LÁSZLÓ BOTOS

THE HOMELAND RECLAIMED

Chapter 7.

Early Man in the Carpathian Basin

    According to the most recent archeological findings, the Carpathian Basin was the cradle of the Magyar people. The Carpathian Basin was formed by different geological changes and its history began in the Paleozoic Era in the Carboniferous Period. (500 million years ago) It was roughly its present shape in the Oligocene and Miocene ages but, in the first period of the Pliocene age, (7 million years ago) the larger part of the Carpathian Basin was flooded by the sea.

    This Pliocene age sea left sediment 400-600 meters deep in Transylvania and 400 meters deep in Transdanubia (Pannonia). At the end of the Pliocene age, as a result of a drier climate, the sea retreated and left dry land. The remains of the Pliocene age are especially evident in Transylvania in the form of brown coal and rock salt. In the Ice Age, the peaks of the Carpathian Mountains were covered with ice, as were all other European mountain peaks. As a result of the warming of the climate after the Ice Age, the streams continuously filled the valleys with sediment and slowly the Danube and Tisza rivers were formed. The rivers all emptied from the Carpathian Mountains into a natural basin, which became known as the Carpathian Basin. This is a perfect example of a centripetal water system.

    The Carpathian Basin was a territory inhabited by man almost from the time man first appeared on earth. We can document the continuous habitation by man from the most primitive age of prehistory to the present time.

     The earth and man too underwent many changes until they reached their present forms. We will mention three of the stages of man's development. First the Neanderthal man, who lived 80,000 years ago and whose remains can be found in Germany, France, England, China, Belgium, Africa. The characteristics of the Neanderthal man were a long head, narrow protruding forehead, large round eye sockets, broad cheekbones, broad nose, heavy protruding jaw without a chin. He was stocky and short about 155-156 cm. tall.

     Secondly, Cro-Magnon man, who lived approximately 35,000 years ago. The Cro-Magnon man was much taller than the Neanderthal man, 180-184 cm. He had a long head, a cranial index of 73-76 and a cranial capacity of 1400-1500 cubic centimeters. He had a high forehead, strong, heavy jawbones and a developed chin. His limbs were well proportioned. The Cro-Magnon man could be found all across Europe at that time. Two skeletons with Negroid characteristics were found in a cave near Menton, France and are now known as the Grimaldi remains. They were buried at the end of the last Ice Age and belong to the Aurignacian culture. From this find, scientists have concluded that, at the end of the Wurm Era, (20,000 years ago), men were already divided into different races.

     Thirdly, in the last stage of Man's development, the skull became shorter (mesocephalic) and then round, (brachycephalic). Examples of both were found in 1908 in the cave of Offnet in Bavaria, in two trenches where thirty-three skulls were excavated, 60 percent of which were mesocephalic and brachycephalic. These findings were from the end of the Wurm Era, from the Azilian culture (10,000 years ago).

    Since the brachycephalic was the last stage of human development and the examples excavated were from the end of the diluvial epoch, anthropologists came to the conclusion that the development of the human skull progressed from long to short (dolicocephalic to brachycephalic).

    It was necessary for me to explain this development so that we can evaluate correctly the results of the excavations in the Carpathian Basin and so that we can prove from the research of Etelka Toronyi that the Carpathian Basin was inhabited by man continuously from the time of Homo Primigenius and in this region man's development progressed rapidly.[1]

    Hungarian archeologists had enormous success from the outset because they found the above-mentioned three stages of man's development in the Carpathian Basin. Tivadár Kormos found at Tata stone tools of the Mousterian culture about 80,000 years old. Breul, a French archeologist, compared the stone tools found by Kormos with tools from the Mousterian culture of other countries and declared that the tools at Tata were made by Neanderthal peoples. József Malasz found, in the cave of Habaponir in the county of Hunyad, a segment of a toe that was also Mousterian (early Wurm era). János Danca, in the cave of Subalyuk, County of Heves, found a complete skeleton of a Neanderthal type. These important findings prove that Neanderthal people lived in the Carpathian Basin, as in other parts of Europe.

