(41) Another significant detail: one of the Siculi kings, Italus by name, became the namegiver of the whole Peninsula, and also of the present Italian nation.(42)

The Siculi in Italy were not numerous enough to keep the whole peninsula for themselves. Actually, they were driven out therefrom around 1035 B.C., when the majority of them crossed over to the island of Sicily and forced the earlier inhabitants to retreat into its western parts while they occupied all the rest of the land, changing its name to 'Sicilia'. They lived in peace on the island about three hundred years, until the Hellens began to drive them out. In the VIth century B.C., the Sicilians were defeated in battle and their separate national identity was gradually dissolved, — according to Thukydides.

Outside of Hungary and Italy, numerous Siculi tribes were also to be found in the northwestern Punjab (India). They were locally known as Sakai or Sakae (P 044 'Sakai'), the same as the Hungarian Székely. These Hindu-Sikeli were also followers of the Sungod, calling him Sacra (< Az Ég Ura) 'Lord of the Sky'. His female associate was Sacra Ni (H.: Sacra Neje) 'Wife of the Heavenly Lord'. All the Hindu Sikeli were engaged in animal husbandry. To sum up, the Siculi were a widely diffused ancient race of the Ilnd and 1st millen-iums B.C. One of their branches became, together with their Magyar brethren, the founders of European Hungary, as seen from an ethnic standpoint.

3. Traces of a third people are also discernible in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages in Hungary. They originated from the Kush or Cushan folk, usually referred to in the scientific language as Mediterraneans or Dinarians without, however, sufficiently emphasizing their characteristic brownish complexion. The Kush race was first identified in Eastern Africa, around the Great Lakes. It was also a widely diffused old race, but broken up into a multitude of smaller or larger ethnic entities that lacked any comprehensive political organisation for a long time. They were the first great historical people to send out colonists into southwest Asia and into Europe, including Hungary.

The European branch of the Kush seems to have spoken the Hungarian language: whether through origin or by assimilation, is not yet clear. At any rate, all their identifying symbols are Hungarian. The most widely used such symbol was the ram: it accompanied them through all their wanderings, in Egypt, Hungary, as well as in India and Touran. Ram in Hungarian is Kos (pron. Kush), which was also their national name. Their rulers, both terrestrial and divine, were called Fö-Kos, 'The Principal Kush', and his distinctive symbol was a kind of spontoon, called Fokos in Hungarian, a word that sounds like their name. Kristóf Lukácsy, a distinguished Hungarian historian of the XlXth century, was positively convinced that the language of the Kush was Hungarian, even while they were still sojourning in the Oxus region of Touran (P 092 p. 85).

The early presence of the Kush in Hungary is evidenced by a ram-headed altar found in a neolithic layer near Szeged. And the last notable group of them lived in Upper Hungary, during the reign of King St. Stephen (1000-1038). Their district was known as 'Dark Hungary' (Ungaria Nigra), as opposed to 'White Hungary' (Ungaria Alba), so called after the skin colour of the respective inhabitants. With the conversion to Christendom, the cohesive force of the Kush was broken and the people was absorbed into the majority. Their memory still lingers in such place-names as Kosd (< Kush-Ta), Kosna (< Kos Hona), Kustán (< Kus Tanya) and the family name of Kós.

To complete the presentation of the European Kush, we must also mention that classical and medieval historical sources inform us that both Britain and France have a considerable number of Kush absorbed in their national body, who were locally called Picti (P 132 pp. 111-126 and P 065 p. 394). The Romans believed that they were so called, because their faces were "painted", as the Latin word Pictus suggests. This view is, however, unacceptable because the Kush were already dark by birth and were called black well before the existence of the Latin language. The key to the solution lies in the Hungarian language, in which black is Fekete, whose old Hungarian form had been Pekete, Pekte, prior to the P > F soudshift. Consequently the oeiginal signification of the local name of the West European Kush simply meant 'dark' and not 'painted.' Another local name of the dark people in the British Isles was Cassi, from whom the Scots originated.

All the details listed above, when combined into a whole, are decisive proof that the earliest inhabitants of the Carpatho-Danubian area were Hungarians: variously known as agriculturist Magyars, stock-breeding Siculi-Székely, and darkish coloured pastoral Kush. In other words the present-day Hungarians seem to be direct descendants of the first inhabitants of the land who lived there four thousand years ago.

4. The testimony of the Tatárlaki (Tartaria) tablets

1. The first inhabitants of the Carpatho-Danubian area have bequeathed us with decisive historical evidence of their ethnic and linguistic identity, in three inscribed clay tablets found at Tatárlaki (now Tartaria), near the river Maros, in 1961 (Fig. 28). They turned up in a mound barely measuring 240 m X 100 m. One of the tablets is a roundel with a hole, while the two others are rectangular. The larger rectangular one also has a hole, but the smaller one only bears the picture of a horned goat. All three tablets appear to have been locally made, while the accompanying objects come from the Mediterranean and were either Cretan or Cycladic. The tablets aroused world-wide interest, because they gave scholars a concrete chance of identifying the language spoken by the earliest population of the Carpatho-Danubian basin.

Our inquiry about the tablets in question requires an answer to the following three questions: (1) for which purpose were the tablets made? (2) what message is written upon them? and (3) to which historical period do they belong? Amongst the multitude of studies already devoted to clearing up the mystery of these written documents found on the soil of ancient Hungary, the most valuable is that of Prof. M.S.F. Hood (USA) even though he failed to discover the purpose of the tablets and denied that there was actual writing in the signs carved upon the pieces.(43) Concerning the age of the tablets, there were two opinions. The first emphasizes the Mesopotamian character of the writing and, on that basis, suggests that the tablets may have been made in the Uruk-period, somewhere around 3000 B.C. The second opinion, that of Prof. Hood, insists upon their Cretan parallels and upon their Aegean and Anatolian connections in general. Accordingly, the holder of this second view assigns a considerably later period to the objects and suggests that they may have been made between 2000 B.C. and 1700 B.C. Since then, no new judgements have been formulated so that the mystery of the Tatárlaki tablets continues to remain unsolved, more than twenty years after their discovery.

Fig. 28. The world-famous Tatárlaki (Tartaria) clay tablets, found near the river Maros. They were used for the purpose of solar observations.

2. In our procedure of trying to find the secret of the Tatárlaki tablets, we must first ascertain the purpose for which they were made. This inquiry begins with the etymology of Tatárlaki, the name of the village where they were discovered. It is a Hungarian compound, whose last element (-Laka) means a detached, small cottage, literally 'the dwelling of. But the first part of the name (Tatár) cannot be interpreted as having been the dwelling of some Tartarian person, because Tartars never lived in Hungary, particularly not in pre-Christian times. The full name in question is actually made up with the following elements: Tat-Ár-Lak-a, the vocalized form of an original deeper sounding Tót-Ur-Lak-a, with the literal meaning of 'God Thot's Cottage'. That makes sense, because God Thot was an important Egyptian divinity: patron of writing and reckoning, who was also in charge of measuring time and doing solar observations for the purpose of calendar making. In that perspective it seems logical to conjecture, that the Tatárlaki tablets themselves may have been used for solar observations and, ultimately, for setting up calendars.(44) This conclusion is supported by other, circumstantial evidence.

To begin with, the plot where the find was made is a small one, inadequate for farming. It was, however, large enough to make astronomical observations, especially during the summer. Then, the picture of a crab and a horned goat, engraved upon the tablets, is further evidence supporting this idea. The same animals, indeed, are part of the Zodiac, the crab being the symbol of the Cancer constellation, and the horned goat that of the Capricorn. Moreover, the circular hole appearing both on the roundel and upon the larger rectangle must have been connected with celestial observations, because this latter hole is surrounded by sunbeams to show, unequivocally, that the rising Sun is meant thereby. Finally, the most conspicuous details of the roundel supply us with the decisive word: Calendar. In fact, the circular hole represents the Sun, in Hungarian NAP, the giant cross intersecting the roundel carries the sound-value of T, and the circular rim of the object supplies the final constituent AR. These sounds, put together, give the word Nap-T-Ár, Naptár, which is the Hungarian word for 'Calendar'. It seems thus certain that the Tatárlaki tablets were components of a sophisticated solar observatory, and were used for determining time.(45)

3. Before proceeding to our next task, i.e. deciphering the script engraved upon the tablets, we must take a glimpse into the astronomical thinking of Antiquity. At that time, the Sun was considered a human-shaped divinity always on the move in the sky, following a fixed yearly path, during which it bypasses 12 important stations or groups of conspicuous stars called constellations. Several of these groups appear before the eyes of observers, as shaping celestial animals. Hence their names: Aries, Crab, Lion, Capricorn and so on. All together, these animals form the 'Animal belt' or Zodiac. The Zodiacal constellations were closely watched by ancient astronomers, because they were suitable phenomena for measuring time. Certain ones heralded the beginning of the seasons on a fixed day: Spring (March 21), Summer (June 22), Autumn (September 23) and Winter (December 22). In the northern hemisphere, the constellation that could be observed most easily, was the one which signaled the beginning of Summer. Daylight lasts longest on that day, when the Sun ceases to ascend higher on the horizon, and begins its downward course. This change of direction takes 11 days, during which the Sun rises every morning at the same time and on the same point of the horizon, as if it had stopped moving. So much suffices to understand the sense of the message upon the roundel, to which we now return.

The sound-signs appearing on the round tablet are, in our opinion, not Sumerian picture-signs, but more advanced carved signs. Most of them correspond to Old Hungarian writing signs (see Fig. 14). The only major difference the Tatárlaki tablets display vs. the Old Hungarian letters lies in their outward appearance: the Tatárlaki writing has a marked preference for linking signs together into bizarre geometric shapes. The very close resemblance of the Tatárlaki signs to the Old Hungarian ones invites us to try to read the mysterious message in Hungarian, beginning with the roundel, according to our Fig. 29, whereon the signs are separated into words.

Fig. 29. The sound-signs of the Tatárlaki tablets, separated into words.

The first part of the message is placed in the upper half of the object in question. It reads from left to right and the signs are transliterated as follows: eZ. iR-áNY-O(n) J.öN eS.T.eN. 4. 05

Ó-Ra.K.oR. With present spelling: Ez irányon jön Isten 4.05 órakor, in literal translation: 'God comes (= the Sun rises) in this direction at 4:05 o'clock.' The second part of the message, inscribed on the lover half the roundel, reads in the reverse direction, from right to left, as is indicated by the so-called turning letters, specially N, R and K. It runs thus: ELE.RE aR.áK. S.iL.oK ég.ö-Ve.Be(n) 5 + 5 + eGY (= 11) É.Ta.K-áN, in present spelling: Előre a rák csillag égövében 11 éjszakán 'Beforehand the Crab is twinkling in its celestial zone for 11 nights.'

Is our reading reliable? It is, when considering the following. First, the decipherment produced a coherent and closely reasoned message, in which all the written signs appear with their own sound-value. This fact alone is usually considered as sufficient proof for the correct reading. Secondly, the message uses a highly technical language, according to the time and circumstances, which we can however understand, since we already know the fundamentals of ancient mentality. Besides, it follows the golden rule of the well written ancient inscriptions, inasmuch as it uses seven words — not less, nor more — in both sentences. Finally, all statements referred to in the inscription are accurate, and all have been confirmed, since then, by modern science. In fact, on the first day of Summer (June 22), the Sun rises at Tatárlaki, on the 46th parallel, exactly at five minutes past four o'clock.

Our next problem is to decipher the message inscribed upon the larger rectangular tablet. It is divided into three compartments. We are, alas, unable to make out the meaning of the signs placed into the first compartment; but the remaining part is clear enough and says: 'Here the Sun rises in the Cancer (constellation) on the day of...' (missing sign?).(46)

The smaller rectangle has no carved script scratched upon its surface, nor a hole to let the sunbeams penetrate into the observatory room. On its surface is a horned goat with an eleven-branched tail, symbol of the Capricorn constellation which announces the beginning of Winter. Behind the goat, the outlines of a roaring animal are discernible, probably that of the celestial dog, urging the Sun to ascend on its brilliant way again. That the goat's picture holds for the Sun, is evidenced by its having five legs, five being the sacred number of the solar divinity. To make a hole on this tablet would have been useless, because in winter the sky is usually overcast in Tatárlaki, and no astronomical observations can be made.

4. The last question in connection with the Tatárlaki tablets deals with the setting of the approximate date when the tablets could have been in use for solar observations. Prof. Hood approached this question by comparing the tablets with similar archaeological remains found at Knossos in Crete and concluded that the Tatárlaki tablets cannot be older than their Cretan variants, i.e. not older than c. 1900 B.C. Therefore, he added, if the solar equipment in question has been found in a neolithic layer, that could only have happened if the pit in which it was found had been dug from a higher archaeological level. Our own estimation, based upon the history of writing, supports the opinion of Prof. Hood all the more, because certain dating terms, such as "eleven times", appear on the similar Cretan tablets as well. Since, however, the writing on the Tatárlaki tablets is more mature, a younger age would be more suitable for them. This age can be determined through a mathematical operation, by converting the sidereal time given in the inscription, into our present time-computing system, taking into consideration the phenomenon of precession. This term designates the specific rotation of the Earth's axis which causes the beginning of the various seasons not to always occur in the same group of stars (constellation), nor on the same day. The vernal point actually advances upon the ecliptic at a rate of one day in every 72 years. Therefore, after a shift of 30 days, i.e. 2160 years (= 30 X 72), the sunrise will already occur in another constellation. The Tatárlaki tablets report that the Sun's descending course happened on the eleventh day of the Cancer constellation. On the other hand we also know that the Cancer constellation lasted from c. 2220 B.C. to c. 60 B.C. (P 118 p. 78). Thus, its approximative age results from the mathematical operation: B.C. 2220 minus 11 X 72, that is 1428 B.C.

As it disclosed, the Tatárlaki inscriptions constitute decisive historical evidence, whereby it becomes clear that the first permanent population of the Carpatho-Danubian basin spoke Hungarian and that their leaders had highly sophisticated knowledge. That Hungarians were in evidence in Central Europe considerably earlier than was theretofore believed, is a fact which obliges us to substantially modify our historical conceptions about the peoples of Europe in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages

Fig. 30. The most beautiful Scythian gold-stag ever found in Hungary. Tápió-Szent-Márton, Vth century B.C.

THE SCYTHIAN HUNGARIANS

1. Their origin and civilization

The history of the Scythians is so complicated and forms such a tangled skein of varied problems — says A. L. Mongait — that, in spite of abundant sources for its study, "the Scythian problem remains an intransigent subject, that is still far from settled" (P 097 bis p. 153). At one time the Scythians are said to be Indo-Europeans, on the basis of the similitude of their language; at another, they are considered Huns, with whom they shared their cultural features. Elsewhere, it is maintained that they belonged to the Hungarian-speaking group of peoples (Uralo-Altaians), with whom they were closely linked throughout their history, both in the Orient and the Occident. All these opinions circulate freely, since nobody has, as yet, correctly analysed the Scythian tongue, nor deciphered any of their written messages. What is definitely known about the Scythians, however, is that they did not all live in a single political structure, but were broken up into several political entities, with as many individual ethnic denominations. The lack of political unity of the Scythians could not, however, conceal their close affinities: they all spoke the same language, had the same solar cult, the same civilization and "were linked by some sort of racial tie" (P 123 p. 42).

