Medieval Archaeology, 0/0, 2025

1
2
3
Pastoralism and Nomadism: An
4
5
Archaeological Bifurcation
6 By FLORIN CURTA1
7
8
9 SIGNIFICANT CHANGES have taken place in the archaeology of nomadism over the last few deca-
10 des. Major advances in molecular anthropology, isotope analysis, paleobotany, and pollen analysis have
11 made it necessary to abandon the ‘nomadic model’ in central Eurasian archaeology, in favour of what is
12 now called ‘agro-pastoralism’. Such changes have not so far influenced the research on medieval nomads.
13 This paper explores possibilities in that direction and tracks avenues of future research on yaylag pastor-
14 alism (transhumance), using as study cases sites in the steppe lands north of the Black Sea, as well as
15 in the Carpathian Basin—all dated to between the 6th and the 8th centuries.
16
17
18 Much has changed lately in the study of medieval nomadism. Contrary to earlier
19 opinions, historians do not dislike nomads (Lindner 1982, 689; Krist
o 1983; Golden
20 1998; Paul 2004; Zimonyi 2005; Gießauf 2006; Mesko 2015). They are just puzzled at
21 how one can be a nomad (Hartog 1988, 193). Nomads lack agriculture and do not dwell
22 in houses, but if nomads are to be defined by what they do not do, then that is not just
23 an apophasis, but an inaccurate definition as well. The word derives from the Greek
24 verb nomeuo, which means ‘to drive afield’ or ‘to tend a flock’ (by taking it to the grazing
25 field, the nome). A nomad is essentially a nomeus, a ‘shepherd’.
26 Some may still think that nomadism is the antithesis of settled life (Kardaras 2023,
27 205; Veszpr
emy 2023, 288). Nomads are people who ‘travel too much’ and therefore,
28 ‘lack the geographical stability to allow the development of many aspects of sophisti-
29 cated material culture (buildings, indigenous traditions of artisanal work)’ (Wickham
30 1985, 408–9). However, the Eastern European steppe lands were not a nomadic base in
31 the Middle Ages and, ‘nomads have never in fact come farther than the Danube Delta
32 and stayed nomads’ (Wickham 1985, 410). Therefore, both Magyars and Pechenegs
33 must have been semi-nomads (Gy€orffy 1975, 1983; Matolcsi 1983, 302; Paro
n 2021,
34 160; contra: Rouillard 1933, 784; Spinei 2009, 226. For a critique of the notion of ‘semi-
35 nomadism’, see Ecsedy 2002, 137–8).
36 Historians treat nomadism primarily as mobility—‘a seasonally-based movement
37 within a rather limited territory and in accordance with precise rules’. The main, if not
38 the only, form of subsistence of the medieval nomads was pastoralism, the success of
39 which depended upon the ability to move periodically in search for better grazing fields
40 for the animals (Paro
n 2013, 172, n 40; see also Paro
n 2022). Recently, the economy of
41
the medieval nomads was redefined as based on extensive pastoralism in the form of
42
43 open-range free grazing, with herds remaining in open spaces year-round and animals
44 1Department of History, University of Florida, 202 Flint Hall, P.O. Box 117320, Gainesville, FL 32611-7320,
45 USA. [email protected]
46
1

# Society for Medieval Archaeology 2025 DOI: 10.1080/00766097.2025.2504284

 2 FLORIN CURTA

47 moving from place to place within a specific territory. Moreover, medieval nomadism is
48 now regarded as a special form of mobility, in which animals were accompanied by a
49 large majority of the population, for which the pastoral activity was the source of liveli-
50 hood. In that respect, unlike semi-nomadic societies, medieval nomads did not practise
51 agriculture at all (Paro
n 2021, 160). Nomadic pastoralism was meant to satisfy the basic
52 needs of the community, not the demand on the market, even though extensive pastor-
53 alism could produce surplus for exchange.