     Hungarian archeologists also successfully excavated Cro-Magnon (or Homo Sapiens Sapiens) remains from the diluvial strata in the Carpathian Basin. Etelka Toronyi mentions her professor Jenő Hillebrand, who found examples of Cro-Magnon remains in different cultural levels. In 1909, in Repashuta, he found a child's skull in the Magdalenian strata, about 15,000 years old. In 1912, in a cave at Pálfi, in the Solutrian strata, he found a child's tooth, about 20,000 years old. Ottokár Kadic, in 1925, in the caves of Eszterház and Csakvár, found the bones of a forearm in the Solutrian strata. Géza Mégai, in the vicinity of the city of Miskolc, found a neck-bone in the Solutrian strata. In 1940, in a cave in the county of Borsod, a jaw was found in the Solutrian strata, which was declared to be the jawbone of a Cro-Magnon. We could name many more examples of the Cro-Magnon man, who used polished stone tools, who lived at the end of the Diluvian Era in the Carpathian Basin and who was the ancestor of the Caucasian type.

      In 1871, Miksa Hantken presented a skull, which he had found in the cave at Nagysáp in the county of Esztergom, to the May 10 session of the Geological Society. The authenticity of this finding was accepted by the world's scientists. Rutat, the famed Belgian professor, suggested that the brachycephalic diluvial age skull be called the Nagysáp type (Facies brachycephalis de Nagysáp). These findings prove that at the end of that Diluvium, the most developed type of man, the brachycephalic type, was found in the Carpathian Basin. This type in the later Bronze Age made up 36% of the populace of the Carpathian Basin and the dolicocephalic type was already diminishing in number.[2]

    From the evidence we have presented we can conclude that the Carpathian Basin was not only the cradle of man's development but also, as a result of a rapid genetic progression, it was the territory where different races developed. We shall examine next how man developed in the Carpathian Basin.

    At the time of the appearance of Cro-Magnon man in the Carpathian Basin, 35,000 years ago, the cultural development of this territory was already more advanced than that of the rest of the world. In the Szeleta cave, which is located in the Bükk Mountain in Northern Hungary, large quantities of leaf shaped spear-heads were unearthed. Nowhere in the world have others been found with such perfect forms. The perfect form and workmanship misled scientists to declare that these well-developed objects belonged to the Aurignacian culture in the Carpathian Basin, an independent local development, 30,000 to 20,000 years ago. However, Radio-Carbon 14 analysis and pollen analysis have recently shown that these objects were from the Wurm I and II interglacial ages (60,000 and 30,000 years ago). From the archeological research in the Carpathian Basin, it has been shown that during the Wurm I and II interglacial ages, people were living not only in caves but also in the open in dwellings built on pillars, arranged in an oval shape. These dwellings were unearthed on the shores of the rivers Ipoly, Vág, Hernád, in the territory of the Dunakanyar, the curve of the Danube, where today the city of Esztergom stands, the shoreline of Lake Balaton, the territory between the Duna and Tisza rivers, and the territories of the Olt, Maros and Kőrős rivers. It is interesting to note that, in Buda, there is a hot spring that is called "Rudás". In the Hungarian language, the word "rudás" means "provided with poles". It does not seem possible that a spring would be provided with poles, but if there had been at one time a settlement of pole-dwellings at this site, the name would be fitting.

     In 1955 and 1956, surface excavations proved that the ancient populace lived not in scattered single dwellings but in a village system for example in Pilisszentmárton, Pilisszántó, Szob, Zebegény, Szeged, Othalom, Nográdverőce, where the community life was probably the first in the world. The Danubian Aurignacian early man lived in this new type of settlement, 30,000 years ago, thousands of years before the people of the rest of Europe dared to leave their caves.

    These open settlements were made possible by the thick layer of loess that was carried and deposited by the glacial winds. This loess was a very loose soil that stored the water well and was well suited to primitive agriculture. This explains why these open settlements were found everywhere on the banks of the rivers. The above-mentioned surface excavations proved that the ancient man, from the beginning of the Wurm I-II inter-glacial ages, not only chased and hunted reindeer, but with stone scrapers (hoes), started to work the land. Gordon Childe stated that "Danubian Man" cultivated the land along the banks of the rivers from the River Dráva to the Baltic Sea and the River Vistula to the Meotis Territory (Sea of Azov). Already in the Stone Age, they lived in roofed stone houses and in villages built on pillars. This type of settlement spread out from the Carpathian Basin. They domesticated animals, pigs, sheep and horses, and had very few weapons and hunting tools, which means that they were agriculturalists and not hunter-fishers.[3]