Their original homeland, or more precisely, the geographic area where history first detected them, was the northern hinterland of Mesopotamia and Syria. From these regions they were gradually squeezed out by the continuous razzias of the Assyrians, a Semitic population swarming out from the nearby deserts. They subjected the whole Scythian Old Fatherland to their iron rule during the VIIIth century B.C. The destruction of the Kingdom of Arpad, on the great bend of the Euphrates, in 743 B.C. and the capture of the City7State of Karkemish in 717 B.C. were the final stage of Semitic expansion to the North. The Sythian tribes, driven out of their old homes, first concentrated along the Araxes and Kura rivers, in the swampy region of thousands of islands. Thereafter they gradually occupied the higher-lying Terek and Kuban regions, and finally took possession of the large tract of land above the Caucasus, up to the elbow of the Volga.

When they were at the zenith of their history, in the first millenium B.C., Scythian kings ruled over the immense natural grassland stretching from the Carpathians and the Lower Danube eastward, above the Black sea, to the Caucasian mountains (European Scythia) and the Caspian sea, including the Touranian Plain and the Oxus valley (Asiatic Scythia). In addition, detachments of Scythians occupied other farflung regions, such as northwest India and the eastern Asian section of the steppe, extending up to the Chinese borders.

Ruling over such an extensive territory was only possible thanks to the large scale use of the riding horse, which allowed rapid communication between widely separated areas. This innovation explains why the Scythians became the first political organizers in the history of the entire Eurasian steppe. Prior to the use of riding horses, greater political units could be established in large river valleys only, where boats fulfilled the same role, as in the Nile valley and also in the Euphrates and Indus valleys.

It was between 750 B.C. and 500 B.C. that the individuality of the Scythians emerged. They had then a mixed economy: some agriculture, large scale stock-raising, (in which horse-breeding was predominant) and also mining and metal working. They lived under kings and princes whose principal identifying emblem was the golden stag medal. They always moved around on horseback and wore close-fitting pantalons. Their most important arm was a longrange bow, having arrows fitted with triangular metal heads. Under the impact of the new equestrial armies, the Scythians evolved a peculiar defense system, consisting of earthworks. Its purpose was to render any sudden mounted attack against human settlements impossible. The system included a fortified rampart or dike with a deep and wide ditch, filled with water on its outside. The rampart was then planted with thorny hedges, shrubs and trees. These fences extended for hundreds of miles and surrounded thousands of acres of soil as well, to keep the livestock protected against predators. This Scythian military strategy set the pattern for the entire steppe-population and was to remain unchanged for centuries to come.

2. Scythians in Hungary

Owing to the growing pressure of the Sarmatians, another mounted steppe people, the European Scythians slowly drifted westward. They percolated through the Carpathians, and gradually brought the Great Hungarian Lowland, the westernmost fringe of the great Eurasian natural grassland, under their control. They soon transported hereto their royal seat and thus Hungary became the center of Scythian rule. The first Scythian group reached Hungary around 550 B.C. They were called Agathyrsi and have established campsites in the Upper Maros region. They were followed by other groups, occupying many places on the Great Plain, the Transylvanian plateau and in the Bükk and Mátra area. The Scythians were the first Danubian people to establish effective rule over the entire population of Hungary. Thus, the Carpatho-Danubian basin was first unified politically by them. During their rule in Hungary (c. 500 B.C. - 350 B.C.), the Scythians came into contact with the aboriginal Magyar population on a large scale, through intermarriage. Following this historical process, all the Magyar speaking population of the Danube basin began to call themselves "Scythians", an appellation that strongly influenced the view of the medieval chroniclers, who considered the Magyars as a Gens Scythica. The long stay in Hungary of the Scythian ruling clan is evidenced by the most beautiful Scythian treasure ever found, consisting of two gold stags, discovered at Tápió-Szent-Márton and at Zöld-Halom-Puszta respectively (Fig. 30-31).

Fig. 31. Scythian gold-stag from Zöld-Halom-Puszta in an unusual posture. Hungary, Vth century B.C.

The last major detachment of Scythians entered the land under the general name of Sarmati (Sarmatians). They are, however, most frequently mentioned by their clan-names, as Alani, Yazigues and Roxolani. The Yazigues settled in Hungary in A.D. 20, and occupied the pasture-land between the Danube and the Tisza rivers, where they erected strong fortifications. Thanks to their inaccessible territory, they could preserve their autonomous rule during the Roman occupation of Pannónia and Dacia. They lost their ethnic identity during the Hun period, but a large district and a county still retain their name.

The presence of Scythians in Hungary is superbly documented by the archaeological remains of their civilization: grave-mounds and colossal defence installations. The grave-mounds or barrows resulted from the earth they heaped up upon the tombs of their defunct leaders, kings or princes. Grave-mound in Hungarian is Sir-Halom or simply Halom. This term forms part of several dozens of old place-names all over the country, such as Herceg-Halom, 'Prince's Mound'; Zöld-Halom-Puszta 'Green Mound on the Steppe' (there are four such names), in one of them a precious gold stag-medal was found, proving that the mound is really a princely one; Sas-Halom 'Eagle's Mound'; Hegyes-Halom 'Pointed Mound' (two such names); Száz-Halom 'Hundred Mounds' (where the victims of a huge battle have been buried in the Hunnic times). Until 1939, 85 Scythian burial sites were excavated in Hungary, a testimony of the numerous Scythians who were living there.

The innumerable remains of the former Scythian defense system allowed the archaeologists to reconstruct its whole extension. The main line, often in triple rows, started at the Danube elbow at Vác and proceeded eastwards along the northern edge of the Great Plain through Eger and Tokaj to Nyíregyháza. At that point it turned southwards, by-passed Szatmár, Nagyvárad, Gyula and Versec, and at that level, it reached the Danube again. At certain strategically important points, such as at Sopron on the west, and the region of Diósgyőr in the northeast, more elaborate embankments were constructed. Secondary or disconnected ditches existed near rivers at crossings and fords (Garam, Vág, Maros, Temes, Olt), and in mountain passes as well. The rectangular rich land between the Danube and the Tisza to the south was protected by triple lines on its open northern side. The total length of the embankments and ditches in Hungary exceeded 1700 km, while the enclosed and protected area measured 62,000 km2. The building of these defence lines required the removal of 20,000,000 m3 of earth (P 084 and P 102). The technical terms for the various parts of the defence installations were the following: the general name of earthen stronghold was Föld-Vár, the ditch was Árok', the rampart or embankment was Gát; the fence or hedge on top of the embankment Sövény, the enclosure or area surrounded with entrenchment was Sánc or Udvar. These technical terms occur by the dozens in Old Hungarian place-names; one has only to open the Directory of Hungary's place-names to be convinced about this. We have such names as Duna-Földvár, Árok Szállás, Gát-Falva, Sövény-Háza, Sánc, Sánci-Puszta, Sánc-Pataka, Udvar-Hely, etc.

When was this system built and who were its builders? It is obvious that the whole system was not erected at one time. Certain sections were, in all probability, completed during the last centuries of the first millenium B.C., toward the end of Scythian domination, when their rule was threatened. Other parts were built by the Sarmatians, the successors of the Scythians proper, between 250 and 300 A.D. Furthermore, the work was continued during the Hun period as well. Sometimes the ditches' names may give a clue to this question, which are in English: 'Ditch of the Giants', 'Ditch of the Devil', 'Ditch of the Dark Men' (i.e. Csörsz Árka, Csörsz meaning 'Dark' in the local parlance). Other names point to a younger period, such as 'Ditch of the Huns', 'Road of Attila', 'Ditch of the Avars' and 'Roman Embankments'.

To erect so many mounds, and build such gigantic earthen strongholds, it was necessary to have a strong central authority, unified planning, constant maintenance work and, above all, a great number of people for manual work. It follows that not a "few" Scythians had come to live in Hungary, as was earlier erroneously supposed, but "many": ordinary people, as well as kings and princes.

3. The language of the European Scythians

Ancient authors, such as Herodotus, Strabo, Plinius, Jordanes and others agree that all Scythian people spoke the same language, and modern scythologists have also accepted this view almost unanimously. The controversy begins with the next question, viz. what was this language and with which language group was it affiliated? In trying to solve this mystery, we will examine, in turn, common Scythian words recorded by foreign authors, then Scythian ethnic and personal names, and finally Scythian symbols and other written evidence.

One of our principal sources is, of course, Herodotus who had such a keen interest in the Scythian way of life that he undertook the tiresome journey to Olbia on the Black Sea shore to find out more about it. He noted that every Scythian carried an inward curving sharp knife strapped to his boot, and called "A Cina Kesh". In present graphic form, this expression would be A csizma kés (The Boot Knife), whose most important element Kesh, 'Knife' is Kés in Hungarian as well. Herodotus also relates that one of the Scythian names for Sungod was Oetos-Ur-Us, which is also a Hungarian name

Ötös Ur-Ös 'Number 5 Divinity', five being the sacred number of the Sungod, as already mentioned. The Master also noticed that Upper Scythia is often snow-covered in winter, for which reason the soil is concealed from view for months. And he adds that the Scythians call the snow-flakes 'feathers'. Similarly, in Hungarian the same word Pihe is used for both the fine feathers and the light snow-flakes.

The father of historiography was charmed with all that he had learned about the principal Scythian river, the Dnieper, then called Danaber, something like Tanya Bor 'River of the Field' in Hungarian. It was also called Bor Ysthenes, which is again a Hungarian name, meaning 'Divine Water' or 'Fine Water'. Then Herodotus lists a series of arguments why the river is so fine. This river "has upon its banks the loveliest and most excellent pastures for catties; it abounds in the most delicious fish; its water is most pleasant to the taste; its stream is limpid." All these added expressions bolster the Hungarian etymology of the word Ysthenes. And the other part of the river's name, 'Bor', signifies in the local Sekeli-Hungarian dialect of Transylvania, 'drinking water', most often of thermal origin.

Turning now to the Scythian ethnic and personal names, we again refer to Herodotus who says that the name by which the Scythians above the Black Sea called themselves, was Scoloti, whereas the Assyrians called them Ishkusai or Ashguzai and the Greeks simply Skytoi. When these names are placed back into their original spelling, according to the phonetical evolution of the Hungarian, they prove to have been taken from the Hungarian vocabulary. All the names in question terminate with the adjectival suffix -i, which gives the name the meaning of 'originating from', 'coming from' or 'native of'. It follows that the preceding word must indicate the specific geographic area where the Scythians formerly lived. In the case of Scoloti (< H.: Ös-Kelet-i) this original homeland is 'Ancient Orient' (the same as Chaldi, Khaldi), by which name Babylon was also called. The meaning of Ish-Kuza-i and Ash-Guza-i presents no difficulty, when remembering the easy interchangeabi-lity of the kindred consonants K, G and H. It means in Hungarian Ös-haza-i 'Originating from the Old Fatherland', —again Mesopotamia, the same geographic area. At first sight, less evident is the etymology of Skytoi, which may be the Grecized form of the original Hungarian Szigeti 'Coming from the Isles', a reference to their sojourn in the thousand islands of the rivers Kur and Araxes in the southern Caucasus.

All the names analyzed were first given to the Scythians while they were still living in the Caucasian region, busy reconstructing their political set-up with various 'blood-contracts'. They retained these names even later, when another of their group settled in a similar region, around the other side of the Caspian Sea (in Touran). Because of the multitude of isles in that area as well, Ptolemy called it Insulae nationum, 'Isles of Nations'. From the third century B.C. onward, when the Scythians had already lived for generations in their acquired 'Scythia', they were no longer considered as newcomers, but as 'natives' in their own country. Accordingly, they began to be called Hon-i, or in ancient Hungarian spelling: Huni 'Natives', 'Country-Men', again in plain Hungarian. The first Scythian detachments posted on Hungarian soil were the Agathyrsi, in the Upper Maros valley, Transylvania. They were assigned to frontier-guard duties, as their name clearly implies: A Gath Yrsi < A Gát Őrző 'Guardians of Embankments'. The last Scythian confederation of tribes to settle in Hungary were the Yazigues: they settled between the Danube and the Tisza rivers, in the southern central part of Hungary in A.D. 20. By trade, they were cattle keepers and shepherds, as is proven by their name: Yazigue < Jószág (őr) being 'Cattle (keepers).

The list of Scythian ethnic denominations can be completed by a few royal names with a clear meaning. These are mainly the ones which include the distinguishing word 'Aryan', Ur, Ar in Hungarian, as Aria-Peita <Arja Fajta 'King who is of Aryan origin'; Ari-Antus <Arja Honős 'Aryan Land Ancestor'; Scyl-Urus < Urös 'Székely Ancestor'. All the foregoing details are sufficient to convince the reader that the Scythians were misjudged until now as far as their ethnic and linguistic identity is concerned. It seems absolutely certain to-day that they were Magyar tongued and belonged to the once widely diffused Hungarian race.

The written documents the Scythians left behind them bring fresh and decisive evidence to the above conclusion. Amongst such documents, the oldest one is written by the pictorial method which conveys abstract ideas by images of similar-sound-ing concrete objects, as has been indicated several times. In Scythian practice, and also elsewhere, the pictorial writing was mainly used to express royal titles, such as Ancestor, Divine Ancestor. For the former title, the image of an eagle was used, whereas for the latter, that of a stag. The names of these animals in Hungarian, Sas and Szarvas, sounded, indeed, like Az ős and Az Urős respectively. This method of identifying rulers by that way was very widespread, especially in the first millenium B.C., so that a golden stag found in a Scythian mound was considered by archaeologists as the supreme evidence of being connected with a royal tomb.

Because of inherent difficulties, pictorial writing was rarely used for communication of messages of any length; we know of only two such examples, both recorded by Herodotus. The first message narrates how the newly acquired Scythian Kingdom was inherited by Colaxis, the youngest of the three sons of Targitaus, the conqueror (P 067 Book VII cap. 64). God had strewn upon the earth, from the sky, four golden implements: a plough, a yoke, a battle axe (sagaris) and a drinking cup. The Kingdom should be inherited by the one of the three brothers who could pick them up. The two elder brothers failed to do so because the gold took fire as they approached it. But when the youngest born neared the treasure, the flames suddenly vanished, and he picked up the gold. What was the divine message written with these golden objects? We can find out by writing down, one after another, the names of the four items in the Hungarian language: EKE.IGA. SAGARIS.KUPA, which gives the following similar sounding sentence: E7KEIG/AS/AGARIS/ KEPE: E kölyök az Égurös képe 'This child is the deputy for the Heavenly Lord'. That meant, in contemporary language, the Colaxis (the Child) must assume the title 'God on Earth', i.e. the royal dignity. The children had understood the message and they agreed to bequeath the kingdom to the youngest born —says Herodotus.

The second known pictorial message of the Scythians, also in the Hungarian language, was sent to King Darius in 512 B.C., when the latter invaded Scythia to avenge the destruction of Assyria, a hundred years earlier. As the Persian armies bogged down, following the scorched earth policy of the Scythians, Darius, to save face, declared that he would be satisfied with a symbolic submission by receiving the usual water and earth gift from the Scythian king. But, instead of the required gift, the Scythian king sent Darius a bird, a mouse, a frog and five arrows. The Persian king thereupon consulted his chief advisors to find out the meaning of the message. There was, indeed, no doubt that this was a written document. The advisors were divided in their interpretation: some deciphered it as a peace-offer, the Scythian king would be willing to make to the Persians. Others thought that the message contains a serious threat, viz. that all the Persians will be killed with arrows. Darius agreed with the second reading and, panic stricken, left Scythia on one of the following nights. To find out the meaning of the strange message, we again write down the corresponding Hungarian words: MADÁR. EGÉR.BÉKA. ÖT. NYIL and we find the similar sounding, sentence: Magyari kér békét őnála, 'Magyar asks for peace with him', exactly as the first group of advisors had deciphered the message. A second interpretation is possible, when the word for mouse (egér) is replaced by another one for the same animal, Sir, used by the kindred Komi (P 060 p. 19). In that case the message reads thus: Magyar sírba küld nyíllal 'Magyar will kill thee with arrows'. And that was the way Darius himself interpreted the intention of the Scythians.