54 Such ideas derive directly from Anatoly Khazanov’s notion of (pastoralist) nomad-
55 ism as a distinct form of food-production based on mobile pastoralism involving most of
56 the population. In fact, the traits mentioned above are lifted, sometimes word by word,
57 from Khazanov’s list of five characteristics of pastoral nomadism (Khazanov 1984, 16–
58 17; cited by Paro
n 2021, 160). However, the reference to semi-nomadism points to a
59 different source of inspiration, namely the work of Svetlana Pletneva (1926–2008). Her
60 ideas about medieval nomadism are based on a three-stage model of development from
61 pure, non-stop nomadism, to semi-nomadism and through to sedentism (a system in
62 which one part of the population is still nomadic, while the other is already sedentary).
63 The appearance of pure nomadism is rare in the European steppes, which were
64 richer in grass and crossed by many more rivers, with a relatively milder climate than
65 those of Central Asia. That is why semi-nomadism, Pletneva’s second (or intermediary)
66 stage, is much more common in the steppe belt of Eastern Europe (Pletneva 1967, 13;
67 2003, 11). According to Pletneva, pure nomadism typically involved small groups (made
68 up of nuclear or sometimes extended families) that were permanently on the move. By
69 contrast, in semi-nomadism, the poorest members of society, as well as the domestic
70 slaves (prisoners of war) remained in winter camps for the summer to engage in agricul-
71 ture, as well as to store hay for cattle (Pletneva 2003, 14).
72 Judging by recent publications, there is currently a great interest among archaeolo-
73 gists in the medieval nomads. The proceedings of a conference organised in Sofia in
74 2022 have been published, with a conspicuous emphasis on nomads (Golev and Rusev
75 2023). An exhibit at the Landesmuseum f€ ur Vorgeschichte in Halle, Germany, organ-
76 ised three years ago, offered the opportunity for two more lavishly illustrated books on
77 the Huns, the Avars, and the Magyars—the stereotypical triad of (equestrian) nomads of
78 the early Middle Ages (Meller et al 2022; Meller and Daim 2022). Archaeologists inter-
79 ested in the medieval nomads, however, do not need to define nomadism. They write of
80 ‘nomadic culture’, ‘nomadic cemeteries’ and ‘nomadic arrowheads’, without any explan-
81 ation of what they mean (Ivanov et al 2016; Holesc
ak 2017; Katona-Kiss 2022). While
82 archaeologists continue to use diagnostic artifacts for ethnic identification, two recent
83 studies based on ancient mitochondrial DNA claim to have discovered the genetic signa-
84 ture of specific groups of medieval nomads (Sebest et al 2018, 538; Cs
aky et al 2019,
85 177). There are Rouran and Hun-related genomes out there (Mar
oti et al 2022a, 11;
86 2022b, 8). Based on istotope analysis, others maintain that nomads may be recognised
87 in a diet rich in protein of animal origin (Farag
o et al 2022, 12).
88 In the steppe lands north of the Black Sea, as well as in the Carpathian Basin,
89 nomads are traced by means of solitary graves or small groups of graves in which
90 humans, especially males, are buried together with horse skeletons and weapons (Tomka
91 1996, 142; 2005; Vida 2016, 253; Szenthe 2019, 229; G
all and Marginean 2020, 396;
92 G
all and Szenthe 2020, 190). Some of those burials are in barrows of prehistoric age,
93 for the nomads had no cemeteries of their own (Pletneva 1967, 13). A small number of
 PASTORALISM AND NOMADISM 3

94 graves supposedly indicates a pastoral economy, while a larger number of graves signals
95 a settled, ‘peasant’ community (Marginean et al 2022, 245). Horse burials are directly
96 linked to nomadic traditions, along with other specific burial customs, such as the depos-
97 ition of a sheep rump in the grave (Vida 2018, 35; Guly
as et al 2019; Barbocz 2022,
98 420; Dobos 2022, 153; contra: Fedele 2020, 246 and 254; Szenthe and G
all
99 2022b, 316).
100 The rarity of settlement sites in a given region is an indication of seasonality, the
101 mark of a nomadic population (Marginean and G
all 2021, 267). Nomads, on the other
102 hand, could be recognised by means of specific houses (the so-called yurts), amulets, or
103 shoes (for yurts, see Nechaeva 1975 and Kazanski 2012; for amulets, see Tentiuc 2009;
104 for shoes, see Komar 2010; Pletneva 2003, 15, treats yurts as typical for semi-nomadism).