    Around the dwellings, researchers found crescent shaped hoes made of stone the handle of which was made of deer antlers. They found workshop sites of different sizes where these implements were made. This proves that, in the Carpathian Basin, agriculture was so widespread in the Wurm interglacial age that it was necessary to produce these tools in large quantities. The people were far enough advanced in their civilization that they were living in villages and dependent upon each other, developing special trades. On the hill at Csitár, in the County of Hont, a huge quantity of these agricultural stone implements were laid down side by side and covered as if they were being stored. They were new and ready for use. They were discovered by accident while a farmer was plowing. These products date back to the end of the third Wurm Ice Age. These tools predate the polished stone tools of the Neolithic Age. We must note that such well-developed stone implements, which were used in the Wurm age, have never been found anywhere else in the world. Similar objects were found outside of the Carpathian Basin, but they were much simpler and coarser and belonged to a much later time. We may conclude that in the Carpathian Basin, in the Paleolithic Age, in the Aurignacian period, in the Wurm I and II interglacial ages, we can find open settlements and the beginnings of agriculture. This was the first agricultural development in the world. The people of the Carpathian Basin were the first to leave the security of the cave and begin to build dwellings. From their observation of nature developed their knowledge of agriculture and the necessity of the manufacture of large quantities of agricultural implements.[4] In 5500.B.C. Danubian man had already developed an export trade. According to Marija Gimbutas, stone tools were found in a pit in Boldogkőváralja "indicating that the villagers here clearly specialized in the preparation of stone tools for export."[5]

     Sir Leonard Woolley and Jacquetta Hawkes describe the Sesklo culture of Greece as the oldest culture in Europe which dates back to 6000 and 5000 B.C.[6] Etelka Toronyi calls this culture the Proto Szekel (Székely) culture, based on archeological findings at the rivers Olt, Maros and Kőrős and in the territory of Banat. This culture is also called the Vardar-Morava, Kőrős (Cris), Starcevo or Oltenian culture.

    In the 1950% archeologists of different nationalities found, in the Olt valley in the county of Háromszék, an ancient city called Erősd. This city was built in 6000 B.C. with a city plan, with wide streets and large parks. The citizens lived in comfortable houses of several rooms, surrounded by gardens. These houses were heated with colorful ceramic stoves placed in the middle of the house. The arch of the entrance gate was carved with ornaments and was similar to that of the present-day Szekel entrance gate. These several thousand year-old buildings are almost identical to the present-day Szekel houses. The pride of the Szekel house even today is the carved entrance gate and the colorful ceramic-covered stove just as it was in 6000 B.C. (In recent times, many of the Szekel gates standing in front of Hungarian homes were torn down and burned by Rumanian officials. Some, like that in the illustration, have been given a Rumanian name and are claimed to be Rumanian.) Among the ruins of Erősd, archeologists found baked enameled ceramics, ornamented with undulating lines, which are identical to the modern Szekel ceramics. Several similar ceramic objects with animal symbols in relief were excavated in the Kőrős cultural center. Similar relief ornamented ceramics were found in other centers only three or four thousand years later.

     Another planned city was excavated in 1967 in the territory of the Iron Gate, at Lipinski-Vir. Here archeologists excavated a group of forty-one houses, which were built according to a city plan similar to that of Erősd. It is worth mentioning that not only is the city plan of Lipinski-Vir identical to that of Erősd, but also the style of the houses and the ceramics. Thirty-three small statues representing people were found here. The carving of the statues shows a highly developed form of art. The faces of the statues are expressive, very individual and wear an archaic smile. In the territory of Hódmezővásáhely, and in some parts of the Hungarian Plain, hundreds of artifacts were found which were very similar to those of Erősd. At Kökénydomb archeologists found a colorful headless statue of a woman, which they called the Venus of Kökénydomb. This statue is circa 7500 years old.