Besides the pictorial writing, the Scythians were also acquainted with the carved script and bequeathed us a unique message written in that way. It is engraved upon a silver dish 14 inches wide found near the town of Sakiz to the south of Lake

Urmia. It is decorated with animal figures in a row between two concentric circles. Its featured decor was a golden horse, set in the centre. The treasure was meant for a wedding present offered by a Scythian prince on the occasion of the marriage of King Bartatua or King Madyes, to an Assyrian princess in the second half of the VIIth century B.C. (P 054 p. 106; P 123 p. 22 f.). The script (reproduced in P 054 p. 109 and explained in P 007 II p. 63 f.) reads thus in Hungarian: E kis tálcát valaki bőkezűen neki adja; as éke ló 'This small tray is generously given to him by somebody; its adornment is a horse'. After that follows the value of the ware, in conformity to ancient uses and customs. Now, the expression 'its adorment is a horse' conceals the identity of the donor as Sekeli, 'a Siculi'.

Finally, we must mention that the Scythians probably had studied and used Greek letters as well, proof of which are two coins of the Indian Saka-dynasty (first century B.C.). On one of the coins the following Magyar words appear: TURANNO UNTOS 'ERAOY and on the other side: SAKA KOGGANOI. On the second coin: YRKODOY MAKAROY, and on the back: SK'WR (i.e. SAKA UR), (transliteration in P 059 p. 133). According to the present Hungarian orthography, the inscriptions would read thus: 1. Turáni Honös, Király — Székely kagán 'Touranian land -ancestor, — Siculi kaghan' and 2. Uralkodója Magyar — Székely úr' 'Its ruler is a Magyar, a Siculi Prince'.

The three kinds of writing illustrated — pictorial, carved and alphabetical — definitely prove our previous statement: that the Scythians were a Hungarian-speaking people, literate and skillful in writing.

4. Who were the Kelti or Celts?

History books tell us, that around 300 B.C. the name 'Scythian' abruptly vanished from circulation, and that per contra, the Kelti name made its appearance at about the same time. Is there any connection between the two phenomena? Nobody knows with any certainty, in spite of ample available material for the study of Celtic problems. In Hungary alone, for example, over 590 Celtic sites were discovered until 1976, — says Miklós Szabó, author of a book on the Celts in Hungary (P 119 pp. 36 and 16). The basic two volume publication of Henri Hubert (P 070) gives a great deal of factual information about the general history of the Celts, but is already somewhat antiquated. Two smaller recent works, the comprehensive study of Venceslav Kruta (P 083) and Jan Filip (P 049) respectively are far from able to fill the gap. None of the authors mentioned took full advantage of the invaluable help toponymy offers to scrutinize the Celtic place-, ethnic and personal names, although such names are copiously recorded even in J. Caesar's De bello Gallico. Furthermore, Celtic inscriptions engraved upon coins and other archaeological finds were also not taken into due consideration. We even ignore the meaning of the very name: Kelti.

As regards the ethnic identity of the Celts, it was thought, two generations ago, that they were an individual, original human species, i.e. men of high stature and fair complexion. To-day our scholars are inclined to see in these 'first Europeans' rather small-statured, lightly brownish complexioned 'Mediterraneans'. Again others are of the opinion that the Celti were only a ruling class over the previously immigrated, predominantly pre-Indo-European population. Still others think that the Celts were Indo-Europeans who strongly mixed with the aborigines. We do not lack hypotheses, but the truth is, as V. Kruta puts it: "For the time being, there exists no indisputable evidence for the ethnic appurtenance of those who have been called the 'Princes of the first Iron Age" (P 083 p. 64).

In the present state of our researches, we must make use of circumstantial evidences to learn more about the ethnic identity of the Celts. A closer look at the manifestations of Celtic civilization, convinces us that they contained no new feature; all their most striking characteristics having already been evident in the previous, Scythian civilization. These included the fortified place protected by embankments, ditches and hedges, the multitude of animal images which pervaded their arts, the use of horses and sunworship, a heritage from the New Stone Age. There was only one new addition to Celtic culture: the extensive use of iron. It follows that the 'Celts' must have been an amalgam of the previous non-Indo-European inhabitants of Europe. This is exactly what scholars have discovered during the course of their comparative studies. It was found, indeed, that the Picti of northern Scotland were already Celts — "early Celts" — who called themselves by that word in the form of Khaldes or Chaltis, which is the Kelti in ancient graphic form (P 132 p. 139). J. Hawkes also places the makers of the bell-shaped vessels into the category of the Celts. There too, the peoples of the barrow-graves can be found (i.e. the Scythians, P 049 pp. 16 and 20), and also the Turoni, who migrated from Central Europe to the banks of the Loire (P 089 p. 11), as well as the Secani, who went from Hungary to France, etc. There were also peoples called Kelto-Scythians, Kelto-Ligurians, Kelt-Iberi. Thus, it is evident, that the Celts were not a new race in Europe, and the Celt or Kelti name was used as a comprehensive designation of the entire pre-Christian population of Europe.(47)

The huge and kindred Celtic mass of B.C. Europe was linked together by a common language as well, in addition to the above-mentioned identical elements of their civilization. According to the estimate of Camille Julien (Paris) "a hundred million" Europeans spoke the Kelti language in the second half of the first millenium B.C. Consequently, there was no linguistic barrier in ancient Europe.(48) In spite of these categorical statements, nobody has, alas, identified the Celtic language, nor proved its affiliation with any other. In that respect we are still completely in the dark. The reason? Nobody has yet approached the Celtic problem with the Hungarian key. In the following, we shall try to analyze the etymological meaning of the fundamental word: Kelti.

Before us, Henri Hubert, the most eminent French specialist of the Celts has made great efforts to find out the meaning of the Celti name. He carefully noted all the various graphic forms in which this name occurred and concluded (1) that it reached its widest diffusion during the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., and (2) that it contains the rootword Kel (Quel in French graphic form), "implying the idea to rise" (P 070 I p. 27). He mentions this meaning as the most probable one, amongst many other conjectures listed in a footnote. He could, however, not go any farther in his explanations, thus the question remained unsolved.(49)

In Hungarian the word Kel signifies 'to rise' and Kelet the cardinal point where the Sun rises, i.e. 'Orient, East'. And the same word, when the -i suffix is added as Kelt-i, Kelet-i means 'He who has come from the direction of the rising Sun', i.e. from the Orient. In ancient times, this word was spelt in various ways, such as Chaldi, Chaldean and Scoloti. Like most ancient Hungarian ethnic names, it indicates no ethnic particularity, but is merely a geographic appellation recalling their previous fatherland. As such, it was a fitting comprehensive name, because all the pre-Indo-European ethnic groups originated from the same region: from the ancient Orient. Thus, the name Kelti or Keleti was the general term designating all the Hungarian speaking ethnic groups which had migrated to Central and Western Europe from the ancient Orient since the New Stone Age.

The Kelti were a very cultured human mass, to whom Europe owes a great deal. They were the one who christened all the great rivers and mountains of that continent, who designated the places of the future great cities, and planned the first network of communication. They were the 'first Europeans'. Had History given them another hundred years, they would have formed a great unitary nation, centered around Gallia and Hungary. But this century had not been granted to them. As is known, the Romans, "who have become the enemy of the race which founded it", literally destroyed this nation during its gestation. The holocust of the Celts in Gallia was perpetrated by Julius Caesar and his legions, in the first century B.C., between 59 and 51. They systematically massacred all the political leaders of that nation, their soldiers and priests, killing altogether three millions and setting fire to eight hundred towns and villages. After that, the people were economically ruined, terrorized, assimilated and Romanized. The history of Europe does not know of any other similar killings. Yet, Caesar had been whitewashed by historians of all his crimes and stands before us as a "Great European". Only the Kelti in Hungary were capable to outlive the century of hell in Europe.

THE HUN HUNGARIANS

1. The Roman and Germanic influence upon the ethnographic conditions in the Carpatho-Danubian basin

1. The peaceful penetration of Magyar-speaking Oriental tribes into the Carpatho-Danubian region was interrupted after the Scythian and Celtic periods and was replaced by armed interventions from the West. First came the Romans, an imperialist people. After having created a solid basis on the Apennine peninsula, they gradually extended their domination over the entire Mediterranean area during the second and first centuries B.C. Thereafter, for growing security and economic reasons, they extended the frontiers of their Empire up to the Danube, which meant, for Hungary, the occupation of her western province, Transdanubia. After a difficult and long war (from 12 B.C. to 9 A.D.) they besieged it and about fifty years later converted the conquered land into a Roman province, under the name of Pannónia. They ruled this province for about four hundred years, and then gradually handed it over to the Huns, between 409 and 433.

What interests us, regarding the Roman rule of Pannónia, is to ascertain what had happened to the large Magyar-speaking population there. In that respect, we must first recall that the Roman conquest was prompted by strategic considerations and its military character was predominant up to the very end. Above all, the Romans wanted to build a strong military barrier along the Danube. Secondly, the province's Roman governors were not as blood-thirsty and ruthless as was Julius Caesar in Gaul. Thanks to these circumstances, the Roman conquest was neither followed by wholesale massacres of the inhabitants, nor by the extermination of the upper classes, nor by the colonization of the land by a Latin-speaking population. The former tribal structure of the society was maintained, including local administration (P 087 pp. 112, 117). The legions which were keeping watch on the Danube, and the various auxiliary personnel employed for guarding the military roads were mostly manned by a local population, including their commanders. Moreover, what was no less important: the Romans did not suppress the native beliefs. Thus, once the war was over, life, on the whole, followed its ancestral course. Taking all that into account, our scholars evaluated the effect of Roman rule in Pannónia, from an ethnographic point of view, as harmless.

Those who studied Hungarian life in Pannónia under Roman rule more closely, have pointed out certain linguistic facts which evidence the survival of the Hungarian language. The very name of the land Pannónia, for example, is a Hungarian compound with Pan and Hon (=H.: Fenn-Hon) meaning 'Upper Land'. The most important city was Savaria, so named after the Sungod (cf. Savi-tra, Savarna, P 044). In that city, God was worshipped in a great temple, which had an immense Sundisc above its altar. The present-day village of Szabar, near ancient Savaria, probably retains the ancient city's names.

For the survival of the Hungarian language under the Roman rule, it is highly significant that the Roman emperors, coming from Pannónia, used Hungarian throne-names, as did Had-Ri-Anus (117-138), Aur-Eli-Anus (270-275), Val-Eri-Anus (253-260), and Sev-Erus (193-211). In these names the Hungarian component -Anus (= Honős) often appears, meaning 'Country Ancestor', or the word -Erus (Urős) 'Divine Ancestor'. It is not surprising to find so many Hungarian traces in Pannónia, since the political and military centre of the Roman Empire was, in the third and fourth centuries A.D., no longer in Rome, but in Pannónia and Illyria instead. During this time, these provinces, or rather their inhabitants, supplied the best soldiers, governors, and emperors, and also 'Roman' virtue.

After the conquest of Pannónia, the Romans conquered the eastern part of Hungary as well and emperor Trajan converted it to another Roman province named Dacia. The emperor personally conducted the military operations (101-105). The occupation of this land was actually prompted by economic reasons: the Romans wanted to lay their hands upon the abundant supply of gold, silver, copper and salt which was mined there. Dacia's occupation was, however, short lived, lasting about a century and a half. Indeed, the province had to be abandoned in 271, when Roman personnel was evacuated and withdrawn to the southern shore of the Danube. The three most important Dacian cities, Sar-Mizegeth-Usa, Napo-Ca, and A-Pu-Lum have clear Hungarian meanings. The first name would be in present spelling Sár-Mezőket-Ásó (city) 'Where gold fields are dug', the second Nap-Kő 'Sun City', and the third A Fő Ló (városa) '(City) of the Principal Horse', also a Sun city.

The Roman never subjected the mountainous northern section of Hungary, nor the great Central Plain, between Pannónia and Dacia, to their rule. The tribes living in that part of the land maintained their independence. So, Roman domination passed without vital harm in Dacia as well. But, by dismembering the Carpatho-Danubian land into three parts, they retarded the unification of the diverse social groups into a single nation, a process which had been going on since Scythian times. Thus it happened that the territorial re-unification of the entire Carpathia area and the building of a nation befall the next generation of great leaders: King Attila and Prince Arpad.

2. Shortly after the Roman Empire's entry into the Carpathian basin, Germanic tribes also began their penetration into the land. They started from their northwestern homeland Scandia (Scandinavia) pushing eastwards on the East-European table-land until they had reached the River Don in the third century A.D. They were called Goths, and formed two separate groups, the Ostro-Goths and the Visi-Goths. A third Germanic tribal federation, the Gepids, was formed inside the Carpathians, in Transylvania, above the Maros river, as far as the Tisza.

The appearance of Germanic tribes in Eastern and Central Europe filled the Romans with fear, so they encouraged the Huns, who were also threatened, into action. The tense situation provoked the armed intervention of the Huns in 375. After this, Germanic rule crumbled away and the Huns gained control over all eastern and central Europe. This is all well known in history, so that we do not need to discuss it. But less known is the ethnic build-up of the Germanic tribes in question. It is, indeed, a false assumption that the Germanic tribes were as fully Germanic in Eastern and Central Europe as they were when invading continental Europe from Scandinavia around Christ's birth. The explanation is obvious: when the Germanic tribes started for the distant adventure, they usually travelled without women folk and therefore strongly mixed with local population during their wanderings. That had the effect, that within three or four generations, they were a completely different people from the one that set out. The following short analysis will show how the Germanic tribes mixed with Hungarians when they reached the domain of the Magyar ethnic body.

The name Gepida was given to the confederation of Germanic tribes which occupied northeastern Hungary. It has no accepted etymology in the Germanic language, but has in Hungarian, where Gyep-i Ta means '(Men) of the Grass-Land', where the Gepids actually lived. And in the case of the Visi-Goths, which name is supposed to signify 'West Goths' in the Germanic language, the Hungarian gives again a more plausible explanation. In it Visi (in to-day's Hungarian Vizi) means 'Those who live near water courses', which was again true of the Goths. The Germanic ethnic identification symbols were also taken over from the local population, particularly the eagle, typical symbol of the steppe population, and also birds in general. We should also not forget that Gothic script, the so-called Runen, was a simplified Magyar carved script. Its German name originated from the Hungarian word róni 'to carve'. Thus, we should agree with the statement of Gyula László, according to which "the scant upper class of the Goths, the conquering layer, underwent an almost complete transformation under the impact of local traditions and customs" (P 087 pp. 161-164). The modified social structure of the Goths and Gepids was one of the main reasons why they accepted to stay in the Carpathian land so readily even after the Hun conquest, faithfully serving their new king Attila. All that considerably modifies the image we had of the migration of the Germanic peoples, at least in the sector of southeastern Europe. It altogether confirms that the aboriginal Hungarians could keep their own ethnic identity unchanged. And that was the most important feature of the Middle Danube basin on the eve of the coming of the Huns.

