SETTLEMENT AND DWELLING PLACES
Continuous movement and migration to supply animals with the necessary grazing grounds, were essential parts of life in the steppe. Its customary rhythm was determined by the alternation of seasons. A typical feature of the nomadic life-style was the use of round tents, the so-called yurts, that were portable and easy to take apart and put together.
Yurts have dome-shaped roofs, grated sidewalls and were covered with multi-layered felt. During migrations, they were carried on pack animals, though sometimes they were fastened to carts. Their inner space division was strictly determined. Facing the door, men owned the right side, women had the left side, and the place next to the door was the place of daily work. The fire-place was in the center and its smoke could leave freely through a hole on top of the yurt. This hole could be closed by a blanket that was pulled by a string, and the door was covered with a carpet. The house thus consisted of only one room. People's properties, clothes and foods were kept in leather sacks or wooden chests placed near the wall, covered by carpets. Weapons and objects of every day use were hanged on the wall, which was made of laths. The Hungarians used these yurts as their summer place of living long after the Conquest.
The network of settlements of the Hungarians was not unified when arriving in the Carpathian Basin. The layers of contemporary society can be reconstructed from the types of dwelling-places. The majority of the population lived in the so-called summer or winter quarters. Then, winter quarters grew into villages. Courts of tribal and clan leaders were different, they also functioned as market places. This network of settlements was not influenced by the organisation of the state and church at the turn of the millennium.
Besides changing summer quarters - as the importance of farming grew - the permanent winter quarters became village-like settlements. In the villages of the 10th century mud houses half-dug into the ground came into general use, then dwelling- and outhouses appeared built on the surface. These buildings were the equivalents of house-types that were widespread all through contemporary Eastern-Europe.
The changing of settlements and house-types can be explained by the economic changes. At the beginning the conquering Hungarians led a nomadic life-style. Accordingly they grazed their herds from spring to autumn, though they had permanent winter quarters surrounded by cultivated lands. As a result of their permanent settling down following the Conquest, smaller villages were formed. The village with fixed borders (villa), the leader of which was the villicus, appeared already in King Stephen's laws and deeds of gift - as dwelling-places of common people.
As elements of the forming county-system, wooden or timber fortresses were built, also serving as centers of clans and castle districts. Fortresses were dwelling-places of a different type and size, protected by entrenchments or mounds. Fortresses in the 10th-11th centuries were typically built on small hills emerging from flood planes of rivers, or on peninsulas or ridges of hills, in other words, on a place of strategic importance.
Medieval towns in Hungary - legally - appeared only at the turn of the 12th-13th centuries, though there were settlements formerly that functioned as towns, or played an important role in the regional division of work. First of all, places with consumption needs bigger than the average, or places that served as a forum for the primitive exchange of goods could be counted as urban settlements, including principal and ecclesiastical centers. Under the protection of the lord's fortified place of living, there may have been markets as well. Around market places there were villages of artisan servants or ethnic groups engaged in trade. During the foundation of the state, the king's most frequent residence was the fortress of Esztergom. This was also the residence of the first Hungarian archbishopric at the same time. Székesfehérvár became - first of all - a sacred center, since the founder of the state was buried here. For this reason, it later became the coronation and burial place of Hungarian kings, and the crown jewels were also kept here.
The Hungarians - even in their home at Etelköz - lived along important international commercial routes. They took part in fur-, wax- and the slave-trade. Trading with the Byzantine and the Arabs did not stop after their arrival in the Carpathian Basin either. There are written sources mentioning the export of slaves and horses, and the import of tin and fur. Although the main branch of economy was subsistence farming, towns already appeared at the age of the foundation of the state to settle the necessary exchange of goods.
Firmly paved roads built by the Romans in Pannonia and rivers suitable for shipping played an important role in medieval communication. Sources from the 11th century already mention boat traffic on the Danube, but landing places were also known. In land communication the most important animal was henceforward the horse. In the 10th-12th centuries merchants carried their goods on horses or for shorter trips on foot. The means for long-distance transport of goods had formerly been the two- or four-wheeled carts. They were hardly ever used for transporting people, as a horseman could move about 100 kilometres a day, while a cart could only travel 20-30 kilometres.