     The aforementioned UNESCO publication mentions two other cultural centers that are supposedly older than the Kőrős culture. These are the Natufian and the Jericho cultures. According to Dr. Etelka Torony, no earlier cultural center attained the same level of development as the Kőrős culture. The Natufian culture mentioned by the Unesco publication is 10,000 years old, dating back to the Neolithic age, and can in no way be regarded as an independent cultural center because anthropologists found no evidence of the simplest levels of an early settlement. What they found here were the earliest agricultural tools of this culture. In the Carpathian Basin, workshops for the manufacture of agricultural implements and the remains of group settlements were found which have been dated to belong to the Paleolithic age, 25,000-30,000 years ago. The other cultural center of city builders mentioned by Woolley was located in the Jordan River Valley on the shores of the Dead Sea. Since there were no ceramics of the Paleolithic Age found in the lowest strata of Jericho, Dr. Etelka Toronyi states that Sir Leonard Woolley's chronology is incorrect, when he dates Jericho before Kőrős. In the second level of Jericho, which could be the same age as the Kőrős and Erősd cultures, ceramics were found which indicate the level of the cultural standard of that time. The ceramics which were found here are much more primitive than those of the Kőrős and Erősd cultures. The walls of the ceramics are thick, formed by hand not on the wheel, and badly glazed. None of the ceramics of Kőrős and Erősd, was as primitive as those of Jericho II. Even in the highest level of Jericho, no ceramics were found which were made on the potter's wheel, not to mention the ceramics ornamented in relief. Statues were found and pottery ornamented with designs of human figures, but these are all very roughly formed statues and cannot be compared with the much more artistic statues of the Kőrős culture in the Kökénydomb and Irongate territories.

     From the above mentioned facts we can see that the first Neolithic Age city-cultures were created by the Proto-Szekels. It is interesting to note that the most ancient Sumerian culture, the Al Ubaid culture, is much younger than the Kőrős, Erősd and Lipinski Vir cultures. The Proto-Szekels developed the techniques of wheel-thrown ceramics, highly-glazed ceramics, and also the building techniques which spread to the Balkan Peninsula, to the Aegean Sea shoreline and the offshore islands, to Asia Minor, to the territories of the Mediterranean Sea, the territory of Caucasia, the Aral Sea territories and the Far East. The beginnings of the Danubian I and II cultures and the other western cultures were all found in the Kőrős Culture. According to Dr. Etelka Toronyi, as the Proto-Szekels produced their glazed ceramics, they discovered the secret of smelting metals. The smelting of metals takes place at a temperature of 1700 degrees Celsius and above, which the Szekels employed for their glazing. They lived in a territory, Transylvania, where not only copper but also tin could be found in veins and in ores. Therefore, we can make the conclusion that the Szekel people were the first people to discover bronze. This statement is supported by the large number of bronze artifacts found in the Carpathian Basin. The fact that almost every tool made of copper found in the Carpathian Basin was a replica of polished Stone Age tools, allows us to conclude that the Proto-Szekels used copper at a very early period in history. The copper objects found in Transylvania were of a very high level of workmanship. Bracelets, arm-ornaments, brooches and buckles were found in large quantities and of very fine workmanship, seen nowhere else in the world. Dechelette, the famed French Bronze-Age researcher made a list of the locations and ages of the articles found. This list shows that the most primitive Bronze Age objects in Western Europe date to 2000 B.C. but in the Carpathian Basin, the bronze objects made by the Szekels date back to 4000 B.C. and a bronze adze found in the county of Torontál, which is inscribed with the Szekel Runic Script, dates back to 5000 B.C.

    Jan Briand compared the bronze findings of Asia and Europe and stated that the adzes, spiral brooches, bracelets and buckles from Transylvania are the most remarkable remains of the Bronze Age.[7] The rich appearance of the bronze articles and their many different forms lead us to conclude that the Proto-Szekels were the first to make bronze from copper and tin. Not only on the basis of archeology can we state that the creators of the pre-historic culture were the Proto-Szekels, but we can prove from the metrical analysis of anthropology that the direct descendants of the Proto-Szekels are the present-day Szekels and Magyars. A bronze adze found in Tordos witnesses to the fact that the first forms of writing existed in the Carpathian Basin, 7000 years ago. We can be sure that the inscription on the bronze adze is really a form of writing because the objects excavated at Tordos by Zsófia Torma, ceramics and round seals, are inscribed with markings identical to those on the bronze adze. These ceramics and round seals are dated to be from the same period as the adze. This important collection of articles inscribed with the Runic Script was studied by Dr. Mátyás Fehér whose conclusions were published posthumously by his wife, in two volumes.[8] The Szekel Runic Script of today shows a strong resemblance to the script on the bronze adze of Tordos and the ceramics and seals excavated by Zsófia Torma.

