The Middle Ages in the Banat (a historical region in Central Europe which is now divided among Romania, Serbia and Hungary) started around 900. Around that time, Duke Glad ruled Banat, according to the Gesta Hungarorum (a chronicle of debated reliability). Archaeological finds and 10th-century sources evidence that Magyars (or Hungarians) settled in the lowlands in the early , but the survival of Avar, Slav and Bulgar communities can also be documented. A local chieftain, Ajtony, converted to Eastern Orthodoxy around 1000, but his attempts to control the delivery of salt on the Mureș River brought him into conflict with Stephen I of Hungary. Ajtony died fighting against the royal army in the first decades of the . His realm was transformed into a county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Counties (which were established around royal fortresses) were the most prominent units of royal administration.
Featuring items of the "Bijelo Brdo culture" (the dominant archaeological culture of the Carpathian Basin between around 950 and 1090) can be detected in the lowlands from around 975. Artefacts from the Byzantine Empire or imitating Byzantine objects were found along the Danube, and in the Banat Mountains. Pagan burial rites disappeared by the end of the , evidencing the local inhabitants' conversion to Christianity. Gerard, the first Bishop of Csanád (now Cenad in Romania), played a preeminent role in the process, according to hagiographic works written centuries later. More than a dozen monasteries (including at least three Orthodox monasteries) were established in the region before the mid-13th century.
The Mongol invasion of Hungary brought severe destruction in 1241–42, causing the disappearance of dozens of villages. After the withdrawal of the Mongols, new fortresses, made of stone, were built. Cumans settled in the lowlands around 1246. Their traditional nomadic way of life gave rise to conflicts with their neighbors for decades. Charles I of Hungary held his royal residence in Timișoara between 1315 and 1323. Colonization contributed to the development of the noblemen's estates in the . The presence of Vlachs (or Romanians) in the Banat Mountains can be documented from the same century. The expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkan Peninsula forced thousands of Bulgarians and Serbs to leave their homelands and settle in Banat. Louis I of Hungary made several attempts to convert his Orthodox subjects into Roman Catholicism in Banat in the 1360s. The region became an important frontier zone after the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396. The ispáns (or heads) of Temes County were tasked with the defence of the frontier, which enabled them to unite most counties of Banat under their rule and to administer all royal fortresses in the region.
Background
Banat is the modern name of the southeastern region of the Carpathian Basin in Central Europe. It is located between the rivers Danube, Tisza and Mureș, and the Apuseni Mountains. The Avar Khaganate was the dominant power of the Basin between around 567 and 803. Most historians agree that Slavs and Bulgars, together with the remnants of the Avars, and possibly with Vlachs (or Romanians), inhabited Banat after the fall of the khaganate. Contemporaneous sources only sporadically mentioned political events in 9th-century Banat. Archaeological finds that can certainly be dated to the are also rare. The only cemetery which yielded possibly 9th-century artefactsIncluding "Köttlach-type" earrings with bludgeon-like pendant. was discovered at Deta, but similar objects were in use till the early .
After the disintegration of the Avar Khaganate, the Carolingian Empire and the First Bulgarian Empire made attempts to control Banat. Place names of Slavic origin recorded already in the Middle AgesFor instance, Bârzava and Vicinic. show the early presence of a Slavic-speaking population. The Royal Frankish Annals listed the Praedenecenti among the Slav peoples who sent "embassies and presents"Royal Frankish Annals (year 822), p. 111. to the Carolingian Empire in 822. The same source identified the Praedenecenti as Obotrites who "live in Dacia on the Danube as the neighbors of the Bulgars"Royal Frankish Annals (year 824), p. 116. when mentioning their envoys' visit in Aachen in 824. The term "Dacia" always referred to the ancient Roman province of Dacia Traiana (instead of the southern Dacia Aureliana) in 9th-century Western European sources, which suggests that the Praedenecenti lived to the north of the Danube, near its confluence with the Tisza. Around 850, a list of the peoples who lived along the eastern borders of the Carolingian Empire mentioned the Merehani as the southernmost neighbors of the empire to the north of the Danube. According to a scholarly theory, refuted by most specialists, the source suggests that the polity mentioned by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus as "great Moravia, the unbaptized"Constantine Porphyrogenitus: De Administrando Imperio (ch. 40), p. 177. was located in Banat.
Historians agree that the Bulgarian Empire dominated Banat during most of the . No contemporaneous source explicitly substantiates this idea, but the Bulgars' attempts to conquer their neighbors' territories are documented. The envoys of the Praedenecenti "complained about vicious aggression by the Bulgars and asked for help against them" during their visit in Aachen in 824. A Bulgar military commander, Onegavonais, drowned in the Tisza around 830, according to an inscription found at Provadia. Archaeologists often attribute a specific burial practice documented in the 9th and (the burial in coffins together with meat offerings) to the Bulgars, but the same burial rite had already been practised in the Avar Khaganate. Such graves cluster at the confluence of the Mureș and the Tisza, but graves with coffins and meat offerings were also unearthed at Nikolinci, Mehadia and other places in the lowlands. The name of the river Karaš, which is of Turkic origin, may have been inherited from the Bulgars, but it may also be attributed to the Pechenegs or other Turkic peoples who settled in Banat.