2. The coming of the Huns

The Huns emerged in history as an Oriental people living on the pastures of the Oxus river valley, to the south of the Aral Sea. However, in the second century A.D., most of them had already skirted the southern end of the Caspian Sea and were in possession of the land above the Caucasus mountains up to the mouth of the Don river, the steppeland of former Scythia. Their westward move was prompted by fatal climatic changes which transformed their cradle-land (Touran) into a semi-desert. Increasing temperatures resulted in a considerable reduction of the water supply and the grass of the fields vanished. Thus the Huns, living from animal husbandry, had to move and look for new grazing land. At the same time, as just mentioned, Germanic tribes were advancing eastwards on the great European Plain, by occupying more and more pasture, until they too had reached the river Don and came in direct contact with the Huns.

Alarmed by their double misfortune, the Huns felt that their very existence was being threatened and that provoked their violent reaction. Under their first great king Balamber, they attacked the Ostro-Goths, their nearest adversaries, and swiftly broke their power. The Ostrogothic ruling class took refuge in Pannónia and proceeded to Italy a little later. The bulk of the Gothic population, however, submitted to the Huns and was incorporated into their politico-military system as a separate entity under its own leaders. The next Germanic tribal federation, the Visi-Goths, located on the northern bank of the Lower Danube, seeing the defeat of their brethren, offered no resistance, but gave up their land, crossed the Danube and entered into the Roman Empire. Thus, the Huns, with a single sweeping action, arrived at the foothills of the Carpathian mountains in 375 A.D.

Immediately thereafter, the Huns began planning the occupation of the last western segment of the great Eurasian steppeland, the Carpathian Lowland, inside the mountainous arc, by concluding pacts and alliances with their kindred tribes: the Yazigues in the Danube-Tisza quadrangle, the Skirs (= Sikeli) in the western half of the country, the Carpodari in Upper Hungary, as well as with the Romans themselves, whose famous general Aetius became their most important ally. By virtue of these multiple alliances, the Huns gained control of the whole basin inside the Carpathians, without employing military force. Since the land was given over to Hun sovereignty peacefully, without war, and with the blessings of Rome, the local population had no particular reason to expeet hardship. It remained intact and offered its services to the Hun king, a friend of Rome. The Huns set up their permanent head-quarters in the heart of the land, at the confluence of the rivers Tisza and Maros, wherefrom King Oktar ( + 430), King Ruga ( + 434) and thereafter King Attila (+453) governed their extensive empire. Thus, with the coming of the Huns, Roman and Germanic dominions in Central Europe were liquidated and the aborigines liberated.

Aetius continued to court the Huns, even after their installation in Hungary, encouraging them in their westward advance, in order to ease the Germanic pressure on the northern borders of the Roman Empire. For the Huns, the prospect of a possible extension of their sway upon the whole of Europe was an alluring offer, but, as it turned out, a miscalculation. King Attila was unable to win a clear victory in the great battle at Mauriacum, near Troyes, France, in 451. The immense efforts this war required in men and material, and the authoritarian manner Attila handled his subalterns, overstrained the socio-political structure of his realm. So, when Attila suddenly passed away in 453, his empire crumbled, in large part because of the intrigues and rebellion of the Germanic tribes. Attila's sons were defeated in the struggle for the succession (455) and returned with their clans and kinsmen to Scythia, the tract of land above the Black Sea, beyond the Carpathian ranges. They did not, however, forget their ancient grandeur and Prince Csaba, the youngest son of Attila, as soon as he was back in the old country, began to spread the idea of an armed return to Pannónia (= Hungary), to take revenge upon the Germans, whom they considered as the main artisans of their defeat. On his death-bed, he bound his people by oath, to return to Hungary, as soon as they had gathered enough strength, to rebuild a Hun state. Thus, the Huns did not disappear as it was sometimes surmised in certain historical books. They stayed in the immediate neighbourhood, waiting until the clock would strike the hour of their return. This moment arrived in 568.

At that time, a strong federation had come into being with the fusion of two great tribes: the A vari and Chunni consisting mostly of white Huns. The name Avari (< H.: A vár-i) means 'He who comes from an embanked stronghold', and Chunni (< H.: Hun-i, i.e. Hon-i), Huns. J. Thury, a Hungarian historian, established that 37 different sources identify the Avars ethnically as Huns (P 059 pp. 113,128). In the Carpathian basin, they mainly occupied the Great Central Plain and Transdanubia and also considerable parts of present-day Austria and Dalmatia. The Avars kept their empire and their independence until 796, when they were defeated by the Franks under Charlemagne, who destroyed their State, whereby the pendulum swing, once again, westward.

3. The ethnic identity of the Huns

The true identity of the Huns has not yet been clearly established: "We know nearly nothing about their early history" and "the history of Attila is still to be written" (P 061 p. 127). Our evidence on the anthropological build-up of this nation is scanty, because the Huns cremated their dead, thereby leaving no direct anthropological traces of them. Hence, what we know about them comes mostly from second-hand records. In contemporary and later accounts, the Huns are said to be of mixed origins, like all nations with an Oriental background. A major proof of this, as is usually pointed out, was their skin colour which was generally brownish, although there were typical white Huns as well. Their colour difference subsisted even in the fourth and fifth centuries, which indicates that the fusion of the two racial elements of this people had not yet been achieved at that time. This state of their ethnic evolution explains why they were not only called by their common name Huni, but also by other names which emphasize their racial origin. They were called Kush when their darkish colouring was more evident (P 092 pp. 14 f., 19-22), and Aryans (< H.: Uri, Ari), when the white complexion predominated. King Attila is described in the chronicles as a short-statured, darkish complexioned man, of haughty walking.(50)

The various appellations of the Huns all have some significance in the Hungarian language. Their most frequent Huni (< H.: Hon-i) name, often written without H as Unni, Uni, means 'He who lives in the same land', i.e. who is a native of the country, a compatriot. It is a geographic and political term, irrespective of racial origin, as were also the previously analysed names of Magyar, Hungar, Siculi and Kelti. Thus, the main connecting link amongst all these peoples was their common Hungarian language and their identical Oriental origin. Therefore, they mixed easily, once they were placed under a same sovereignty. And there can be no mistake if Attila is referred to as the King of Hungary (rex Hungáriáé), since the Huni were considered as Hungarians (Huni sive Hungari).

In addition to their general names (Huns, Kush, Hungarians) the various factions of this people also came under local denominations.(51) These secondary names were mainly noticed after the collapse of the Hun Empire, when several smaller political entities came into being. These names usually included the distinctive word -Ág- Ur 'Ruler of the branch so and so'. Examples: Kutzi-Ág-Űr, Hun-Ág-Ur, Sár-Ág-Ur. The ethnic identity of the Huns is nevertheless best evidenced by their own written records, which we discovered and which we are now going to analyse in more detail.

4. Hun-symbols and written records

It is often assumed that the Huns were an illiterate, barbaric people who left no written records. This opinion actually stems from the inability of scholars to identify and decipher their script. In fact, as shown below, the Huns bequeathed us with a considerable amount of written records, most of which turned up in Hungary, the one-time centre of their vast empire. Apart from sources of archaeological provenance, diplomatic records also mention their ability to write and to read. We have, in this respect, the rare testimony of Priscos Rhetor, one of the most credible observers of the Huns, who led an embassy to the court of King Attila. He mentions in his report that the King requested the extradition of certain fugitive Huns, whose names he read out in his presence from small wooden sticks, from the Byzantine emperor. Another proof of the Huns' writing ability is the fact that the incised or carved script was always called a "Hun writing", "Hun letters" and "Alphabet of the Huns" in Hungary. The legend about illiterate Huns must be abandoned.

Most existing Hun inscriptions have gold as supporting material and as such display a solemn character. But the daily records which Priscos Rhetor himself had mentioned were made on wood or on other perishable material, which deteriorated and are now lost for ever. Another preliminary question to be answered is whether the existing Hun inscriptions, especially those engraved upon expensive materials, could have really belonged to them at all. We have no reason to doubt this, since our historical sources are positive in stating that the Hun kings were, in general, fond of gold, like all Oriental rulers. We read in these records that Attila's dining table was made of solid gold, and his cooking dishes were also of gold.(52) The same sources mention the existence of a huge Hun golden treasure, which later on became the property of the Hungarian kings by law of succession and was always kept in Hungary, at the royal court. The treasure included the legendary sword of Attila, the so-called Sword of God, implying Attila's divine origin. Moreover, Hungarian medieval charters certify that Ottokár II of Bohemia was asked to restitute all the gold to the King of Hungary, which his grandmother, Ann of Masovia, unlawfully carried away from Hungary to Bohemia. Amongst these precious jewels "was an expensive gold dish, adorned with the finest and most beautiful precious stones, as well as many other famous jewels, which were kept in Hungary from the time of Attila, king of Hungary, and his successors until now."(53) The listed data dispel even the slightest doubt one may have that Attila had been the owner of gold dishes and other precious jewels, which were inscribed.

On the following pages we will show a few Hun symbols, to begin with, which were used for the purpose of identifying the ruler by means of homo-phony, i.e. the pictorial method of writing which was common to all Oriental rulers during Antiquity. Attila's best known such symbol was the Ast-Ur bird, whose image he wore on his shield. This word sounds like Est-Ura, 'Ruler of the West'. This title may have originated from the time when he was only ruling the western half of the Hun Empire, his brother Bleda having been in charge of the eastern part. Furthermore, Attila was also called God's Whip, which is another play on sound for the same title, whip being Ostor in Hungarian, homophonic with Est-Ur. Finally, a widely used Hun badge was the stylized insect having the outlines of a bee (H.: Méh), which identified its bearer (Ur, Ar), as Méh-Ar, i.e. Mahar or Magyar.(54)

Another group of Hun-identifying objects consisted of quadrupeds: mostly dogs, foxes, and wolves. They were used as totems, designating the clan from which they had originated. On the basis of such assumed names, certains Huns could have considered themselves as "Sons of the Dog" or "Sons of the Fox". King Ruga was probably 'Fox' (H.: Róka), while King Oktar may have been 'Mr. Dog' (H.: A kutya ur). The speech of the Huns, especially their battle-cry, was said to resemble "the roaring of lions" (P 099 pp. 64, 147, 178).(55)

The author has deciphered several of the Hun inscriptions which are engraved upon gold dishes, found at Nagy-Szent-Miklós, to the south of the river Maros, which was the central district of the Hun Empire. The cache was discovered in 1791 and yielded 23 pieces (dishes, juges, goblets, etc.), all made of solid gold, weighing altogether 9,925 gr. The commodities were probably not for everyday use, because they are conserved in almost perfect condition, without any trace of wear or tear. It is likely that the purpose of these jewels was rather to preserve important historical messages for the progeny, like royal records. In addition to the individual inscriptions, five richly adorned vessels (numbered 9, 10, 17, 22 and 23) bear an identical short script. It always reads from right to left and was written in memory of the goldsmith who made the decorations: pictures and interwoven figures. The script (Fig. 32) reads in Hungarian thus: áR-U Ké-Pé.T 1 T.eR.éK U.N CSi-Ná.Ta, in present Hungarian orthography: Árú képét egy derék hun csinálta, in English: 'The adornment of this article was made by a skilled Hun.'

Fig. 33. Hungarian language message engraved upon a Hunnic gold tray. Treasure of Nagy-Szent-Miklós, Hungary.

A longer inscription appears on a gold tray (Fig. 33), marvellously adorned with a Tree of Life (genealogical tree), flanked on both sides by two stylized attendant animals. In the higher ranking position there are two dog-like creatures with pointed ears, and on the second one are two quadripeds with birds' beaks. The picture may point out the two major Magyar-speaking peoples of Hungary at that time: Huns and Magyars. The one line inscription below the picture reads from right to left and is transliterated thus: aD-iSZ.eN iR-T eR.aN-O.Ni Ro.Ko.N-oK E.L-aT-Ne-Fe-Ke E.L-T-eK J-U Fó-T, in present Hungarian spelling it would be thus: A díszen irt Irán-honi rokonok állatnevekkel éltek; jó volt. Its meaning: 'The Iranian relatives represented on the ornament, used to live under assumed animal names; that was an advantage.'

The longest inscription shown here is engraved upon a golden dish of which there are two identical ones (Fig. 34). Its distinctive feature is an equilateral cross-sign, placed in the middle of the dish, and is surrounded by a circular inscription. It was executed with great care, no doubt because it was King Oktar's royal seal, bearing his full title. We shall not enter into discussing the complicated meaning of the cross-sign, but only of the script itself, which reads counter-clockwise, starting at the 12 o'clock position. The transliteration of the signs is thus: Ne.Te.T.I-K uN Ki.Rá O.K.T.áR O.R-SZ-E-EGe A.Ra-K Jo.K-oN Ve-Te P-A.Ra-To.K-T-O(l) Po.N-T.I-aK I.SZ.T(er) Vi-Té.Ki-E-K O.Ra-Li-aK Tó.T-oK U-RA. In full Hungarian: Negyedik hun király Oktár országa. Örök jogon vette barátoktól. Pontiak, Ister vidékiek, Uraliak, Tótok ura. In English: 'Realm of the fourth Hun king Oktar. He bought it from friends by hereditary right. He is the ruler of those living above the Pontus (= the Black Sea), in the Ister (= Danubian) region, in the Ural area and of the Slavonic peoples.'

Fig. 34. The great seal of King Oktár the Hun with legend in Hungarian.

The last Hunnic inscription we will be discussing was found outside Hungary. It is incised on the pendant of a necklace found in Wolfheim, Rhein-land. The name of the village where it was found, signifies the 'Dwelling Place of Wolves', a typical Hun designation. The relic comes, in all probability, from a group of Huns who found refuge there after the collapse of their Empire. The message on it was prepared with philological precision (Fig. 35) and is transliterated thus: E.N-G-aR N.E-N-eT.oL EL-O.N-A.N-aK Na.T.A-P.A Ungár nénitől Ilonának, Nagyapa 'From Aunt Ungar to Helen, Grandfather.'

The contemporary written documents of the Huns constitute the decisive evidence that these people were literate, having strong cultural relations with ancient Egypt, and spoke Hungarian. Their records repeatedly say that they originated from the Ancient Near East (Iran), and had acquired their Carpathian land peacefully, by virtue of diplomatic accords.

Fig. 35. Dedication incised upon the pendent of a Hun necklace in Hungarian. Wolfheim, Germany.

5. The bad image of the Huns in Western Europe

After all we have said about the Huns, the question that comes to mind is how could they have had such bad press in western Europe to this day. This hatred is focussed mainly upon King Attila, the most brilliant figure of his race, secondly, upon the Hun people themselves.

As is disclosed from the analysis regarding this subject (P 099 and P 072), chronicler Jordanes, a man of Gothic descent, started the defamation. It was he who invented the tale that Attila was not a human being, but rather a monster, born from the love of a dog and a witch and had a doglike appearance (canis aspersus), with pointed ears. This monster image has come into circulation, in all probability, through misinterpretation of the Hun custom of using animal symbols to indicate their tribal or national appurtenance. So, when the Huns said that they originated from a wolf or a dog, the naive western priests and chronicle-writers took these expressions literally, and justified their abhorrent image with the Huns' own words.