     John Dayton's research supports the conclusions of Etelka Toronyi: "The European Bronze Age preceded that of the Near East. The same pattern is apparent in the development of glazing and its allied craft, metallurgy."[9] Writing of the production of bronze artifacts in the Near East, he says: "Tin does not exist in the Near East and came from China or from Europe (Bohemia)"[10]  He points out that native copper did not exist in Egypt and that in Central Europe and the Carpathians, large quantities of native copper, gold and silver are to be found.[11]

     Kálmán Miske, a Hungarian archeologist, already in the early 1900’s informed us of the results of the excavations at Velem St. Vid in Hungary. He offered indisputable proofs that Bronze Age mining contributed to the spread of bronze artifacts in Western Europe.[12] Antimony was mined in the Rohonc Mountain in Burgenland (Western Hungary) near Velem St. Vid. This Hungarian territory was given to Austria in 1920 at the Treaty of Trianon. The antimony mines are still in use today. The Hungarian name for the mining area was Szalonak. Its present name is Schlaining. The majority of the artifacts found in the three excavations at Velem St. Vid are presently on display at the museum at Szombathely. There must have been a large population at Velem St. Vid in the Bronze Age for John Dayton, quoting Kalman Miske, says: "This site has also yielded tuyeres, crucibles, and some fifty stone moulds, mostly for socketed axes, and must have been a very important production centre."[13] He later says: "Evidence is in fact accumulating for trade over a large area of Western Europe during the Third Millennium."[14] Most of the Bronze Age artifacts, hand-wrought or cast in a mold, which can be found in the museums of Western Europe, originated from Velem St. Vid. Miske mentions that, already in the Bronze Age, bronze was made from an alloy of copper and tin but the Velem St. Vid process was an exception because it used antimony instead of tin. It is an indisputable fact that antimony bronze was developed at Velem St. Vid. John Dayton supports this conclusion and again reinforces the fact that antimony is not mined in the Near East.[15]

    Elemér Csobánczi writes that an artifact of antimony and gold was found in the grave of the Egyptian Pharaoh Kheneri of the Second Dynasty. He quotes A.R. Burne who says that the two metals, gold and antimony, can only be alloyed by the use of a catalyst, a third metal called Tellurium. Geologists have found only three places where the three metals can be found together, in natural form - in Australia, North America and in Zalatna, Transylvania. We can conclude that the Egyptians received these metals from Transylvania.[16]

     Gordon Childe states that, in the Bronze Age, the alloy electrum was made of two parts gold and one part silver. This process was known in only four places, the Carpathian Basin, Troy, the Caucasus and Mesopotamia.[17]

     The ancient name for Szombathely indicates the nature of the ancient people who inhabited this region. The original name was Szabaria, which means a settlement of Szabir/ Szubar people (Subareans). The Subareans were a Mesopotamian people and the accepted theory of diffusion states that they migrated from Mesopotamia to the Carpathian Basin. Dayton, however, proves that "from a geological point of view and in view of the archeological evidence, the Hungarian/Bohemian Basin offers all the elements for the discovery of metallurgy."[18] He also states: "It is also quite clear that the metallurgical wealth of Mesopotamia was developed from Central Europe."[19]  Dayton contends that the movement of peoples was the reverse of that accepted by historians. His theory is that because of an intense drought at the end of the Fourth Millennium in Europe "there was a movement of peoples into the Mediterranean and Near East, if not into Egypt."[20] The ancient people, already in the Bronze Age, using sailboats, reached the island of Crete, Asia Minor, Egypt and Africa.

     It should be no surprise that the Carpathian Basin was a densely populated area during the Bronze Age, when we consider that man had lived in this area for millennia. Archeologists have found human remains of 94 people dating back 2.5 million years. The skull found at Vertesszöllős dates back 500,000 years.[21] In the Neolithic Age, one of the most important materials used by ancient man to make weapons and tools was obsidian. Three obsidian mines were found in the Carpathian Basin, at Tarcsal, Tokay and Csitár, where large numbers of tools were manufactured. By natural progression the population increased and this area was densely populated in the Bronze Age. Elek Fényes writes that the trade routes for obsidian and salt began in the Carpathian Basin and that amber, shell and silk routes crossed the Carpathian Basin. It is a known fact that trade routes always passed through populated areas.[22]

    The main requirement of the economical production of an article is that the raw material should be worked close to the place it was mined, thereby reducing the expense of transportation. This was all the more important in an era when the finished product was transported by carriage on bad roads. The amulets found at Tartaria in Rumania, (formerly Tatarlaka, Hungary), are proof that civilization originated in Transylvania. An ancient form of writing on these amulets, which date back to 5000 B.C., places the discovery of writing in Transylvania rather than in Sumer. Similarly the invention of the wheel can be credited to the ancient people of the Carpathian Basin. "The earliest certain evidence for a wheeled vehicle comes from the pottery model of a wagon found at Budakalász in Hungary, in a Baden Culture burial of about 2900-2400 B.C."[23]

     Zsófia Torma tells us that this wagon was a "burial wagon" in which the people of the Carpathian Basin used to send their loved ones to the afterlife, just as the Vikings sent their dead on their journey in ships.[24] She points out that, according to the research of Nandor Fettich and Stuart Piggott, many wagons have been found in the Carpathian Basin and in Mesopotamia. This would indicate that the people who migrated from the Carpathian Basin not only traveled by wagon but also brought with them their burial customs to Mesopotamia.