105 Apparently, there can even be such a thing as the house of a settled nomad (Koloda
106 2003; see also Milo et al 2023, 188). The adjective ‘nomadic’ now applies to stirrups,
107 alloys, runes, as well as mentalities (Szmoniewski 2016, 59; Vida 2018, 35; Holesc
ak
108 2023, 142; Mach
acek 2024, 18, 10, Fig 3). A Romanian archaeologist convinced that
109 nomadism is, after all, a lifestyle, nonetheless maintains that graves can be identified as
110 nomadic in origin (G
all 2023, 120 with n 5, 130; nomadic graves exist also for Ciglenecki
111 2023, 342 figs 4,5; and Holesc
ak 2022). The notion is borrowed from Soviet and post-
112 Soviet terminology employed in the archaeology of the steppe lands in Eastern Europe (eg
113 Fokeev et al 2019; Men’shikov et al 2019).
114 Critiques have so far targeted ethnic attributions, not the general approach to the
115 problem (Komar 2018; Komatarova-Balinova 2018; Chentsov 2024). What is nomad-
116 ism, after all, and how can it be distinguished in the archaeological record? Many
117 assume, like historians, that nomadism is simply the opposite of settled life (eg Szenthe
118 et al 2023, 284). The essence of nomadism is the cyclical and regular mobility, ‘which
119 means that the community visits different locations in different months and returns to
120 the same location within a year cycle’ (G
all 2023, 120). One is left with the impression
121 that archaeologists dealing with medieval nomads agree with Svetlana Pletneva: the
122 most notable insights into the nature of nomadism are not those of archaeologists and
123 historians, who deal with long-dead people, but those of ethnographers, who have reli-
124 able and easily verifiable material that can be studied and classified (Pletneva 2003, 9).
125 Ethnographers define nomadism as a type of economy in which the main component of
126 food production is animal breeding with year-round grazing and the participation of the
127 majority, if not the entirety of the population (Pletneva 1967, 180–1; 1982, 5, 160;
128 2003, 7; see also Ecsedy 1976, 136). A zooarchaeologist draws inspiration from
129 Khazanov’s definition, ‘nomadism is an animal-based way of life, in which the spatial
130 movement of the community follows an intricate schedule fitted to the herd’s biological
131 needs, and in which the concept of wealth is interlocked rather with the animal herd
132 than with cultivated land or money’ (Lyublyanovics 2015, 7, 68; 2017, 14, 39).
133 Meanwhile, and unbeknownst to most archaeologists of the Middle Ages, there
134 has been a paradigm change. More than two decades ago, Anatoly Khazanov observed
135 that the scholarly community lacked a generally accepted definition of nomadism
136 (Khazanov 2003, 26). Just ten years ago, one had to acknowledge that there was no
137 ‘ideal type’ of ‘the nomad’ (Paul 2013, 18). Only three years later, a definitional distinc-
138 tion was not as important as, ‘the intrinsic flexibility built into pastoral nomadic lifeways
139 by virtue of their histories, experience, and trajectories of learning’ (Honeychurch and
140 Makarewicz 2016, 348). In central Eurasian archaeology, at least, the notion of nomadism
 4 FLORIN CURTA

141 is now seriously challenged by biologically focused analyses employing isotopes, lipids, and
142 aDNA, as well as previously unavailable (and uncollected) data, such as macrobotanical
143 remains, pollen, and micro-fauna. Therefore, because the ‘nomadic model’ is now inad-
144 equate to describe the complexity of subsistence practices and primary food resources,
145 nomadism has been dropped as a moniker for the subsistence strategy known as ‘agro-
146 pastoralism’ (Spengler III et al 2021). Because it conflates mobility, tribalism, specialisa-
147 tion, and other traits, nomadism is now regarded as something that connotes stereotypical
148 notions of marauding outsiders (Spengler III et al 2021, 270, 276, 278, endorsing observa-
149 tions made by Emily Hammer and Karen Rubinson). Some worry that deconstructing
150 ‘nomadic narratives’ may in fact sidestep and undercut, ‘the significant body of pre- and
151 post-war Soviet archaeological work that had already begun to wrestle with linking mixed
152 agro-pastoral economies to long-term socio-economic developments’ (Rouse et al 2022,
153 12) American archaeologist Claudia Chang also came to the defense of Soviet scholars,
154 ‘despite their adherence to Marxist historical science and thus evolutionary models’
155 (Spengler III et al 2021, 268).
