Shamanism, Christianity, and the Art of Migrating Hungarians

The last chapter of the medieval Migration Period in Europe was the invasion of the Carpathian Basin by the Hungarian people at the end of the 9th century. Archaeologists recognized a highly characteristic artistic culture in the region typical for the 10th century. Traditional nationalistic research identified it with the autochthon culture of the ancient Hungarians, brought from Asia and given up in the 11th century during Christianization.
Unquestionably, there were dramatic changes in the Carpathian Basin around 900. The emerging Slavic states of the Moravians and the duchy of Mosaburg, representing a typical Carolingian artistic culture of the 9th century, suddenly collapsed and gave way to the new artistic milieu associated with the Hungarians. However, the origin of this new art is a complicated problem. There are no early signs of its presence in the Steppe and Ural region where the Hungarians came from. In reality, it was the result of the combination of earlier nomadic art, the influences of their new Byzantine neighbor, and artistic elements found in the region. It was created by cross-cultural connections in their new home, forming a transitional period that prepared the intensive Christianization after 1000. Thus, the last wave of early medieval
migration not only changed the cultural landscape of Central Europe but it transformed the migrating people even more radically.