    John Dayton says: "It is also curious that the horse and the first wheeled vehicles (probably pulled by oxen) also appeared in Europe during the early part of the Third Millennium, perhaps about 2800 B.C. The horse is of the Asiatic type, the Tarpan or the Przewalski horse, and so it appears that the farmers and pastoralists who spread into Europe during the Fourth Millennium with horses, originated in the steppes of southern Russia or central Asia, and not necessarily in the Near East."[25] He mentions that in 1950, Piggott pointed out that a domesticated horse appears with the Copper Age in Hungary, with the Tiszapolgar/Baden culture.

     Ferenc Móra excavated Bronze Age skeletons in the villages of Szöreg, Pitváros, Tökö1 and Ószentivány. If we compare the cranial index and somatic or physical data of his findings to those of the present Szekel people, we see that they are almost identical. If we study the cranial characteristics of the Bronze Age people and those of the Szekels, we will find that the same percentage of each type of skull appears in each group. In other words, the dolicocephalic, mesocephalic and brachycephalic are represented in the same proportions in each group. The cranial index mean is 81.3 for both groups. The hyper-brachycephalic is 5.6% in both groups. Both groups have the same percentage of mesocephalics - 76% to 80%. At the same time the eastern racial characteristics are noticeable in the faces of both groups. The only difference is that the present day Szekel man has grown from 161 to 166 cm. while the woman has grown from 149 to 155 cm. but this is a general occurrence. As time has passed, there has been some mixture with other peoples, but the characteristics of the ancient people have predominated.[26]

    Calvin Gebhart, in The Races of Mankind, states that the Szekels are the oldest and purest branch of the Magyars. Elemer Csobánczi says that the ancient populace of the Carpathian Basin has survived to the present day in such groups as the Kalotaszeg Magyars, the Szekels of Erősd, the Barkok and the Torockok.[27]

    I shall attempt to prove that, in the Bronze Age, because of over-population and drought, some of the Proto-Szekels and Proto-Magyars migrated from the Carpathian Basin in carriages and they populated territories which at that time were not populated or just sparsely populated. I shall also attempt to prove that they carried with them their ancient culture and technical knowledge, their religious views, customs, legends and folktales and that, in different eras, when they were in distress, they returned to their ancient land under different names and found refuge in the Carpathian Basin. They even came back as conquerors or returned to give help to their brothers who were in trouble in their ancient land, for example, the Avars returned to help the Huns and the Magyars returned to aid the Avars.

     We are going to start by examining those peoples who, according to Hungarian legends, are relatives of the Magyars. By examining their cultural treasures and anthropological data we will prove that these peoples were related to the ancient Bronze Age people of the Carpathian Basin. First we will examine the connections with the Sumerian people because modern unbiased linguists appear to prove the Sumerian-Magyar connections. This is not the place to prove this connection by linguistic analysis; there are many books that do this, but I find it very important to mention the anthropological data of the Sumerian people.

     The physical characteristics of the Sumerian people bore a striking resemblance to those of the Bronze Age people of the Carpathian basin, according to Etelka Toronyi. They were entirely different from the Semitic people who later settled among them. The Sumerians were generally of the mesocephalic and brachycephalic type, just like the Bronze Age Carpathian people and the present Szekels. The strong, well-developed nose, the strong chin and certain eastern elements around the eyes and the face are apparent in all of them. The Sumerians and the Bronze Age Carpathian people were identical in height, 155-165 cm.