The Huns' monster image was confirmed by a second feature, namely that God had selected the Hun king to fulfill the ungrateful mission to be God's whip (flagellum Dei), a kind of Anti-Christ, to punish, especially the Latin peoples, for their wickedness and crimes. This second gossip originated obviously from the misinterpretation of the Huns' original symbol, the whip, which in their symbolism, meant simply that Attila was the ruler of West, as explained above. Thus the whip in the hand of Attila had as little to do with a punishing mission as the one in the hands of Egyptian Pharaohs. If Jordanes, this first western propagandist, could have had the opportunity to travel throughout the Hun Empire, he probably would have avoided spreading so much inconsistency amongst his countrymen. Herodotus, almost a thousand years earlier, did his reportage on the Scythians more conscientiously. He spared no trouble and travelled to Olbia, on the Black Sea shore, to gather firsthand information. The description of Priscos Rhetor is similarly much more accurate because he had met Attila personally.

Ordinary Huns were also heaped with slander. It was asserted that they were subhuman beings, the descendants of Scythian witches and of unspecified devils, and that their way of life consisted only of looting, perpetrating robberies and killings. And their speech? Oh, they did not have any, their mouth could only give out short and inarticulate sounds like fleeing animals.(56) This latest Hun-feature also originated from the miscomprehension of the metaphor, according to which the Hun battle-cry was likened to the roaring of lions, as the ancient Egyptian kings have done when in battle. To sum up, all the interpretations the Westerners invented reflect their naivety, lack of experience and a great deal of bad faith.

The Hun armies never sacked Rome, the holy city of Christendom, although they could have done so in 452, having arrived at the gates of the City. In the western interpretation this was not due to Attila's orders, but to a miracle: the apostles Peter and Paul appeared with shining sabres above Attila's head, and this sight frightened the would-be robber who fled. Thereafter, the lucky city was, however, repeatedly robbed and burned by Germanic tribes. First by the Visi-Goths of Alaric in 410 A.D., and then by the Vandals of Gaiseric in 455, when the two saintly apostles failed to pull out their sabres to chase away the real robbers. But such arguments would carry no weight with the makers of myths who persisted in their belief that with the Huns, the scum of Earth had inundated Europe.

The traditional Hun-phobia of medieval western writers clouded the clairvoyance of the modern historians as well who were unable to reason otherwise and saw in Attila the prototype of the Barbar: the uncut, savage man who built nothing and destroyed everything for the sake of destruction. They forget that the mass-murderer Julius

Caesar was the true scourge of God in Antiquity, and that the words Vandal and Vandalism, were not a Hunnic, but of western origin. Fortunately, Hungarian historians have never accepted the Hun-image elaborated by their western colleagues. For them, King Attila was the first great Magyar ruler in Europe, who liberated their forefathers from the western yoke, stopped both Roman and Germanic penetration, and rolled back the invaders of the Carpatho-Danubian basin thus preserving the precious ethnic and political equilibrium in central Europe. Hungarian historians, also, did not ignore the military genius of Attila, and stated emphatically, that the Huns had not only a highly developed culture, but that they had doubtlessly surpassed western civilization which was at that time, in its darkest "dark age" (decadence of the Roman and Byzantine empires). Even Charlemagne, the great Frankish ruler, could not sign his name.

We have to admit, however, that the western historians of today are making efforts to form a more truthful view of the Huns, bringing it more into harmony with our modern scholarly standards. After this cleansing operation, all the incredible features of the Hun-portrait have been discarded, notably those concerning the Huns' monstruous origin, their animal language and their so-called earthly mission. But it will be some time until past conventional wisdom is replaced by the results of modern research. As an illustration of this process, we read, in a recent publication, the admission that "the threat which they (the Huns) had posed to western civilization has probably been exaggerated" (P 104 p. 69). German authors recognize that the Huns, as body-guards, were more reliable than their own fellow countrymen.(57) It shall also be noted that, after all, the central figure of the German sagas was precisely Attila (cf. Nibelungenlied). Germans even want to claim that Attila was one of their kinsmen, his name being a Germanic word, meaning something like "Daddy".(58) It is really high time that the distorted image of the Huns, this dark blot on western historiography, make way for some more serious consideration, wherein the great-power status of the Huns and their world-empire are acknowledged and appreciated at their proper value.

THE MAGYAR HUNGARIANS

1. Massive influx of Magyars into the Carpathian Land and the birth of Hungary-I

After the collapse of the Hun rule in Hungary (453), the major Germanic tribes of the country — Goths, Gepids and Longobards (the latter since 526 only), — set up individual principalities and quarreled violently amongst themselves. The Longobards were striving for predominance but, not having the necessary strength to achieve it, asked a Hun faction of Eastern Europe to help them defeat their rivals. With the support of this Magyar tongued faction called Avari (Avars), the Longobards drove out the Gepids, but felt so insecure in their domain that they deemed it advisable to evacuate Hungary. They actually fled to Italy in 568, together with their families. After that, the Avar Hungarians set up their own kingdom (568-803) in the entire Carpathian area. At the beginning, the Avar Kingdom extended from the Don in the East to the Enns in the West. Later it shrank and covered only the Carpathian basin, the Vienna Plain and the Bohemian Plateau.

There was much speculation about the ethnic identity of the Avars. But it seems certain that they already spoke Hungarian when they first appeared on the scene of history. Their name Avari (< H.: A vár-i) means, indeed 'Those who live in enclosures (Rings)'. And the throne-name of their first great ruler, under whose leadership they entered the Carpathian land, was Baján (< H.: Be-Jön), a homophon of 'He who comes in'. More information is available about the ethnic identity of the second Avar ethnic wave (670), composed of "White Hungarians", as is definitely stated in the Russian chronicle of Nestor. The vastness of Magyar human material that settled thus in Hungary at that time is reflected by the great number of their graves which have been excavated, 40,000. The newcomers occupied the edges of the Great Central Plain, and Transdanubia, and also southern Hungary, i.e. the best arable lands of the country. The seat of their government was in Györ (< H.: Gyürü = 'Ring'), a strategically located and well fortified stronghold at the confluence of the Raba river and the Danube. The Hungarian chroniclers never use the term Avar when speaking about them. They call them simply Hungarians, as do the majority of West-European chronicles as well. They add, at best, a few adjectives for the sake of a clarification, like "Avars who are called Hungarians" {Avari qui dicuntur Ungari); "Avars who are called Huns and Hungarians as well" (Avari qui et Huni sive Hungari).

By the same token, un Avar king is mentioned with the title of "King of Hungary". The latter has been a famous ruler because his daughter Berthe became the wife of Pepin and subsequently the mother of Charlemagne. The quoted data clearly suggest that from 670 onwards, the Magyars already formed a united nation in the Car-patho-Danubian basin and had an organized State headed by kings. That was a historical event, and this explains why Prince Arpad could set up a smoothly working State-apparatus so easily after his entry into the land. For him, the help of the Hungarians in the Rings was inevaluable.

The Avar-Hungarian kingdom lasted for about two and a half centuries. Afterwards, the reorganized Frank Empire resumed past Germanic expansion toward the East under the half-Hungarian Charlemagne (771-814) who organized a series of razzias against Hungary between 796 and 803 and destroyed its central government. Charlemagne was not much interested in territorial gains. He preferred to loot the Rings, where the nation's treasures — gold, silver and precious stones — were guarded. On a single occasion, for example, he 'collected' so much treasures that 14 wagons were needed to cart them away from Hungary. Chronicler Eginard (Einhard) commented on that big haul by saying: "According to human memory, there was no earlier war in which the Franks have become as wealthy as just now; for until now, they were poor" (cf. P 098 pp. 113, 240).

As regards the Magyar population of Avar-Hun-gary, it survived the loss of their State and continued to live almost undisturbed. The largest administrative unit which continued to function was that located around Lake Fertő, a rather swampy region in western Hungary. It was last mentioned in 873. A second surviving mini-state was the realm of Tudun, in Upper Hungary. This one endured until the coming of Arpad in 895. The harmful consequence of Frankish incursions into Hungary was the creation of a politico-military vacuum in a so vitally strategic part of Central Europe, which caused a lot of inconveniences both to the local population and to the Germans as well. Therefore, emissaries were sent to the East-European Arpad Hungarians even by the German king Arnulf who urged them to come in to help stabilize the situation. The craving for a new unifier was fulfilled in 895, with the entry on the scene of Prince Arpad. His coming opened a new chapter in Central Europe's history.

2. Hungary's ethnographic and political conditions in the IXth century

1. In the previous chapters we have explained how Magyar-speaking ethnic groups continuously poured into the Carpathian land, ever since Neolithic times. They came in successive waves, in increasing numbers and under various denominations: Magyars, Székely, Kush, Scythians, Celts, Huns, Avars, etc. Their common starting point was the Ancient Near-East and they were linked by ethnic, cultural and linguistic ties. This morphological coherence of the early Hungarians is probably the most important discovery in our recent historical science.(59) Now, it will be interesting to find out whether the earliest population and its descendants were still evident in the IXth century, at the eve of Arpad's coming.

A first indication of the presence of Magyars is that the mountain-, river- and village-names they had imparted to the geographic features of the land were still all in use. Furthermore, their identification symbols: the bird, the bee, the lion and the ram were also deeply embedded in the folklore, which was strongly impregnated with suncult and with general Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Syrian connections. All that would be impossible to explain without the continuous presence of the same population and, what is more, several other reliable sources especially mention the presence of Hungarians in the land at the said time. During the reign of Charlemagne's successors, for example, a bishop Hungarus by name, is mentioned in a charter of 888, and Louis the German, for his part, refers to a mountain called Marca Vengeriorum, in his charter of 860 and even Charlemagne had several times referred to a Hungarian stronghold in Transdanubia, Sárvár by name (P 059 pp. 241-242). And, above all, there is a recently discovered Hungarian chronicle which survived through a Turkish translation (XVIth century), which states that the Hungarians of Arpad were greatly pleased to learn, upon their arrival in that country, that its inhabitants spoke the same language as they did. Thus it is evident that Hungary was already populated with Hungarian-speaking people before the coming of Arpad.

2. Anonymus, our best informer on the IXth century events, records in his Gesta Hungarorum (c. 1200), that the Arpadians, upon entering the Carpathian basin, had found a large population there whom he calls Sclaui, Rameni and Blachi. Scholars have been baffled by these names he alone mentions, all the more since the proffered explanations led to chronological and linguistic absurdities. Who were these peoples? The etymological approach gives us the first important key to this mystery. The Sclaui name, to begin with, is a Hungarian compound word which includes the following elements: S-K-Lau-i. At its ending we notice the adjectival suffix -i, usually meaning 'Follower of, 'Coming from'. The word Lau, which precedes the suffix, is the dialectal form of the literary Ló, whose first meaning is 'Horse'. In ancient times, however, the Sungod was meant by it, who was imagined as riding upon a horse in the sky.(60) The remaining part of the word, S-K, when vocalised appears as As Ék, or in softened form: Az Ég, and means 'The Sky'. Thus the whole compound S-K-Lau-i = Az Égi Ló-i means literally 'Follower of the Heavenly God', i.e. sunwor-shippers. Consequently, the form Sclaui is not an ethnic denomination, but a religious one, meaning simply sunworshippers.

The Sclaui dwelt all over the land, but their main settlement areas were in Transdanubia and in Upper Hungary. Now, these regions were exactly the same ones where the Székely-Hungarians (,Sikeli, Sikeloi, Siculi) lived until their partial transfer into Transylvania. Incidentally, their name includes the very same three consonants, S-K-L, which are to be found in the name of

S-K-Lau-i. Furthermore, in the present-day Székely local language the word Ló (horse) is often pronounced as Lau, and means, when used as a title, not horse, but Lord, as in the nobiliary title Ló-Fö 'Highborn Man, Marquis'. Finally, the Si-keli were also ardent worshippers of the Sun and their popular art is full of the symbols of the ancestral suncult. Their name, in the form used two thousand years earlier, was also analyzed as signifying 'Follower of the Heavenly Lord'. Upon the basis of so many similarities, we must concede that Anonymus had, no doubt, meant that group of Hungarian-speaking people under the word Sclaui, which was mentioned in earlier sources as Sikeloi, i.e. the present-day Székely, a group probably originating from the Mesopotamian cultural sphere.

According to Anonymus' narration, the Rameni were natives of Transdanubia. Their name contained the following components: Ra-Mén-i, a fine Old Hungarian word, meaning 'Follower of the Divine Stallion', i.e. again sunworshippers, but this time of Egyptian persuasion. This term probably meant a Hun faction (Huni or Honi = 'Native'), whose name he renders in Latin as habitatores terrae. — The third group of Hungarians mentioned by Anonymus in their religious context were the Blachi who used the carved script to write, remarks the chronicler. This fact alone strongly suggests that they originated from the Syrian cultural sphere. Their name confirms it, since its etymological meaning is the Hungarian Bal-Lak-i 'Originating from Baal's Dwelling', Baal being the Syrian Divinity of Fire', a local variant of sunworshippers. They are also called Balasi or Blasi, a synonym meaning 'He who comes from Baal's House'. There are many Hungarian place-names compounded with the divine name Baal, such as Bala, Balaton, Bala-vár, Bálványos, Bélkö, etc. The same name occurs outside Hungary, in such well known geographic names as the Balkan Peninsula, the Baltic Sea and region, Belgium, etc. Julius Caesar mentions in his De bello Gallico that Volok (Volcae) people were living, together with Rutheni, on the northern foothills of the Pyrenees (P 030 II p. 36 and Index and map). That all these groups of peoples were mentioned in their religious connections is revealed by a remark by Anonymus, a Christian priest, who said that the Sclaui and Blachi were the most wicked people of the whole world, simply because they served pagan divinities (viliores homines esse totius mundi quia essent Blasii et Sclaui, P 120 I p. 66).

The continuous use of Near-Eastern religious names is an obvious proof that the descendants of the Neolithic and Bronze Age inhabitants of Hungary still formed the bulk of the population in the IXth century A.D. Nonetheless, it is impossible to make an approximate calculation about their numerical strength on the eve of Arpad's coming. We can only guess their relative importance, on the basis of a specific archaeological fact: from the late Avar period, Hungary has 40,000 authentic excavated graves, whereas from the period of the reunification of the land under Arpad, we only possess 10,000. That would mean that the proportion of long settled Hungarians to the Arpa-dian newcomers, was 4 to 1. The survival of Hungarians of diverse religious affiliations in the Danube basin since the Neolithic and Bronze Ages makes them the most ancient inhabitants of Europe, who were capable of preserving their original ethnic, linguistic and cultural identity throughout millenia.

3. To complete our survey of the situation in the Danube basis toward the end of the IXth century, before the arrival of the last major Hungarian ethnic wave, we must take a look at the political build-up of the land. It was a chaotic one, because after the destruction of the Avar-Hungarian State in 803, the country's organization, in the absence of a central government, relapsed to tribalism and regionalism. In north-western or Upper Hungary, there existed a small post-Avar principality centred around the fortress of Nyitra and well protected by high mountains. Its existence was continuously mentioned in historical annals until 875, date of its conversion to Christianity. Upper Hungary's most famous ruler was Prince Tudun, whose name is last mentioned in a charter of Pope Eugene II in 826, wherein he was admonished for building Christian churches (P 109 II p. 35). Tudun is an

Oriental throne-name (< H.: Tudó-(H)Ona: Tóth-Hon) meaning 'Land of God Thot' (the Egyptian divinity). At the time of the re-unification of the country under Arpad, the ruler of that region was Prince Zobor (<H.: Az Avar) meaning 'The Avar ruler'.

