Ebook: Graves of Avar Military Chiefs in Transylvania = Morminte de șefi militari avari din Transilvania

Text in English and Romanian. Translated in English: Andreea Drăgan.

The current research is guided after a series of theories about the definition of the military elites within the Empires of the steppes of the Early Middle Ages. The purpose was not to develop their every detail, however they have been used for the interpretation of the funerary inventories which characterize the Avar graves, particularly in order to distinguish between 'military chiefs' and ordinary warriors or to establish the position occupied by the 'military chiefs' from Transylvania in the military hierarchy of the Avar Khaganate.

The basis of the current endeavor is the study of the Avar cemeteries. These provide important data about the prominence of the military and political leaders belonging to the Avar elite. As to why the cemeteries, and not the settlements as well, the explanation lies in the fact that the settlements studied so far in the Transylvanian basin, already very few, offer insufficient data about the elites of the communities that inhabited it.