     The cultural connections between the Sumerians and the Bronze Age Carpathian people are easier to present than the somatic similarities. Sir Leonard Woolley, in the lowest cultural level of the city of Ur, discovered well-developed bronze objects that had no primitive characteristics. This indicates that a new ethnic group appeared in this territory and brought with them the knowledge of bronze metallurgy. In the upper and topmost levels, the bronze artifacts completely disappeared, according to Woolley. Etelka Toronyi explains that, at that time, a new conquest or war cut off the route to the territory from which the Sumerians were obtaining the tin that was necessary for the manufacture of bronze. John Dayton says: "Glazing dies out in Mesopotamia after the conquest of Babylon and Persia by Alexander, to reappear with the Parthians in the first century B.C."[28] The ethnic group of people, who carried with them the knowledge of the process of making bronze, were the ancestors of the Szekels, the Proto-Szekels. This is proven by the fact that the bronze objects found in Sumer were completely identical in composition to those of the Carpathian Basin. The spiral motif, which is so characteristic of the Carpathian Basin bronze objects, can also be found on the bronze artifacts of the Sumerians. The brooches, fasteners, and hairpins excavated in Sumer all bear the motif that is found on similar artifacts found in the Carpathian Basin. The bronze objects in the Carpathian Basin predate those of Mesopotamia by thousands of years. Every stage in the development of bronze can be found in the Carpathian Basin. This is why we can state that the Szekel emigrants took with them the knowledge of the production of bronze to Mesopotamia.

     I have previously stated that the Szekels believe themselves to be the direct descendants of the Huns. Writers contemporary with the Huns described the Huns as stocky, with a wide chest and a strong, muscular, well-developed upper-body. All the sources agreed that their heads were round and they had well-defined cheekbones. To point out the connections between the Huns and the Carpathian Basin Bronze Age men, Etelka Toronyi mentions one of the rituals of the Huns. It is not known why it was developed. Hippocrates was the first to mention this ritual, approximately 2400 years ago. He wrote that beyond the Meotis Marsh lived a people who, after the birth of a child, started to shape their newborn baby's head, which was still soft, by tying bandages around it in order to help it to become longer. This description was regarded as a fairy-tale until the end of the nineteenth century when Karl Ernst von Bauer, a German scholar, found the kind of skull described by Hippocrates, in the Crimean Peninsula. After this, anthropologists began to search for this kind of skull that they called macrocephalic or distorted. From time to time they found a few of these distorted skulls but the largest number of these skulls was found in the Carpathian Basin. Until now, 47 of them have been found. The interesting thing about this is that some of these distorted skulls were found in the Bronze Age cemeteries of Tökö1, Székelyudvárhely and Arad-galy. This fact proves that this custom of binding the heads of babies goes back to four or five millennia B.C. Such ancient macrocephalic skulls have never been found anywhere else. A few that were found were of a much later date.

     One group of anthropologists concentrated on finding out where this custom began and which nation continued to practice this custom. They discovered that Bronze Age macrocephalic skulls were found in the Carpathian Basin. It was more difficult to find out which nation continued to practice this custom. In 2000 B.C., macrocephaly appears to have been discontinued in the Carpathian Basin, but it appears to have been reintroduced by the Huns. Macrocephalic skulls were founds in Hun graves of the sixth century A.D., in the Carpathian Basin. Dr. Etelka Toronyi concludes that at the end of the Bronze Age, a group of people migrated from the Carpathian Basin and took with them their custom of skull distortion. This tribe must have been a leading tribe and this custom was used to single out certain people or the leaders. In every territory where the Huns settled, this skull distortion was discovered. The distorted skull was probably a sign of rank. To support this theory, there is a visible example. In China, the leaders or great men were represented with large heads - Lao Tse and Confucius; in India - Buddha.

    In the Hungarian language the term "fő" (head) is still used to denote rank - főember (head man or leader), főnök (boss), fővezér (commander-in-chief), főrangú (noble, aristocratic) and so on. This custom of distortion was carried world-wide by the Huns and it was the Huns who initially took this custom out of the Carpathian Basin and who took it back to the Carpathian Basin when they returned with Atilla. Why did the Huns choose the Carpathian Basin as the center of their empire? They chose it because they knew that it was their ancient homeland.