156 However, abandoning the simplistic dichotomy of nomadism versus sedentism in
157 favour of such terms as mobile pastoralism, mixed economy, and short-distance mobil-
158 ity, is not just a matter of terminological preference. At stake is a diversity in economy
159 across differing ecological settings which perfectly applies to the world of those whom
160 archaeologists and historians persist in regarding as the highly mobile nomads of the
161 Middle Ages, living in tents year-round, moving permanently in pursuit of grasses and
162 water resources, feeding primarily on meat and dairy products, and hardly knowing any
163 cereal cultivation. In this respect, the observation of Chang applies particularly well to
164 the study of the medieval nomads, ‘Nomadism is a misused label for mobility of various
165 sorts, sometimes tied to economic systems like pastoralism and other times tied to social
166 or political factors that underlie why people move. In this sense, the ‘nomadic’ state,
167 ‘nomadic’ confederacy, or even the ‘nomads attached to sedentary’ polities are really fig-
168 ures of speech’ (Chang 2021, 267). The Austrian archaeologist Falko Daim agrees with
169 the idea of diversity but sticks to his terminological and prescriptive guns, ‘Nomads are
170 masters at exploiting ecological niches. For this, they must possess excellent understand-
171 ing of geographic and vegetation cycles. If need be, nomads secure their existence by
172 breeding livestock, gardening, and farming. The details of how this is accomplished dif-
173 ferentiate the various nomadic societies from one another’ (Daim 2017, 407).
174 Many voices are already calling for revision. Some have noted that the archaeo-
175 logical literature of Eastern Central and Eastern Europe treats the absence of settle-
176 ments as an indication of nomadism, which in turn is analysed only on the basis of
177 burial finds. In 10th- to 11th-century Hungary, after the migration of the Magyars,
178 most settlements had lightly sunken features, sometimes round pits or other structures
179 (Tak
acs 2022a). However, only surface finds are known from such settlements, which
180 has encouraged scholars to interpret them as temporary campsites of nomadic pastoral-
181 ists. Similarly, in the north-eastern region of the Sea of Azov, especially around the
182 Taganrog Bay and along the Northern Donets and its main tributaries (particularly the
183 Kalitva), a relatively large number of sites have been identified by means of field sur-
184 veys. Because they are located deep into the interior of the steppe lands, and under the
185 assumption that those were the lands controlled in the 6th and 7th centuries by nomads,
186 all those sites have been interpreted as campsites, even those located directly on the seashore.
187 However, the surveys have produced abundant ceramic material, including amphorae
 PASTORALISM AND NOMADISM 5

188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
FIG 1
202 Distribution map of the main sites mentioned in the text:
203 1. Bohorodychne; 2. Hortob
agy; 3. Ihren’; 4. Jagodnjak; 5. Kereki; 6. Kiskunfel
egyh
aza; 7. Kunpesz
er; 8.
204 Kunsz
all
as; 9. Nadlac; 10. Nustar; 11. Ny
ıregyh
aza; 12. Pecica; 13. Port, ; 14. Privlaka; 15. R
akoczifalva; 16.
S
aj
opetri; 17. Stara Ciglana; 18. Stubline; 19. Szedres; 20. Szegv
ar; 21. Tiszaf€ ured; 22. Vrbas; 23. Yosypivka.
205
206
207 sherds, some of which may be dated to the 6th or early 7th century (Pletneva 1964, 3, 7).1
208 Trial excavations were carried out on some sites further to the north-west, in the region of
209 Poltava (Ukraine). However, because of the absence of any building structures, they were
210 also interpreted as campsites, dated to the 7th century (Priimak 2012, 82–3; Kazanski
211 2013, 802–4).