South of Upper Hungary, up to the River Raba, and including the Fertő Lake, lay a second post-Avar principality. Its administrative centre was Győr ( =H.: Gyürü 'Ring'). Other minor principalities were around Lake Balaton. All these western Hungarian post-Avar principalities were given more freedom of action after the division of the Frank Empire into three nationally based political entities in 843. They utilized their liberty by seeking help from their fellow Hungarians, beyond the Carpathian arc, in Eastern Europe.

The Great Central Plain of Hungary was under the nominal sovereignty of the Bulgarian Empire and was governed by native princes. At its southern end, in the Danube-Tisza quadrangle, lived the Alan people called Yazigues; they were obedient to Prince Salan (<H. Az Alán) 'The Alan'. The separate identity of the Yazigues had already been erased in the Hun period, but their administrative autonomy subsisted until 1848. The northern portion of the Central Plain was under the authority of another local prince, Laborci by name, who ruled from his fortress-city of Hungvár, 'Hun Fortress', according to Anonymus.

To the east of the Tisza, extending up to the Carpathians three small principalities flourished. The strongest of them ruled in the region of Szamos and Körös, with a military base in the mountain fortress of Bihar. The last ruler of this principality was Mén-Marut, whose throne-name meant 'Sungod's Stallion' (Mén = Stallion; Maruth = the Hindu name of the Sungod). This monarch lived in Oriental fashion, he even sported a harem at his court, and ruled over a mixed population called Chozari (<H.: Kos-Ar-i). The second eastern Hungarian ruler, Dux Gelu or Gyula, governed the Upper Maros area in Ul-transylvania, 'Beyond the forested Land', his throne-seat being at Gyalu. He was probably a priest-king, whose symbol, a torch, was carried before him when he travelled officially (P 120 I p. 95). Another high official of this petty kingdom identified himself by wearing a sun-disk. The last Gyula maintained his quasi-sovereign status until the reign of King St. Stephen (1000-1038), who had him captured and imprisoned for life, "because he was an inveterate pagan, refusing to become a Christian and was, in many ways, an annoyance to St. Stephen", writes Anonymus. — The third and last east -Hungarian petty kingdom included the area bounded by the rivers Maros, Tisza and the Lower Danube, with a royal residence at Orsova (= Ur Szava) 'Voice of the Ruler', like the post-Hittite state in the Ancient Orient, Ar-zawa. The Prince's name in Latin script was Glad or Clad; it is the softened form of the original Hungarian word Keleti, i.e. 'Oriental'.

As has been proven in the foregone analysis, all the princes and their petty kingdoms mentioned in the historical sources of the IXth century definitely bore Hungarian names and ruled over a Hungarian-speaking population. Prof. János Me-lich, a very conscientious linguist, came to the same conclusion in his last important scientific paper (P 097). He re-examined the pre-Arpadian prince-list and found that Menmarut and Glad were certainly native Magyars and that all the other local rulers spoke "faultless Magyar". He also stated that the great majority of Hungary's population spoke Hungarian on the eve of Arpad's coming and was racially inter-related.

3. The formation of the Arpadian people in Eastern Europe

Recent historical studies emphasize that the human mass led by Arpad into the Carpatho-Dan-ubian basin, significantly differed from those Hungarians already living in that country. The Arpa-dians evolved, indeed, their ethnic constitution during the sixth to the ninth centuries only, by merging with westward-moving Hungarian and Turkish peoples, on the Eastern European Plain. This all began with the sudden entry of the Turks into the Caspian-Oxus-Aral area in 568 A.D. That first blow was followed by a second and more violent one in 597-598. As a result, all the tribes living in the southwestern corner of the great Eurasian steppe began to roll westwards.

The Turks were mostly stock-breeding, mounted nomads of inner Asiatic origin, having various independent branches, like the Bisseni, Chasari and Cumani, to mention only those with whom the Magyars were to come into closer contact. They had their own language, which has borrowed heavily from the Hungarian vocabulary, and which, most likely, also included their historical names. In fact, their names seem to have been given by Hungarians, since they all have a definite meaning in that language. The word Turki (anc. form: Tourki), seems to have resulted from the merging of four elements into a single word: Tó-Ur-Kö-i, meaning literally 'Those who dwell (-i), in the Land (Kö), of the Ruler (Ur) of the Lake (Tó)', in short 'Lake Dwellers.' The implied lake was no doubt, the Aral Sea, because it is surrounded by a lowland called Touran (< H.: Tó-Ur-Hon), 'Home of the Lake Lord'. The name Bisseni, Pissoni or Pice-Nati (< H.: Pis-Hon-i; today: Viz-Honi) means 'He who lives by the Water'; and Pice-Nati, in inverted word order (< H.: Nagy-Viz-i) 'He who lives by the Large Water', probably referring to the Caspian Sea, for originally they had actually lived on its shores. As regards the Chasars (Khazari, Chosari) their name is a compound with Kos +Ar + i, i.e. descendants from the merging of (white) Aryans and (darkish) Kush peoples, as rightly observed by the Arab writer, Abu-i-Feda, who said: "The Khazars... are of two types: some are dark-skinned, often almost black; these are considered as being of Hindu descent. The second race is white-skinned and exceedingly beautiful" (quoted in P 081 p. 56). In the beginning, the Khazars dwelt on the northern shore of the Caspian Sea, whose original 'Hyrcania' (= Aryan) name was changed into Caspis (< H.: Kush-Viz) 'Water of the Kush'. Ail this points to the important fact that the Turki peoples were a combination of the subjugated Aryan and Kush population, with a significant admixture of Mongol elements.

The first Turkish ethnic branch with which the Arpadians came into close political union were the Khazars, as was recently demonstrated by Arthur Koestler (P 079) and Vilmos Kovács (P 081). The Khazars spoke the Tchuvash dialect of Turkish and had laid the foundation of their empire in the second half of the Vlth century, more exactly in 567. They became the mightiest power in Eastern Europe in the VHth, Vlllth and IXth centuries. They had extended their domain over the entire area to the north of the Caucasian ranges, and subjected the westermost seven Magyar tribes, living between the Kuban and Don rivers, to their rule, as well as those who dwelt between the Kuma and Terek rivers, on the western coast of the Caspian. All these Magyar tribes living in Caucasia, originated from northern Mesopotamia, the

Kingdom of Urartu, and from the post-Hittite states of Syria, especially from the Kingdoms of Arpad, Karkemish and Damasek (Damask). They had to leave their old fatherlands, following the bloody expansion of the Semitic Assyrian Empire, in the second and first milleniums B.C. In our historical sources, the memory of the Hungarians at the Don has been preserved under the name of Dentu-Magaria and of those of the Kuma valley as Kum-Magaria.

The Hungarians of Dentu-Magaria have been incorporated into the Khazar Empire in 568 A.D. and their symbiosis lasted for over three hundred years. They were entrusted with the all-important task of safeguarding the western flank of the Khazar Empire and to block the descent of the Slavonic peoples toward the south. To fulfill their duties more efficaciously, the seven Magyar tribes in question were transferred later to a more suitable location, between the Don and Dnieper, above the Black Sea. The same strategic considerations led the Khazars to place the Magyar tribes under a single command, for which Arpad was selected. His installation as 'Deputy king' was carried out according to Khazar customs, by elevating him on shields. And the leaders of the seven tribes, for their part, swore allegiance to Arpad, solemnly declaring that they would faithfully carry out his orders. All that may have happened around 850, which may be considered the birth-date of the East-European Hungarian nation, the Danubian one having already been in existence for a long time.

The Khazar-Hungarian alliance worked well for about two hundred years, but when the Khazar king adopted the Judaic faith around 740 and forced it upon his court and military men, the first internal tensions were quick to appear. A civil war erupted in which the rebels were defeated. As a result, three deeply involved Khazar tribes, called Kabars, went over to Hungarian side and were absorbed into their socio-political system. Then came the renewed attack of the fearful Bisseni-Turks, who had torn away the pasture-land from the Magyars and forced them to move more westwards (889), into the Dnieper-Seret-Lower-Dan-ube area, thereby severing their secular alliance with the Khazars completely. At that time, they had already acquired enough political maturity to make their own decisions as to the best way to ensure their survival in social surroundings that were growing more and more precarious.

Their own worry, which was also shared by the Danubian Hungarians, gave rise in c. 890 to the idea of merging the two Hungarian nations into one, inside the spacious Carpathian arena which could be defended more easily than any tribal community on the unbroken, vast plain beyond the Carpathians. In the meantime, they had to fight a mysterious battle against the Cuman-Turks near Kiev, of which we have no details. It is definitely known, however, that the Cumans' seven tribes were defeated and that they swore an oath of allegiance to Arpad and then they too were absorbed into the constantly swelling Magyar conglomerate, which already consisted of seventeen tribes. Finally, the descendants of Prince Csaba, the youngest son of King Attila, also joined the Arpadians, together with their innumerable clans and cognates of the same region. After all these happenings, the people Arpad led into Hungary were considerably different from the Danubian Hungarians. Racially, they were of Aryan, Kush and Mongolian factions. By religion, they were sunworshippers, fireadorers, Ismaelits and Moslems. Ethnically, they had strong Turkish traits, bearing such names as Magyar, Khazar, Kabar, Kuman, Hun, Bisseni, etc. —a real mosaic with a Turkish veneer. In the Byzantine court they were classified simply as Turki, and not Hungarians. How did it happen then, that they could, nevertheless, build a Hungary with all its components and not a 'Turkey'?

4. The re-unification of the country and the birth of Hungary-II as a modern state

1. After the destruction of the Avar-Hungarian Kingdom by the Franks in 783-803, the whole Carpathian land relapsed into a state of political anarchy and became a battlefield for half a dozen dukedoms and neighbouring great powers. No wonder that the Hungarians already in the land, had sent emissaries to their brethren on the other side of the Carpathians, urging them to move in to rebuild, together with their united forces, the realm of their great ancestor, King Attila. The Arpadians received similar suggestions from the interested great powers, namely from King Arnulf (887-899) of Germany, and the Byzantine emperor Leo the Wise (886-912) to help achieve their own political objectives. By this means, the Arpadians had several opportunities of exploring their future land, especially in 862, 881 and 892. All our evidence points to the fact that the vital decision was already taken in 892.

The preparations for the conquest were in full swing at that time. In Kiev, where Almus, the father of Arpad was the deputy-king, all the available blacksmiths were summoned to make hundreds of thousands of horseshoes, arrows, cartwheels, swords and the like, which were all kept in storage. Three hundred lumber jacks were also engaged to clear a passage through the thick forest. A pincer movement was planned, according to which the bulk of the invaders would penetrate into Hungary under the leadership of Arpad through the Verecke-pass, which had never been used before (841 m above s.-l.), and the second army, under the command of Arpad's father Almus or his elder son Levente, was supposed to check the Bulgarian forces and penetrate into Transylvania through its passes and gorges. The invasion started in the spring of 895 and, except for the unexpected attack of the Bisseni and Bulgarians, the Hungarian armies met inside the Carpathian arc during the summer of the same year, as planned. By 900, the entire territory was in their hands, including Transdanubia.

The incoming Arpadians were greeted as liberators and most of the native populations surrendered spontaneously to the new master of the land and even helped with the unification. Those few princes and dukes who failed to change their allegiance in time, paid dearly for their mistake. Laborci, Gelu and Zubur who resisted, were killed in action. Two others, Salan and Glad, fled with their followers. The case of the sixth prince, Men-marut, was a particular one, insofar as he had wanted to resist at first, but, at the sight of Arpad's armed men, had asked for a compromise, offering his daughter in marriage to Arpad's youngest son Zsolt, while he himself swore obedience to Arpad. In exchange, he was permitted to keep his stronghold of Bihar as a fief for life. History knows of very few conquests as clean as Arpad's, which was accomplished practically without bloodshed.

As soon as the territorial unification of the land was achieved, Arpad summoned the leaders to his fortress of Csongrád and hammered out the principles ('Constitution'), according to which the reunified country was to be governed. The next step consisted of setting up nation-wide institutions, to bind all the inhabitants of Hungary together into indissoluble unity. These institutions were almost exclusively, the creation of the native, and not of the half-way Turkized Hungarians. In other words, the newcomers were culturally absorbed into the Magyar-speaking local population which formed the overwhelming majority in the land. This process is well illustrated by the following remarks. The unified country became a "kingdom" (and not a khanat according to the Turkish pattern), with a "king" as its ruler (and not a khan or kende). The highest officials were the Maior Domus Nádor and the Chief Justice, Ország-biró (and not Horka and Kádár). The king was represented as someone seated upon a throne (and not in a saddle on horseback). The symbolic animal identifying the king was a lion (and not a hyena, ram or dog). One of the most important institutions, which welded and kept the various elements of the society together, resulted from the adoption of Christianity. The new faith imposed, indeed, a common and uniform ideology, and replaced the pagan Sun-, Fire-, and Baal-cults, which had earlier kept the nation divided into several parts. Thus, the merging of all Hungarians of diverse origins, creeds and political traditions into a single nation was achieved within a relatively short lapse of time.

Fig. 36. Decorated silver satchel-cover of a Hungarian army commander. Hungary, IXth century.

2. Prince Arpad (+ 907) was not only a military genius but a successful organizer as well. He clearly perceived the geographic unity and the strategic position of the Carpathian arena, welded between two powerful empires. Accordingly, he did not divide the country amongst the seven princes who were his deputies. On the contrary, he considered the mountainous periphery of the united land as its natural defense line and the whole country as an important element of the European equilibrium, as set forth by the treaty of Verdun in 843. He was, therefore, anxious to put an end to the encroachments of the little Moravian State and incorporated its borderland into Hungary in 902.

More fighting was needed before Arpad's strategic-political conception was recognized and accepted by the Holy Roman Empire, Hungary's dynamic western neighbour. This empire was naturally inclined to expand eastward along the Danube valley. The most opportune time for the realization of its ambitions seemed to arrive with the death of Arpad, when huge armies were dispatched on both sides of the Danube toward Hungary. They were, however, defeated right at the border, in the marshy region of Pozsony (Pres-burg). As a result of this decisive Hungarian victory, the Danubian provinces of present-day Austria were annexed by Hungary as far as the river Enns. The whole area remained under Hungarian rule until 933, when one of their armies was defeated near Merseburg, and again in 955, near Augsburg. After these events, Hungary's western borders were gradually withdrawn to the line of the Lajta and Fischa rivers, where they were stabilized for a thousand years and mutually recognized. After that, there was no obstacle for the participation of Hungary under Prince Géza at the meeting of Quedlinburg (973), called in by the German emperor Otto the Great, to discuss the common security problems of Central Europe.(61) The memory of Hungarian rule in Moravia has been kept alive until our days by numerous village-names, built upon the Hungarian vocable, such as Uhersky and Uhr-Sitz (7 such names), or with other Hungarian words, such as Sallash (= Szállás), the Hungarian for 'summer dwelling'. Similarly, many Hungarian village-names survived in the Ostmark, out of which 25 include the word 'Hungarian', such as Ungar-Bach, Ungar-Stein, Ungar-Berg, Marca Hungarica; 103 others are compounded wirh Warte-, Schiitze and 196 are built upon Ode, meaning uninhabited land, all of them being situated within the former defense line, as explained by Sándor Török (P 129 p. 22f).