King Stephen's orders extended to the system of measurements as well. The foot of Bavarian-Caroling origin, that was 16 inches or 1/10 fathom, was the basic unit of linear measure. The royal fathom became the basic unit of land measure, the original of which - made of rope - is kept in the treasury at Székesfehérvár. According to the Roman tradition widespread in Europe and the local Hungarian practice of ploughing, the measurement of the royal acre - that was 12 x 72 royal fathoms - was formed. Coins had an important role in the forming of weight measurements. The units of volumetry were established in the realm of corp-, hay- and hemp work: such as a sheaf of, a handful of and cart of something. Besides royal measurements, general and local measurements were created. Although widespread, these measures were not at all precise.
EVERYDAY LIFE
Labour Division Between Genders
In the life of the Hungarians' ancestors men's and women's work was separated. Women had to do the cooking and baking. They used vegetables, onions, peas, horse-radish and various kinds of lettuce. Big clay cauldrons were used for cooking. Different kinds of pots may have been made from wood or leather. Griddle bread was made by pouring batter on the hot griddle in the oven. Women had to make clothes, carpets and felt, they directed the moving and the setting up of portable felt-tents. Women dealt with tasks concerning the house but they also had to take part in hoeing the garden. Duties connected to animal husbandry were done by men, of course. Thus milking was men's work, while women had to make the kumis according to the tradition of nomadic people.
Spindles were used for spinning, horizontal waving looms were used for weaving. After the Conquest weaving looms with treadles were adopted. Girls and women made felt (it is a textile made from the fleece of sheep) that was used for various purposes: clothes (coats, boots and caps), pouches, blankets, coarses under saddles and - most important of all - tent covers were made from it.
Clothing
Presumably both sexes wore similar items of clothing: shirts made of hemp or flaxen linen, kaftans or coat-like upper garments, loose trousers and boots with a slightly rising toe. Shiny mounts also decorated their clothes according to social rank, age and dignity. The arrangement of objects found by archaeologists in graves helps us to reconstruct part of the clothing.
A typical indicator of rank of equestrian nomadic men was the mounted belt. Boys were initiated as men by receiving a belt. The quantity and quality of belt mounts showed the social status of its owner. Their weapons and pouches containing their tools were hanged onto this. Men wore pointed leather or felt high caps, the sides of which could be turned down to protect their ears.
Women wore clothes that may have been more richly decorated than men's clothes. Girls wore headdresses, richer women wore high caps decorated with disc and hanger mounts or fur. Their jewels were various ear rings, braid rings or discs, beads strung onto a necklace, half-moon shaped hangers, bracelets and rings. Diamond shapes mounts and double mounts with hangers were sewn onto the stand-up shirt collars of women and children's clothes.
They wore a brocade or silk caftan over their shirts decorated with beads or metal buttons (pityke) hemmed with square or half-moon shaped mounts with hangers or pressed rosettas.
They braided polished shells and beads into their plaits and put decorated discs at the ends. Bracelets gathered up the sleeves of their clothes. Hair rings with S-endings made of bronze or silver were typical common jewels at the age of the Conquest and the foundation of the state. Bracelets ending in animal head decorations might have had a protective role. They were quite popular at that age.
The clothing of high society was the skived fur upper garment, the "suba". Gowns might have been felt blankets, put on the shoulder in bad weather. Other typical items of clothing were the patterned tunic, gloves, short fur upper garment (smock-frock), boots sewn on the side with rivets and decorated uppers and silk shirt closing in the middle or at the left shoulder.
After adopting Christianity usually only simple leather or textile belts were buried - iron and bronze buckles show this. People wore hollowed relic holder crosses on their neck or cast chest crosses.
Hairstyle has indicated the difference between genders and generations since ancient times. It may have denoted social rank as well, and in the case of women it might have been a traditional sign.
Healing
We have hardly any data about how people at the age of the Conquest diagnosed and healed diseases. The fact that they knew some herbs and healing techniques and relevant traces of the ancient belief provide some information about the topic. The only thing we surely know is that trepanation - which requires serious anatomical and surgical knowledge - was widespread among the ancestors of the Hungarians.