212 An entire settlement with ten sunken-featured and yurt-shaped buildings, as well
213 as more than 40 pits, has been excavated in the steppe, near the village of
214 Bohorodychne on the right bank of the Northern Donets, not far from Slov’ians’k
215 (Ukraine; see Fig 1). The associated pottery was all handmade, with fragments of clay
216 pans (Shvecov 2010, 95–6, 100, 101, figs 3–4; reprinted in Shvecov 2018, 172–84). The
217 clay pans indicate the consumption of cereal-based foods, which are otherwise attested
218 by seeds of millet embedded in the fabric of some of the pottery fragments (Gorbanenko
219 and Pashkevich 2010, 56, Table 2.10). More settlement sites are known from the Lower
220 Dnieper region in the central Black Sea lowlands. Salvage excavations carried out in the
221 1950s at Ihren’ (now on the north-eastern side of the city of Dnipro, in Ukraine, Fig 1)
222 have produced dress accessories—bracelets, fibulae, and belt fittings—the dating of
223 which suggests that the earliest occupation may be of a mid- to late 6th-century date
224 (Berezovets’ 1963, 195–7; Prykhodniuk 1998, 157, 140–1, figs 71–2). At Yosypivka, on
225 the right bank of the Oril River, some 45 miles north of Dnipro (Fig 2), the ceramic
226 assemblage in house 4, a supposedly yurt-like building, included fragments of clay pans
227 used for the baking of flat loaves of bread (Prykhodniuk 1990, 94, 101, Fig 6). The
228 paleobotanical samples from the settlement indicated the cultivation of cereals, the most
229 important crops being millet and barley (Tuganaev and Tuganaev 2007, 35; Pashkevich
230 and Gorbanenko 2010, 115, Table 10). Why the circular plan of any sunken-floored
231
232 1
Flerov 2012, 26 wonders if the occupation on those sites was truly impermanent—ie, whether they were
233 truly campsites—given the abundance of the ceramic material, but with no materials properly published, it
is impossible to verify the dating of the pottery; for much later, true campsites in that same region, see
234 Vorob’ev and Larenok 2014.
 6 FLORIN CURTA

235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261 FIG 2
262 Plan of House 4 at Yosipivka (Ukraine), and associated artifacts—fragments of handmade pottery, including
clay pans.
263 Drawing after Prykhodniuk 1990.
264
265
266 building must be automatically interpreted as a nomadic trait has never been explained.
267 Moreover, an archaeological experiment showed that a sunken-floor building of rect-
268 angular, not circular plan, which was large enough for ten adults to sit, took two persons
269 approximately 16 labour hours. That led to the conclusion that that house type was ‘in
270 fact favourable for a nomadic lifestyle’ (emphasis added; Beki
c 2018, 72). All house types—
271 circular or rectangular in plan—can apparently be associated to a nomadic lifestyle.
272 The cultivation of millet is confirmed for the Carpathian Basin during the second
273 half of the 5th and the first two thirds of the 6th century (Tugya et al 2019, 230). For
274 the early Avar period, the only evidence of cereal cultivation consists of a few remains
275 of common wheat found in soil samples from burials of the cemetery excavated in 1990
276 in Szegv
ar (Hungary; see Gyulai 2011, 210–11; Fig 1. For evidence of viticulture see
277 Ken
ez and Pet}o 2015; Harag 2022). However, the consumption of cereal-based foods is
278 attested further by finds of quern stones (Bajkai 2016). Sickles also have been found in
279 early Avar graves, together with both horse and chicken bones. The numbers of sickles
280 deposited in graves increased during the late Avar age (8th century; Erd
elyi 1975). Yurt-
281 shaped buildings with sunken floors are known from Hungary, such as that excavated at
 PASTORALISM AND NOMADISM 7

282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
FIG 3
322 A circular (‘yurt-like’) building at Kompolt (Hungary), with associated tournette-thrown pottery.
323 Drawing after B
anffy et al 1999.