The relations between Hungary and the Holy See of Rome were always cordial, as soon as the Hungarians had put their heads under the baptismal water, thereby irrevocably becoming loyal members of the new European community. Pope Sylvestre II together with the German emperor Otto III, recognized Hungary as a sovereign State. As a token, he sent a golden royal crown to the ruler, who was solemnly proclamed 'King of Hungary" on Christmas Day of the year 1001. The Pope's gesture was repeated later by the emperor of Byzantium, who also recognized the sovereign status of Hungary. The two crowns were welded together into one and symbolized the great powers' alliance with Hungary.

The Holy See of Rome also entrusted the kings of Hungary with the mission to defend, spread and propagate Christianity in the neighbouring pagan countries, especially in the Balkan Peninsula, which was full of schismatics at that time. This resulted in Hungary's expansion toward the Adriatic Sea by including Croatia (1097), Dalmatia (1105) and Bosnia (1210). Thus, at the end of the XIth century and the beginning of the XIIth, not only was Hungary's sovereign status universally recognized, but the country had become a powerful kingdom, ranking third in importance, right after the Holy Roman and the Byzantine Empires. So, after a successful start, Christian Hungary was heading toward the finest hour of its history.

Thus, the period of Ancient History of the Hungarians came to a close.

5. Epilogue: The fate of the lost Hungarian tribes

After the bulk of Hungarian-speaking peoples -Scythians, Huns, Avars and Magyars- moved out of Eastern Europe and settled in Hungary, this race ceased to play a significant political role in the oriental part of the continent. Ethnographi-cally, however, it continued to be present, since numerous large factions, which were separated from the main body, stayed behind. The reason for such detachments were varied. First it was the general custom that migrating steppe peoples must leave an adequate number of warriors and woman folk behind to stand guard over the ancient land, upon which they could fall back, should the search for new and better grazing land fail. Then, internal political tensions may also have caused secessions. Furthermore, and most frequently, they were exposed to enemy attacks which could cut off thousands of people and sweep them away from the main block. Larger Hungarian break-away tribes stayed behind in the following areas: 1. in Caucasia, 2. in the Volga region, 3. in Touran and 4. in Moldavia.

1. In Caucasia, the detached Hungarian tribes were those living between the Kuma and Terek rivers, on the northwestern side of the Caspian Sea, called Kum-Magaria. Bear witness of their tribulations eight papal edicts (Bulls) granted between 1245 and 1291. Their texts have been published by László Bendefy (P 010). Among the other contemporary documents relating to the problem we can mention an inscription carved on stone, found in the Crimean Peninsula and deciphered by the author. Finally, tradition also deserves to be mentioned, preserved by both the Danubian Hungarians and the successors of Hungarians in the East. Amongst the most important historical studies devoted to this question are the works of L. Bendefy (P Oil) and János Boros (P 018). But in spite of this apparent richness of documentation on this topic, many questions remain unanswered, so that our account is still conjectural on several points.

The Caucasian Hungarians were characterized by the fact that they lacked comprehensive political organization for a long time, having lived in chaotic conditions, each of their clans and tribes by themselves, in as many mini-states. With the emergence of the Mongol threat, however, the feeling prevailed amongst them, that for their mutual defense and survival, they must unite their forces. Accordingly, they all placed themselves under the authority of King Yeretany. This king wanted, above anything else, to give his kingdom a Christian organization. Therefore, he turned for help to the Holy See, asking for catholic priests. These antecedents led to the emission of a first papal edict by John XXII, on behalf of the "most eminent Prince Yeretany."

We read the following passage in the said edict: "Greetings to our son Yeretany and other Christian Hungarians (in Caucasia)... We have understood that thou, my son Yeretany, who art a descendant from the earliest Catholic kings of Hungary, wanted to receive, together with other Christians of the said region... a Catholic missionary (doctorem Catholicum desiratis habere>.)." The first "Catholic Doctor" arrived at Magyar-on-the-Kuma in the person of Bishop Thaddeus (1331-1334). He was followed by seven others, the last one holding office from 1366 to 1377. It is not known what became thereafter of Yeretany, but his epitaph, found in the Crimea suggests, that he was himself a priest and fled westwards, before the Mongol invasion. His inscription actually reads thus: "Here is kept, by the Armenian monks, the holy treasure of Yeretany, an Iranian lord and prince of the Don-bank. (This treasure) consists of two church-cans. Great holiness was the distinctive mark of this 'living God'." The dreaded onslaught of the Mongol armies materialized in 1395/96, when the city of Magyar was destroyed and the Kuma-Terek plain incorporated into the Kiptchak-Turk empire as a province. The few surviving Magyars then retreated into the mountains and F. Nansen, the Norvégián explorer, was the last European who spoke to their descendants in 1925.

2. The second and by far the largest Hungarian-speaking ethnic group, that of the Volga Hungarians was detached from the main body somewhere to the north of the Caspian sea in the Vlth century following the attacks of the Turks, and was pushed northwards along the river Volga. They were met be the imperial ambassador Zemarchus, who talked with the "Prince of the Hungarians, who reigned by the grace of Dizabuli khan" (On-gororum dux qui illic ex auctoritate Dizabuli impérium habebat" (P 092 p. 93 f.). They were then lost from sight and had no contact with any other Hungarian group for about 600 years. They were rediscovered quasi accidentally in 1236 by zealous Dominicans (Black Friars), who originally wanted to find the Caucasian Hungarians, for they wanted to convert them to the Christian faith. Four missionaries started on this venture in 1235, via Constantinople. However, when they arrived at the city of Matrica (the present Taman), at the entrance of the Maeotis (now Sea of Azov), they altered their itinerary for an unknown reason and instead of continuing eastwards, they turned directly to the north, journeying along the west bank of the Volga. Finally, Friar Julian, the only surviving priest, succeeded in finding a large Hungarian tribal group "near the Great River Ethyl."

There is a report on this unique journey, written in the XHIth century and submitted to the Holy See of Rome, where it is kept in the Record Office. Its text is published in the collection of medieval writings edited by Imre Szentpétery and is currently known as the "Richardus-report" (P 120 II pp. 535-542). This report describes the dramatic encounter thus: "He (Friar Julian) found them near the great river Ethyl ( = Volga). When they learned that he was a Christian Hungarian, they were greatly pleased about his coming. He was shown their houses and cottages and was pressed with questions about the king and the realm of Christian Hungarians. To everything he told them, about faith and other things, they listened attentively, because their language was entirely Hungarian and they understood him and he them (quia omnino habent Hungaricum idioma et intellige-bant eum et ipse eos'•)." Julianus then promptly returned to Hungary to impart his important discovery to his brethren at home. In the next year (1237), Julianus undertook a second journey to the Volga, but was unable to reach the Ungarian settlement because the Mongolian armies were already on the way to make new conquests. In that very year, Hungary at the Volga had been destroyed, and the nation's ethnic identity abolished for ever. The surviving individual Magyars were scattered all around within a radius of about 200km, on the Volga Heights, around the Pensa and Sura rivers, with some settlements at Saratov, Tambov and Riazan. Today, their memory is kept alive by a great number of place-names which include the Magyar name. The local inhabitants remember that they have Hungarian blood in their veins, but do not speak Hungarian any more; Turkish and/or Russian being their language (P 019 p. 229 f.).

3. The Touranian Hungarians always lived somewhat apart from the other Near Eastern Hungarians, to the east of the Caspian Sea, around the Aral Sea and in the Oxus valley. In Hungarian chronicles, this is the region which probably appears under the name of Magoria. This ethnic group first attracted the attention of our historians in the last century, when Kristóf Lukácsy devoted a fine work (P 092) to them in 1870. More recently, after World War II, the same area came once again into the forefront of research, thanks to the insistence of Erik Molnár, whose example was followed by Tibor Tóth, P.-T. Veres and Pál Lipták, who all underscored the close connections of the Ura-lian Hungarians with the Touranians. But it is Antal Bartha who deserves the credit for having discovered the earliest role of the Touranians, who were responsible for the civilization of the local population of the Ural region and that of Western Siberia, in the Und millenium B. C. The surviving traces of the lost Touranian Hungarians were also carefully recorded (Kath. Magyarok Vasárnapja, January 12,1969; Kanadai Magyarság, November 23,1968; Sorsunk, Sidney, February 13, 1960, etc.) and the villages, with 'Madiar' names, noted.

A major faction of Touranian Hungarians seem to have been swept far away, towards southeastern Asia, into what is today New-Zealand, where they continue to call themselves Maori (<Ma-Ur-i), i.e. Magyar. Their existence has been discovered by F. A. Uxbond (alias Wilhelm von Hevesy) in his sensational book, published in English in 1928 (P 130). This publication lists innumerable evidence to prove that the Maori are closely related to the European Hungarians, both racially and culturally. The Maori of to-day are highly civilized, but almost entirely absorbed into their English-speaking surroundings. The mystery of the origin of this ethnic faction has not yet been fully elucidated, which is perhaps connected with the expansion of the Kushan Empire.

4. Our record would not be complete without mentioning the break-away Hungarian group of Tchangos, now living in Moldavia, on the other side of the Carpathians, near the rivers Tatros and Sereth, numbering altogether 170,000 souls. The capital city of Moldavia is Yassy, the Hungarian Jász-Város 'City of the Yazigues'. Their full story is related in a recently published 1520-pages monumental sociographic study, by Pál-Péter Domokos (P 043). The colony started at the beginning of the Christian era, with a faction of Yazigues that did not continue its journey into Hungary for reasons unknown to us, but stayed behind, breaking all relations with their brethren who had entered Hungary and settled there. The Yazigue colony of Moldavia later received additional Hungarians, when the warlike Cuman-Turks set up a principality in Moldavia, then Cumania. To protect Hungary against the harassments of this pagan people, King András II (1205-1235) placed border-guards on both sides of the Carpathians, at several points. As a further step toward their pacification, the archbishop of Esztergom/Hungary, established missionaries in Cumania, who converted the people to Christianity. The first bishop had been installed at Milkó in 1227 and was followed by a new influx of Magyars. Until 1410, five Hungarian bishoprics were erected. An official census, carried out in the middle of the XVth century, found a total population of 47,167 in Moldavia. Out of that number, over 20,000 were Catholic Hungarians. On the eve of World War II, the Tchango-Magyars boasted 60 villages in the Tatros valley and 160 along the Sereth river.

When the northern corner of Moldavia, the district called Bukovina, was annexed by the Aus-tro-Hungarian Monarchy, general András Hadik transferred some Moldavian Hungarians into that district. Their descendants, numbering 24,000 souls, were rapatriated into mother-land Hungary, during the second World War. All the other Tchango-Magyars continue to stay in the land, and are deprived of all cultural facilities in their own language, not even having elementary instruction, despite the fact that they are the native people of the land, who settled there well before the arrival of the first Rumanians in the XHIth century.

To sum up the sad history of the lost Hungarian tribes, we may say that ethnographic factions, large or small, which broke away in Eastern Europe from the main body of Hungarians, were able to retain their identity for several centuries but most of them disappeared in the great politico-military upheaval which was brought about by the Mongol invasion in the XIIIth century.

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1. We have reverted to the Aryan term, following the practice of many scientists, who prefer it because its meaning is 'Men' (Wiro, Vir, Ar, Ur) in most of the European languages (cf. P 130 p. 115).

2. The double racial origin of the Hungarians is first mentioned in the Lacin language work of the sharp-eyed historian Deseritzky who said: "Hunnos Magoresque gentem robustissimam et populosissimam partim ex Japhet per Magog, partim ex Cham per Chus turn vero Nemrothum fuisse propagatam et in unum coaluisse" (P 092 p. 79).

3. The head-shape is indicated by the cephalic index (CI). It is given in percentage ratio (100) with the skull-width (W) and its greatest length (L), from front to back, seen from above the head: CI= 100 X (W:L). When its CI is 80.00 or more, the cranium is round, short or brachy-cephalic. When CI is 75.00 or less, the cranium is long or dolychocephalic. Between these two ranges are the meso-cephalic or medium-headed elements.

4. E. Pittard: «Il me semble de plus en plus évident que les invasions avares et magyares, qui apparaissent de beaucoup comme les plus importantes, ne sont que deux

5. E. Pittard noticed the strong concentration of shortheaded Aryans in the Ancient Near-East. He said: "En Asie, par exemple, parmi les peuples divers que l'on a appelés les Aryens, et qui ont laissé le souvenir de grandes civilisations, il y a beaucoup de brachycéphales, d'Aryen brachycéphales" (P 103 p. 29).

6. It is important to keep in mind that, when our historical sources mention the "dark" complexion of Kush, they do not always use this word in a literal sense as 'black', but rather as opposed to white. — Further, the Kush must not be confused with Negroes, who are either a distinct race, or a product of the jungle. Schuré insists upon this and says: «Il faut en chercher le type supérieur non pas dans le Nègre dégénéré, mais dans l'Abyssinien et le Nubien, en qui se conserve le moule de cette race parvenue à son apogée» (P 114 p. 42).

7. In the first millenium A.D., almost every Eastern-Euro-pean nation had some brownish-darkish complexioned ethnie elements in their physical make-up. There were white and dark Huns, white and dark Bulgars, white and dark Ugors, white and dark Chasars. It is surprising that this all-important historical fact escaped the attention of scientists, who persisted in believing that the adjectives White and Dark, when employed in historical sources, in connection with ethnic names, would signify the basic points: East and West, i.e. the geographic position of the respective peoples. This is, of course, a misinterpretation.

8. Chronicler Simon de Kéza accurately reflects the general feeling of Hungarians against the dark coloured population by saying: "Gentes siquidem in eadem (i.e. in Scythia) procreate otia complectuntur, vanitatibus de-dite, nature dedignantis actibus venereis intendentes, rapiñas amant, generaliter colore plus nigre quam albe" (P 120 I p. 252).

9. Former linguists and historians were inclined to consider the Kush population as of Old Turkish extraction. It was, however, impossible to find a fitting Turkish branch, or to determine the specific geographic area where contacts between Hungarians and Turks might have taken place. Above all, the beginning of the Kush-Hungarian relations antedates the existence of any Turkish people. Therefore, the idea of early Turkish-Hungarian connections had to be abandoned (see Prof. Benko in P 009 p. 50).

10. The same opinion was expressed in a most recent German language publication by Ferenc Kemény: "(Dass) das Ungarische einerseits allen eurasischen Sprachen als Grundlage gedient hat, andererseits eine echte Ursprache ist, deren Ursprung aus dem heutigen Bestand derselben eindeutig erklaert werden kann (P 078 p. 115; see ibiden pp. 50, 61).

11. That Hungarian is an Aryan tongue par excellence, was stated time and again by a number of linguists; most emphatically be Kristóf Lukácsy, who said this: "When I say that Hungarian belongs to the Aryan class of languages, I am summarizing the results of my investigations of several years, conducted in the field of Hungarian linguistics and antiquities" (P 092 p. 199).

12. "Aryan is the terminus technicus describing one of the great language-groups extending from India to Europe" (P 038; see also P133 and P 132). - Formerly, by mistake, the European languages were collectively classified as Aryan. But their names do not include the distinctive vocable Ari. Their kinship is based only upon the word-stock present in their substratum. — For the Aryan term, see also P 091 pp. 27-30; and Encycl. Britannica, ed. 1947, t. II p. 494.

