Halle: Exhibition “Rider nomads in Europe” – culture

There he rides in the round of the golden medallion on a golden jug, himself hammered in gold, armored, holding the lance with his right hand over his shoulder, with his left leading a prisoner by the forelock next to the horse, a severed head is fastened to the saddle – so the bearded warrior rides in all his triumphant pride. The impressive jug from the 8th century, which is also decorated with other figurative representations, belongs to the radiantly shining gold treasure that was found in 1799 in Sannicolau Mare/Nagyszentmiklós, then in Hungary, now in Romania. The motifs, which may have been selected here for an Avar ruler, the kaghan, come from myths throughout the Mediterranean region. But the narrative background remains a mystery. Because the equestrian nomads knew no written culture, their sagas and legends as well as their religious views and customs were reported, sung about, but not recorded in writing. You can now get closer to them in an exhibition in Halle.

A completely different find: a shell cleverly divided into many iron lamellae, which protects and yet guarantees full mobility, a sensation from 2017, unearthed in Derecske, Hungary. This complete armor of an Avar horseman warrior from the 8th century was discovered there for the first time. In addition to the original finds, the whole man and his horse in his armored armor have been reconstructed life-size and real as an eye-catcher. There he is now riding into the atrium of the exhibition, his lance raised, on an ornamented saddle, his steed with a richly decorated bridle: an imposing fellow with long braids, without fear and with determination on his face.

A third, much older exhibit: an elegant cylindrical cauldron with a foot, all made of bronze. There are handles from which mushrooms seem to be growing. A fine bronze border runs around the edge of the kettle. Such cauldrons as this one, which is dated to the early 5th century, were found in many tombs of the Huns. Their purpose remains mysterious, but archaeologists suspect that they were probably used as sacrificial vessels in ritual acts. The three spectacular pieces are presented in the impressively diverse show about the horse nomads of the Huns, Avars and Hungarians in the State Museum for Prehistory and Early History in Halle, where the world sensation of the Nebra Sky Disc is kept.

Open detailed view

The call of hordes of horsemen from the steppes of the east still rings through western history with fear. This began in ancient times with the Cimmerians and the artistic and warlike Scythians, whom Herodotus described with some fascination. Especially in the fifth century AD, the terror continued among the Huns with their legendary leader Attila, who was demonized by the Catholic side as “God’s scourge”. In 451 he and his “hordes”, which were also joined by Slavic and Germanic peoples, were so defeated in the battle on the Catalaunian Fields by a mixed Roman-Germanic army under Aëtius and Theodoric that he soon withdrew to the Carpathian Basin. Traces of his seat of power there have not yet been discovered, because the organic materials wood, leather, felt and other materials from which the nomads built their houses and yurts and from which most of their belongings were made were perishable.

Only metallic things such as swords, lance and arrowheads, decorations on weapons or the gold and silver applications with which one adorned bridles and above all belts, or also shards still tell of those so powerful, but then in history, as it were, vanishing riders, who once set out in the great steppes west of China in search of fortune and prey towards the sunset.

About a hundred years after the fall of the Huns, the Avars rode up and also founded an empire in the Carpathian Basin that had existed for more than two hundred years before it collapsed due to Charlemagne and his Frankish fighters. They were finally followed by the Hungarians, who defeated Otto the Great on the Lechfeld. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the victorious swarms of Mongol cavalry established the largest empire in world history. The Ottomans, who conquered Constantinople in 1453 and extended their power to Hungary, were similarly successful. In any case, for a long time the European narrative of the steppe riders from the East did not shine ex oriente lux, but from the depths of Eurasia, from the Western European point of view, robbery, death, plundering and enslavement threatened first of all.

The riders were admired, but at the same time they spread fear

But whoever goes to this exhibition, the glamorous display of archaeological finds and their historical, social and aesthetic classification will open their eyes to a multifaceted view of the Huns, Avars and Hungarians. Of course, the tenacious fighting power, paired with predatory ruthlessness, is shown, without which the nomads on horseback would hardly have stormed into European history so sustainably and would have triggered that ambivalence of admiration and horror that had an impact. But the exhibition pleasantly objectifies this picture, which oscillates back and forth, with concrete testimonies of the nomadic peoples who ultimately entered and merged with the settled civilizations or assimilated in such a way that they themselves became fighters against threats from the East like the Hungarians against the invading Turks.

Historical photographs of nomadic life in the great steppes show those ways of life with herds of cattle, which must have been comparable despite all the historical distance. You can see the yurts that are easy to set up and take down, riders with beautifully decorated belts as a status symbol, from which hang swords, sabers and daggers. Of course, the focus is on the horse, on whose back the nomads sought their fortune in the distance. They also revolutionized riding techniques. The Avars invented the stirrup, which stabilizes the rider’s seat so that the upper body can move freely in almost all directions. A video shows how many arrows an Avar warrior could shoot in a very short time with his powerful reflex bow. They could also ride past their opponents and, turning in the saddle, attack them from behind with projectiles.

It quickly becomes clear that the ethnic groups were not homogeneous here, but that the steppe riders were joined by others with the prospect of rich booty, whether against the Western Roman Empire or against Byzantium. These were associations in which Germanic and Slavic groups also took part. As long as the raids continued to be successful, the lavish demands for tribute worked out, and the Byzantines and Western Romans paid more or less grudgingly, the alliance survived to some extent. Nevertheless, there were constant destabilizing movements. Sometimes a Germanic squad changed sides here or another group revolted to continue on their own.

At some point the Huns, Avars and Hungarians merged into multiethnic groups

In the end, however, passing wonderfully filigree depictions of animals and plants, once applied to the belt in gold and silver, effective weapons, cleverly devised saddles and other riding utensils, past the artificially elongated, high-browed skulls, an ideal of beauty for the Huns, one also feels as a witness to a centuries-long transformation process that gripped the nomads on horseback as they rode off and encountered the wealth, splendor and also the power of the two Romes and thus also changed this world. Although the strategy of warlike threats and the resulting tribute payments was initially successful, the riders then became increasingly sedentary. For a while, their upper class still cultivated old traditions out of social differences. But at some point the Huns, Avars and Hungarians merged into multiethnic communities and themselves became sedentary opponents of new cavalry dangers from the steppes.

Until June 25, 2023. State Museum of Prehistory Halle. Catalog 244 pages, 35.90 euros.