324
325 Kompolt (Heves County) and Tivadar Vida (2016, 262) believes that this in Kompolt
326 signals a shift to sedentism. This house was later than one found in Yosypivka, judging
327 from the combed ware found on its floor, and dated to the 8th century (Fig 3).
328 However, the evidence of consumption of cereal-based foods is present in Kompolt as
 8 FLORIN CURTA

329 well, in the form of no fewer than eight fragments of quern stone (B
anffy et al 1999,
330 38–9, Fig 12; pl 68:1–11).
331 A diet rich in carbohydrates is responsible for a high incidence of dental caries
332 and attrition and periodontitis, such as documented from Avar-age cemetery sites in
333 
Jagodnjak (Dugonji
c et al 2022, 34; Fig 1) and Sarengrad (Croatia; Cari
c et al 2019,
334 171, 177), Nadlac (Romania; G
all 2017, 189–90; Fig 1)), Kereki and Ny
ıregyh
aza
335 (Hungary; Szikossy and Bernert 1996, 191; Marcsik et al 2001, 39; Fig 1), as well as at
336 Vrbas (Serbia; Czek
us and Csak
any 1990; Fig 1). Such markers have been identified on
337 the skeleton of a teenager from Stubline (Serbia; Fig 1), but also on a male skeleton
338 buried together with a horse in Stara Ciglana (Serbia; Fig 1) (Miladinovi
c-Radimilovi
c
339 2009, 126; Bugarski et al 2013, 292).
340 Stable isotope research in the Carpathian Basin has so far focused heavily on d13C
341 and d15N analyses of human bone collagen recovered from burials. On three sites—
342 opetri (Hungary; Fig 1), and Nustar and Privlaka (Croatia; Fig 1)—there is clear evi-
S
aj

343 dence for the consumption of C4 plants (angiosperms that use a specific carbon fixation
344 pathway in photosynthesis), most likely millet (Noche-Dowdy 2015, 77, 82; Vidal-
345 
Ronchas et al 2019, 1732–3; Smalcelj Novakovi
c et al 2023, 7). Isotope analysis of a sin-
346 gle sample from a female skeleton from grave 239 from the cemetery at site 15 near
347 Pecica (Romania; Fig 1), also suggests a diet based on C4 plants (G
all et al 2023, 105).
348 High d13C and d15N values for the early (Avar) phase of the cemetery excavated in
349 R
akoczifalva (Hungary; Fig 1) have been interpreted as a shift from a diet dominated by
350 millet to one involving C3 plants (that use a metabolic pathway for carbon fixation that
351 integrates the CO2 into a three carbon sugar), probably wheat or barley (Gnecchi-
352 Ruscone et al 2024, 6). The consumption of cereal-based foods is confirmed for Nustar
353 by macrobotanical data from samples from pots deposited in graves. The carpological
354 analysis distinguished six different cereals, and the charred food remains may also relate
355 to cereals. The phytolith analysis revealed the cultivation of cereals, which is confirmed
356 by the presence of weeds specific to lands under crop cultivation (Rapan Papesa et al
357 2015, 275).
358 On two other sites—Hortob
agy and Tiszaf€ ured (Hungary; Fig 1)—the d13C and
15
359 d N values point to a diet that included millet, but was also rich in protein of animal
360 origin, including (if not predominantly) fish. This has been interpreted as indicating a
361 ‘nomadic habitus’, but consumption of meat is no indication of pastoral mobility
362 (Farag
o et al 2022, 11–12; Szenthe and G
all 2022a, 327 are inclined towards an inter-
363 pretation making room for small-scale mobility). Higher d15N values in the later (8th-
364 century) phase of the R
akoczifalva cemetery have also been interpreted as an increasing
365 consumption of meat and dairy products, but this seems to have been true only for
366 some of the individuals sampled, particularly males (Gnecchi-Ruscone et al 2024, 6). At
367 any rate, only strontium and stable oxygen isotope analyses in human tooth enamel
368 could clarify the extent of that mobility in eastern Hungary. The preliminary results of
369 analyses from Kunpesz
er and Kunsz
all
as, two cemetery sites in central Hungary (Fig 1),
370 at a distance of no more than 100 km from each other, do not seem to indicate mobility.