13. "Ihm (Illitch-Switytch) war es gelungen, das System der Lautentsprechungen zwischen den indoeuropäischen, den uralischen, den altaischen... der khartweli-schen, den hamito-semitischen und den dravidischen Sprachen zu erkennen. Diese Lautentsprechungen beziehen sich auf Hunderte von Wortwurzeln einer eura-sischen Ursprache deren man die Bezeichnung 'nostra-tisch' oder 'boreisch' gab, — writes Dolgopolski in his German language account (P 042). — See also the Hungarian complement to this study by Gy. Hary in Valóság (Budapest, October 1976, p. 177). - Dolgopolski continues thus: "Als Urheimat der boreischen Sprache, kommt nach allem, was wir heute wissen, der Raum von Indien, und von Kaukasien bis zum Persischen Golf, in Frage." - "Die boreische Sprachgemeinschaft muss demnach in der mittleren Steinzeit, vor Beginn der Jungsteinzeit, bestanden haben..." (P 042).

14. «Le nom du peuple Aryen reste jusqu'à présent sans explication certaine» (P 091 p. 75).

15. Bird-headed statuettes have been found in ancient Mesopotamia already from the time of the Flood (P 006 I p. 56). In Hungary too, bird-headed bone-sticks have been found on several sites (P 050 p. 258).

16. Most of the Oriental place - and ethnic names with a Hungarian meaning have been collected from the following five publications: P 013; P 021; P 024; P 044; and P 085. Some others were found in the works of Herodotus, Dauzat, Uxbond, Saks, etc.

17. Toppeltinus: "...etiamnum vocantur Magori. Ingens populus et ipsi armorum gloria inclytum regnum possi-dent" (P 092 pp. 98, 203).

18. L.A. Waddell comments Barat-Varsha thus: "The Land of the Barats (Barat Varsha) a name synonymous with 'Barat Ana' or 'Land of the Barats', which I have proved to be the original form of the name 'Brit-Ain' as given to Albion about 1100 B.C. by... the same Aryan race of Barats... who civilized India and the Ganges valley" (P 132 bis p. 10); see also the entry under 'Barata Varsha' in P 044).

19. "They called it /Egypt/ the land of Mezor ( = Magyar) and the land of Cham / = Kush/ from their two ancestors, which the Greek rendered Mesora and Chamia" (P 023 p. 298). — The same idea is expressed in the following quotation "Throughout the early dynastic period and the Old Kingdom /of Egypt/ Set (= the dark ruler ) and Horus (the Aryan ruler) are represented as the two patron-deities of the Monarchy" (John Van Saters, The Hyksos, London 1966 p. 98).

20. The transliteration of carved signs into Roman characters is usually done 1. with capital letters for the graphically expressed sounds; and 2. with small characters for the sounds supplied by the decipherer. And 3. in our transliterations a dot is inserted between the elements of every combined sound-sign. 4. The omitted consonants or words are given in parentheses (), while 5. the broken-off and missing signs are in brackets /.../.

21. The word Pogány 'Pagan' originates from the Latin Pagus 'Village' and Paganus 'Villager', signifying 'People living in the countryside.' In the Middle Ages, the same word was, however, used in a pejorative sense to say 'uneducated, backward, despicable', especially when speaking of non-Christian people. The alternative word for Pagan is Heathen. It is probably derived from the Old Hungarian word Héth 'Seven', a shortened from of the expression 'Follower of the Seven Great Gods.'

22. Hungarian chronicles preserved the memory of the cruel treatment King St. Stephen inflicted upon Thonuzoba who "stubbornly adhering to his beliefs, was unwilling to become a Christian, and was buried alive with his wife" (P 120 I p. 117). A similar cruel punishment was imposed upon a woman, Raski by name, who was prominent in a heathen uprising: "(She) was captured by the very Christian King Béla and confined in prison until she ate her own feet, and also died in the same place" (P 120 I p. 398). Persecutions of adherents to the old faith continued until about the middle of the XHIth century, the last dreaded inquisitor having been Johannes Theuthon (+1252), commissioner of the Holy See to several Central European states (P 047).

23. King Saint Stephen mentions in his gift-charter granted to the nuns of Veszprém-Valley: "Ibi stat meta lapidea, que volgo Baluan vocatur," "There stands a boundary-stone, called Idol by the local population." ― Similarly, King András I ordered in his edict of 1047: "Falsos deos abrogare et Simulacra demoliri", "to suppress the false gods and to destroy the idols" (P 082 p. 367).

24. A witness who attended a meeting of wise-men, testified before the Christian inquisitor by saying: "Wiseman Bansa climbed to the top of a high ladder, stayed there for a while, chatting with God and, back on earth, he foretold the future to his audience" (P 047 p. 56).

25. "Each time a Pharaoh was conceived, Ra was said to have returned to earth to espouse the queen' (P 045 p. 50).

26. The corresponding passage by Anonymus reads thus: "matri eius pregnanti per sompnium apparuit divina visio in forma Asturis que quasi veniens earn gravidavit et innotuit ei quod de utero eius egrederetur torrens et de limbis eius reges gloriosi propagarentur" (P 120 I p. 38).

27. "erat enim ipse Almus facie decorus sed niger, nigros habebat oculos sed magnos, statura longus et gracilis, manus vero habebat grossas et digitos prolixos" (P 120 I p. 38).

28. The grandson of Prince Arpad, Taksony, was of white complexion, while Arpad's great-grandson took after him: "He had beautiful big eyes and soft dark hair". Certain kings of the dynasty were of very high stature, as, for example, St. Stephen, King András I, St. Ladislas and King Béla III.

29. Prof. Gardiner states that the Egyptian Arpad may have been "perhaps the first to become ruler upon earth over the autochthonous Egyptians, after whom followed Osiris and the Horus" (P 052 p. *110).

30. See the following references: P 052 I pp. *14 - *19, "103 and *108; and P 026 II 94 - 100, 109, 153 and 374. -If the Sumerian name for Earth was also Pat, Pot, the Sumerian ruler's title Pat-Esi (=H. Föld Őse) also meant 'Land Ancestor' or 'Land Lord'.

31. Many rulers of the Hungarian Arpad dynasty had throne-names with a clear Oriental meaning, and this explains why certain names appear so often, like István (five times) and Béla (four times). In the Old Hungarian spelling István or Están was the word for Isten 'God'. Béla (in O.H. Bala, Baal, Bika) was the Syrian name for Great-God. They were used in an abridged form, all bearing testimony that their wearers were 'Living Gods', i.e. Gods on Earth, exactly as was the practice in the Ancient Orient.

32. Babylon was surrounded by seven walls; the Mesopotamian Ziggurat had seven floors; Mesopotamian noblemen wore seven ruffled kilts; Egypt had seven great gods; the Egyptian Heaven had seven divisions; the Hittite Empire (the Biblical Héth) started with the fusion of seven lands; the Etruscan nation began with the federation of seven cities; Rome was built on seven hills; etc. etc.

33. According to Prof. Áldásy, the double-cross cannot be considered an apostolic cross; this latter was always a single cross (P 001 p. 63). Thus, he indirectly admits the pre-Christian origin of this important symbol.

34. The best edition of the medieval national chronicles is that of Emericus Szentpétery, former professor at Budapest University (F 120 I-II).

35. "Et primus rex Scythiae fuit Magog filius Japhet, et gens ilia a Magog rege vocata est Moger", ― writes Anonymus (P 120 I p. 35).

36. On these conflicting views see, particularly, the Chroni-con Pictum (P 120 I pp. 243-250, and the Hungarian translation: P 053 pp. 35-37).

37. No Hungarian historian has taken notice until now that Egyptian literature also know of a hunting hero, Onuris by name (like the Hungarian Hunor), who had a mate called Mehit, 'lioness'. See the somewhat confused passage in P 032 p. 227, which reads: "His (Onuris') cult figure was a man wearing a long skirt, his feet poised well apart, to enable him to aim a spear downwards at some monstrous foe. His worship was centred in Thinis, a district which also included Abydos." The Coffin Texts, III 334 j. are given as reference.

38. The original wording is thus: 'Ubi propter intemperiem illius zonae sunt serpentes diversi generis, ranae velut porci, basilisci, et plura animalia toxicata; tigris et unicornis ibi generantur." Where gold, silver and pearls are also to be found (P 120 I p. 253. See also P 130 p. 164, where another location is suggested).

39. This is the opinion of many international authorities, like C. Dawson who writes this: "It is certainly in the Danubian region that we find (in Europe) the most complete and typical example of any early peasant culture" (P 039 p. 53). And H. T. Waterbolk: "(Toward 3000 B.C.), the Hungarian Plain was a dominant centre which had incorporated all the major achievements of the nuclear area in the Near East and which had added to these an adaptation to the European deciduous forest" (P 134).

40. for the westward diffusion of the Hungarian Neolithic and Bronze Age civilizations see, in addition to the quoted references in the text, in particular P 039 pp. 51 and 169.

41. In the light of the etymology given there, we have to abandon the fantastic explanation of the Greek writers of the past, who believed that the Italian Siculi were governed by One-Eyed Giants, interpreting the Syc-Lo-Pe expression as being the Greek word Cyclops.

42. Thukydides relates that "the country owes its name of Italy to Italus, a king of Sicel, so called." Now, Ital, as a Hungarian word, means a 'drink', and Italos somebody 'fond of alcoholic drink'. The explanation seems to be a fitting one, because the early Sicels are said to have been fond of wine, which they drank in the Scythian fashion, i.e. unmixed with water (P 067 Book VI cap. 84 and Book I cap. 106). ― Incidentally, the Greek name of Sungod, Apollo, is, in their language, a Hungarian loan-word, made up with Pe + Ló, and the prefixed definitive article A, whence A Pe-Lo, contracted into Apollo, literally means 'The Chief Horse'.

43. Prof. Hood is reluctant to see actual writing upon the tablets: "But do the Tartaria ( = Tatárlaka) tablets actually bear writing? Probably not... It seems quite possible that they were merely an uncomprehending imitation of more civilized peoples' written records... a pretense by some illiterate barbarian to command the magic embodied in an art he had witnessed but did not understand" (P 068).

44. The calendar was a precious instrument in the hands of every farming community of the Antiquity. It enabled the peasants to know the most appropriate time to carry out certain important tasks, such as plowing and sowing in particular and it was also useful for the timing of religious festivals.

45. In Atlantic Europe, the observation of the various seasonal positions of the Sun, in reference to the zodiacal star-clusters, was made with the help of heavy megalith-ic structures (e.g. Stonehenge). In the Danubian region, the more advanced microlithic structure prevailed. This is the significant difference between the two halves of Europe, although this has never been pointed out until now.

46. The step-by-step explanation of the inscription is thus: in the second compartment we can distinguish the rising Sun, in Hungarian A Nap. On its right side, the contours of a mouse (H.: Az Egér) are visible, with its thin, long tail. The picture of this animal is here because it is homophonous with the expression Az Égre, 'to the sky'. So, the thus far deciphered words say this: A Nap az Égre 'The Sun to the sky'. After that, we read the signs placed in the left and right columns, saying: the cross sign iT, the crab A RÁK, followed by a sign for the sound-group KUR/KOR, and finally the word for donkey IÁ. In modern Hungarian: Itt a rákkor jö 'Comes at this spot in the Cancer constellation'. The directive continues in the third compartment thus: aN-aP Je-Le aR-áK öV-Be... 'The day's symbol in the Cancer zone is... The complete message in better English reads: 'Here (at Tatárlaka) the Sun appears on the horizon in the Cancer constellation on the day of... ― The homophony existing between 'Sky God' (Az Égúr) and the mouse (Az Egér) was probably the origin of the never-explained Oriental custom of keeping white mice in Sun-temples, as was the case in Babylon and Egypt. The presence of these small animals was a mean amongst a hundred others, to remind the believers that God may hide himself in any of his creatures to watch over their behaviour.

47. «La science considére aujourd'hui que les Celtes ne constituent pas une race, dans le sens propre du terme mais ont toujours été un groupe de peuples, formánt un agrégat de types du point de vue anthropologique» (P 057 p. 10; and see P 070 I p. X and P 132 p. 128).

48. The thesis of the linguistic unity of Celtic Europe is stressed by almost every author, as for example P 037 p. 12; P 057 pp. 10-12; P 070 I pp. 49, 51. The hundred million Celts are mentioned in the publication P 057 p. 11.

49. Henri Hubert consoles himself by saying: «Rien d'étonnant que ces noms soient difficile á expliquer et que leur sens etymologique se soit évanoui» (P 070 I p. 27 f.).

50. "Erat enim rex Ethele colore teter, oculis nigris et furiosis, pectore lato, elatus incessu, statura brevis, barbam prolixam gum Hunnis deferebat" (P 120 I p. 151).

51. Author Agathias writing about the Hunnorum Gens says this: "Hi vero omnes communiter Scythae et Hunni vocabantur, privátim autem, secundum nationes alii aliter ex patria cuique et usita appellatione nominaban-tur", quoted by P 092 p. 130.

52. "Mensa erat tota aurea, vasa etiam coquinaria aurea erant", - records Simon de Kéza (P 120 I p. 262).

53. Clenodia aurea que a tempore regis Ungariae Attila et ab aliis successoribus suis usque nunc in Ungaria fuerant conservata" (P 099 p. 187 f.).

54. It should be noted, once again, that the ancient royal Egyptian symbols also included the bird, the whip and the bee.

55. Incidentally, ancient Egyptian kings had the same custom: "The warrior kings of the XVIIIth and XIXth Dynasties were pleased when the court scribes related in commemorative inscriptions how their lords raged and roared like lions as they mounted their chariots and set out to crush the foolish enemy" (P 026 I p. 25 f.)

56. "Sie besassen keine Sprache, sondern stiessen kurze, rauhe Laute aus, wie Tiere auf der Flucht" (P 113 p. 17).

57. "Sie sind treuer and harter als die Germanen, sie kennen nichts als den König" (P 113 p. 130).

58. "Der Name Attila ist heute zweifelsfrei als Germanisch 'Váterchen' erkannt", Die Presse, Stuttgart, 20, May 1975.

59. The Swiss anthropologist E. Pittard was one of the first scientists to suspect the close affinity of the early inhabitants of Hungary. He said: «I1 est probable, á voir les caractéres morphologiques des habitants de la Hongrie, que parmi les peuples qui arrivaient de l'Est, il y en avait plusieurs qui étaient puisés aux mémes fonds ethniques que les Magyars eux-mémes» (P 103 p. 341).

60. Several examples can be listed to prove that Horse (Lau) was used to say Ra, the Sungod. In the Zagros mountains, to the east of Mesopotamia, there was a small country called Lauristan (<H.: Ló-Ur-Isten), 'Land placed under the protection of the Horse-Lordgod' i.e. Sungod. It was the unique task of the Scythians who lived in that country to raise horses for the Persian armies. Their popular art was also overladen with horse representations. — Another example: The Armenian bishop, Israyel, who travelled into the land of the Huns and described their beliefs, said this: "The Huns worshipped their highest divinity in the form of a giant warrior, mounted on horseback" (P 081 p. 65). - The Hungarian AU sound usually changes into 0, as in the city-name of Iglau, which is in modern Hungarian, Igló.

61. Originally, the eastern border lands of Germany (the future Austria) were a creation of Frankish rulers. They were re-established later, as duchies of Carinthia (976), Carniola (1040), Styria (1055) and Ostmark (1156).

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