     The history of the Avars is closely connected to the history of the Carpathian Basin. For almost 300 years, the Avars ruled the same territory as the Huns did before them. Kagan Bajan chose the same place as the center of his Empire. He was called back to the Duna-Tisza territory to aid the Huns because he knew that the Huns and Avars were related. The skeletons found in the Avar graves reveal that the somatic measurements of the Avar people were identical to those of the Bronze Age people. Their average height was 163 cm. and their cranial index was 79/80, which is the measurement of the mesocephalic skull. The physical characteristics of the Avars were very different from those of every other group which migrated through the Carpathian Basin, the Goths, Gepids, Lombards, but they were identical to the Huns.[29]

     In the following cemeteries were found the distorted skulls: Gáter, Mosonszentjános, Ceben, Keszthely, Üllő, Kiskőrős, Osku. Among the several hundreds of Avar skulls that were excavated, were found a few which were identical to the Hun macrocephalic skulls. The fact that among the Avar skulls distorted skulls were found, which are characteristic of the Carpathian Basin Bronze Age people and the Huns, indicates that the Avars also originated from the Carpathian Basin. Although archeologists have not yet found any examples of the distorted skulls among the remains of the Magyars, the custom did not die out with the Avars. In Hungary, at different times, laws have been published to prohibit this custom. Istvgn Veszprémi, the chief physician of the city of Debrecen, in 1760, reminded the midwives not to bind the baby's head with bandages or use any artificial means of molding the baby's head. Károly Szeli wrote in 1777, in his book entitled: A Magyar Baba Mesterség: "The midwife should not under any circumstances form the baby's head."

   András Lugosi-Fodor, chief physician and Judge of the County Court of the County of Doboka, in 1817, wrote in his book entitled: Asphixia Neonatorum that the two major reasons for the death of newborns was that they were dropped on their head and their heads were formed with bandages or by hand. Samuel Dombi, the chief physician of the County of Borsod, in 1807, forbade all methods of molding the head of a newborn.[30]

    Among the people of Palóc and Matyó, the custom of wearing an elongated headdress probably originated from the ancient custom of forming the head of the newborn.

    The anthropological data of the Árpád Magyars are identical to the data of the Bronze Age people of the Carpathian Basin. This would indicate that their ancestors lived in the Carpathian Basin and that at some point in history these people left their homeland, returning at a later date as Magyars, with the knowledge that this was their ancient home just as the Huns and the Avars did before them.

    Trepanation or cutting into the skull was successfully employed already in the Bronze Age, as can be seen from the excavations at Szöreg and Pitváros. It is obvious that the patients survived the operation because the incisions on the skulls found here had healed. The use of trepanation in the Carpathian Basin appears to have been discontinued abruptly at the end of the Bronze Age, between 2000 and 1500 B.C. but reappeared in A.D. 900. Many skulls were unearthed dating to the period between 1500 B.C. and A.D. 900, but none of them showed evidence of trepanation. Not only did the practice of trepanation disappear at the end of the Bronze Age but also the practice of skull-distortion. The latter returned to the Carpathian Basin with the Huns and the practice of trepanation returned with the people of Árpád. In the graves of the Árpád Magyars many skulls were found to have undergone trepanation and the edges of the incisions all healed, which indicates that the patients all survived. Etelka Toronyi describes a very successful trepanation that took place in about A.D. 900 on a skull that was excavated at Verebely. It appears that the cranium was pierced by a club. The surgeon trepanned the edge of the wound and inserted a silver plate inside a cap that fitted tightly over the open area. Thus the cranium was protected from infection. We know that it was a success because the edges of the wound healed.[31]

     Many peoples passed through the Carpathian Basin but none of their graves contained a trepanned skull. Such skulls were found only in the graves of the Árpád Magyars. No other nation of this period appears to have had the knowledge of the practice of trepanation.

     The data found in the Carpathian Basin convincingly prove that the ancient people of the Carpathian Basin had a more developed civilization than other peoples of the same era. They also prove that this territory has been inhabited continuously throughout history. The fact that certain related peoples living outside of the Carpathian Basin, such as the Pechenegs, Jazigs, Cumanians, Matyó, and Szemere, saught refuge there when they were in danger, and the fact that others, such as the Magyars, came to the aid of those living inside the Carpathian Basin, the Avars, proves that the knowledge of their origins was never lost and they all returned to their place of origin.

      The Carpathian Basin was the territory where man first used chipped stone as tools or weapons, first used polished stone tools and where men first left their caves and started to build dwellings in open territory. The first villages and cities of the world were built in the Carpathian Basin. The beginnings of art are also found here, for example the smiling stone statue, and the multicolored, highly glazed, disk-thrown pottery. This is where copper tools were developed into bronze tools, where agriculture developed, where the first system of writing was developed and the wheel was invented. The agricultural demographical boom and unfavorable climatic conditions forced this ancient people of the Carpathian Basin to migrate on horseback and with horse drawn carriages carrying with them throughout the world the knowledge of how to make bronze.