The Conquering Hungarians in Transylvania
3. Transylvania in the Early Kingdom of Hungary (1003-1172)
Igfon erdo (Egyfan = "holy woods") was the name given to the Bihar M oun
tains in Old Hungarian. The country lying over the m ountains was called
"A cross the w oods" (Erdeelw in the eleventh century Old Gesta) looking from the direction of the plain along the Duna-Tisza rivers; m uch the same as the land over the Havas ("A lpes" = the snow-capped Carpathians) was called H avaselve (today: Wallachia). In the pre-1190 sources from the Arp£d period, the form er was referred to as Ultrasilvana (Ultra Silvas) in the Ital
ian—Roman Latin dialect, while in the Latin dialect used in Germ any the name Transilvana appeared sometime between 1190 and 1250, with the two forms being used concurrently. The use of the form "Transsilvania” is only confirm ed after 1461. The thousand year old Hungarian name of Erdely is spelt Ardeal in Romanian. It was first written down in this form in 1444 in a Romanian charter worded in Slavic, and the same spelling is still used to
day.
Compared to the rest of Hungary, very few charters have survived from the Arp&dian period in Transylvania. The Chapter of Gyulafehervar, to
gether with its archives and registers, was destroyed, first by the M ongols in 1241, and then by the Saxons of Vizakna in 1277. The Mongol invasion brought a similar fate to the documents of the nearby See of Csan&d, to the archives of the See of V&rad — with the exception of a register containing some early thirteenth-century data — and to the archives of the Abbey of Kolozsmonostor. As a consequence of the widespread devastation, only a few official documents, mostly royal charters, have survived as records of Transylvania's early history, and these certainly do not go back to the earli
est days (Gyulafeh6rv&r: 1111; Csan^d: 1111 and 1163; Belsc5-Szolnok: 1134 and 1166; Arad and Aradv&r: 1156 and 1177; Dobokav^r: 1164; Krasznav&r:
1093 and 1164; Tordav&r: 1075 and 1177; Kolozsv&r, Kukullovar and Kras- s6var: 1177; Zar&nd: 1203 and 1214; Hunyadv&r: 1265 and 1276). Only four
charters refer back to the eleventh century. To this day, the testimony of the
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m uch earlier chronicles and legends is generally ignored and the archaeo
logical data are re-interpreted in a determined effort to present these late references as primary, contemporaneous sources, especially when the ref
erence is to the political institutions of the Kingdom of Hungary in Transyl
vania. This approach fails to take cognizance of the fact that the arrival of the Saxons and the Romanians, as well as the resettlement of the Szekelys are also documented only in charters dated several decades after the events themselves. The unfortunate practice of deducing the history and economic history of eleventh-century Transylvania from development trends obtain- ing'throughout all of Hungary at the time as well as these late Transylvani
an charters has only added to the chaos. It has resulted in a hopeless confu
sion of the territorially organized counties (comitatus civitatis, mega, later also known as the "noble counties") with the border counties (marchia, comi- tati confiniorum), and the early units of government (centred around the royal castles (civitates, comitati castrorum, the "royal counties"), quite ignor
ing the fact that in some places, the first of these really did develop quite late. The extent of the confusion is well illustrated by the circumstance that the existence of comitati centred around the royal castles, for example, is generally denied on the grounds that they lack the data and criteria charac
teristic of the territorially organized counties. And yet, these castles are still there for everyone to see, and have been excavated and dated on the evi
dence of the finds and occasionally, even of coins. People were continu
ously buried in the cemeteries of these castles since the time of King Ste
phen I and King Peter (6-Tordavar, 6-Kolozsv£r, O-Hunyadvar and O-Arad- var). Under these circumstances, therefore, toponymy checked against ety
m ology and archaeology plays a much larger role in the reconstruction of the real history of this region than of the rest of the Carpathian Basin.
There are many problems that cannot be resolved by archaeology. A r
chaeology can determine, however, whether or not a region w as inhabited at any given time starting from the Neolithic, and can confirm w ith some degree of certainty whether or not the settlement was a lasting one. Archae
ology also provides information on the type of population which lived in the region — its "culture" — on the degree of its social differentiation and, when it comes to historical times, on the form of government. Archaeology can establish, with a high degree of certainty, whether castles and fortifica
tions existed in the period in question and if so, what type they were when they were built and rebuilt as well as when they were destroyed or de
serted. W ith the help of the coins minted yearly or every other year, under the kings of the House of Arp&d and used by the people as oboli, archaeolo
gists can date the eleventh- and twelfth-century cemeteries within a decade or so. They are also able to identify long-perished villages using the evi
dence of charters and regional place-names surviving only in local history.
In short, archaeology provides source material that today cannot be over
Map 8. Settlements in Transylvania and in the Eastern Great Plain between 1003 and 1172
1. T h e fort o f the marchio/conies; 2. T h e seat of the dux; 3. Princely curtis; 4. Bishopric; 5. A bbey; 6. Salt m in e operating in th e elev en th - tw elfth cen turies; 7. H illforts and bord er hillforts from the last third o f the eleventh cen tury to the m id d le o f th e tw elfth cen tury;
8. Beseny<5 (B), Kttlp6ny (K), Talm ^cs (T), village nam es indicating border-guard settlem ents; 9. H ungarian village churches and church y ard s in the e le v en th -tw e lfth cen turies; 10. V illages referred to in docum ents up to the 1170s; 11. Early clan landed properties in the ele v en th -tw e lfth cen turies; 12. Slav D ar6c and A rd 6 place-nam es; 13. C oins issued by Step h en 1, Peter, Sam u el and A n d rew I;
14. C o ins issued by B61a I, Solom on , G 6za I and Lad islas I; 15. Coins issued by C olom an, Step h en II and B£la II; 16. C o ins issu ed by G £za II, Step h en II, and B£la III; 17. C o in hoard from the age o f Peter; 18. Coin hoards from the ag e of Ladislas I; 19. C oin h oard from th e ag e o f B£la II; 20. C oin hoard s from th e ag e o f B£la III; 21. Border-guard cem eteries from the tim e o f G £za II; 22. Bord er-guard v illages from th e tim e o f G 6za II; 23. B ord er ispdnsdgs (counties) in the elev en th -tw elfth centuries, Borsova features here as a basis for co m parison