The first recorded invasion of the Magyars (or Hungarians) from the Pontic steppes to Central Europe occurred in 861. The Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin started around 894. The contemporaneous Regino of Prüm recorded that the Magyars "attacked the lands of the Carinthians, Moravians and Bulgars"The Chronicle of Regino of Prüm (year 889), p. 205. shortly after their arrival. The first extant Hungarian chronicle, the Gesta Hungarorum, which was written centuries after the events, contains a more detailed narration of the Hungarian Conquest. The chronicle wrote of one Duke Glad, who had come "from the castle of Vidin"Anonymus, Notary of King Béla: The Deeds of the Hungarians (ch. 11.), p. 33. in Bulgaria and ruled Banat at the time of the arrival of the Hungarians. Glad's army was "supported by Cumans, Bulgarians and Vlachs", according to the same source. Historians debate whether Glad was a historical figure, or the unknown author of the Gesta Hungarorum invented him and his duchy to be able to write of the Magyars' heroic deeds during the conquest of their new homeland.
Kingdom of Hungary
Towards integration ( 900–1003 or 1030)
A new burial horizon (documented at about forty places in the lowlands) appeared in Banat in the late . Small cemeteries and solitary burials feature it, showing that the nearby communities lived in small groups. The deceased were buried together with the skull or legs of their horses and with saddles, stirrups or other horse equipments. Sabers, swords, composite bows, quivers or other weapons, and ornamented belts were also placed in the graves of warriors. In women's graves, hairpins, earrings of the so-called "Saltovo" type bracelets, pendants, collar ornaments and buttons were found. The earliest graves of this "steppe burial horizon"For instance, at Dudeștii Vechi and Teremia Mare. were found near the confluence of the Tisza and Mureș. They yielded no artefacts of Byzantine provenance. From the 930s, artifacts which either represented a new style emerging in the Carpathian Basin,Including, bracelets decorated with animal heads and double heart-shaped appliqués. or were copied after Byzantine patterns were placed in the graves. The "steppe burial horizon" can archaeologically be detected till the last decades of the .
There are about a dozen 10th-century cemeteries with burial assemblages that differ from the "steppe burial horizon". The north-south orientation of a child's grave at Uivar and the deposition of a Byzantine coin in the child's mouth imply the presence of Bulgars. The deposition of coins in the mouth ("Charon's obol") was also documented in 10th-century graves found at Orșova and Deta. The "Köttlach-type" artefacts found at Deta have been attributed to Slavs from Carinthia, but other finds (including ornamented belts) may also indicate a multicultural community, using imported goods. Burial assemblages yielding artifacts from the Balkan Peninsula have been documented in about a dozen cemeteries, especially in the southern region. These isolated graves and small cemeteries may show the presence of a distinct ethnic group, or prove commercial contacts with the Balkan Peninsula. Both the custom of "Charon's obol" and the graves of the "South Danubian burial horizon" were attributed to the Vlachs (whose presence in Banat is mentioned in later sources), but neither hypotheses have been universally accepted. Historians, who say that the Vlachs were present in the region already in the ,For instance, Viorel Achim and Radu Popa. propose that the Vlachs either migrated to Bulgaria or fled to the Banat Mountains after the arrival of the Hungarians.
Around 950, Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus recorded that Hungarians inhabited the region to the north of the Iron Gates. He mentioned five riversthe Timiș, the "Toutis", the Mureş, the Criş and the Tiszathat flow through the Hungarians' territory. Medieval settlements named after Hungarian tribesFor example, Jeneu (at present-day Denta in Romania), (Egyazas)ker (near today's Ostojićevo in Serbia), and (Erdizad)kezi (now Chesinț). confirm that Hungarian communities settled in the lowlands already in the . Rivers, mountains and settlements bearing Hungarian names in the Middle AgesFor instance, the river Fizeș, the Almăj Mountains, and the village Secășeni. also show the presence of Hungarian-speaking groups. The Byzantine historian John Skylitzes wrote of a Hungarian chieftain, Gylas, who was baptized in Constantinople in the early 950s. On this occasion, a Greek monk, Hierotheus was ordained "bishop of Turkey"John Skylitzes: A Synopsis of Byzantine History, 811-1057 (11.5), p. 231. (that is bishop of Hungary) to accompany Gylas back to his homeland. Bishop Hierotheus "converted many from the barbaric fallacy to Christianity", according to Skylitzes. Traditional scholarly consensus holds that Gylas ruled Transylvania (to the east of Banat), but the concentration of Byzantine coins minted between 948 and 959 at the confluence of the Tisza and the Mureş may indicate that Gylas's seat was located in Banat. The only 10th-century pectoral cross (a small copper cross) in the region was discovered at Deta.
A new cultural synthesis, the so-called "Bijelo Brdo culture", emerged in the Carpathian Basin in the middle of the . Lock rings with S-shaped ends were its featuring items, but typical objects of the "steppe horizon" also survived, and the graves also yielded artefacts made after Byzantine patterns. The first cemeteries of this horizon, with their graves arranged in rows, appeared around 975, especially in the northwestern lowlands. In the large "Bijelo Brdo" cemeteries, graves of warriors (men buried with sabers or swords) were surrounded by hundreds of graves that did not yield weapons.