371 The datasets from the two sites cannot be distinguished isotopically, which implies that
372 there was no long-distance mobility (Gnecchi-Ruscone et al 2024, 6).
373 Despite claims to the contrary (Szabadfalvi 1984; Gy€orffy and Z
olyomi 1994;
374 Alf€oldi and Harmatta 1997), the Carpathian Basin—particularly the Great Hungarian
375 Plain (an area of about 100,000 square kilometers) and the Little Hungarian Plain (some
 PASTORALISM AND NOMADISM 9

376 8,000 square kilometers)—offered no favourable conditions in the Middle Ages for the
377 practice of mobile pastoralism. A good part of that territory was covered by water in the
378 valley of the Middle Danube, as well as marshlands along the Tisza River. The very
379 large flood plain of the Tisza made particularly difficult movements from north to south
380 or from east to west (Fodor 1995, 73–4; Lang
o 2005; Bugarski 2008, 2016, 88;
381 Schmauder 2015, 671). Because of that, only small-scale mobility with limited ranges
382 was possible in the region (the same arguments have been brought against the idea of
383 mobile pastoralism practiced by the Cumans who came to Hungary in the 13th century;
384 see Selmeczi 1986–1987; Hath
azi 1996; Lyublyanovics 2015, 46). That much results
385 from zooarchaeological studies indicating a remarkable homogeneity of 7th-century
386 horse skeletal data from the Carpathian Basin, which is most likely the result of careful
387 culling for burial deposition. Although that cannot be regarded as a mirror of the actual
388 horse stock, the conclusion can only be that such a uniform pattern is a result of seden-
389 tary herding (Bartosiewicz 1995, 250–1; Tak
acs et al 1995, 184; Rustoiu and Ciuta
390 2008, 96; Dar
oczi-Szab
o 2021; Gudea et al 2022. For Arabian horses in Avar-age buri-
391 als, see V€or€
os 2012, 690). Moreover, bones of cattle, pig, sheep or goats, as well as fowl,
392 appear in Avar-age burial assemblages (eg Baron 2018). The presence of pigs and fowl
393 is regarded as indicators of sedentism in the ‘fundamentally pastoral Avar culture’
394 (Bartosiewicz 2018, 50; see also M€ uller 1996, 365). Domestic animal bones are also
395 known from settlements in the steppe lands north of the Black Sea. Unfortunately, no
396 analysis has yet been undertaken for any of them. Animal bones found in graves typic-
397 ally consist of sheep bones, especially the legs placed next to the human skull.
398 It has been suggested that the 6th- to 7th-century burials in the Black Sea lowlands
399 were not of nomads coming from afar, but of members of communities that occupied the
400 settlements at the interface between the steppe and the forest-steppe belt (Curta 2008;
401 Kazanski 2013, 780 and Komar 2018, 124 disagree, but offer no alternative). It cannot be
402 an accident of research that, except for a few children, almost all those whose graves were
403 dug into prehistoric barrows in the Black Sea lowlands were men buried with weapons,
404 primarily arrowheads and, occasionally, swords or sabres. Whether or not those men were
405 leaders of communities, the absence of female graves is of great significance. The evidence
406 seems to suggest that the men died during seasonal movements of the herds (some animals
407 of which were sacrificed for their burials) in what must have been a transhumant form of
408 pastoralism. That, most likely, is what in the 6th century, Jordanes, writing in
409 Constatinople, described in the case of the people he called Altziagiri, who lived near
410 Cherson, but in the summer, ‘ranged the plains, their broad domains’, to return to the
411 Black Sea shore only in the winter (Jordanes, in Mierow 1915, 50; for this passage as
412 referring to transhumant pastoralism, see Curta 2021, 156–7).
413 Transhumant pastoralism (otherwise known as yaylag pastoralism) is the seasonal
414 movement between summer and winter pastures of shepherds together with their fami-
415 lies, accompanied by flocks, which are usually not theirs, but the property of some large
416 landowner (Khazanov 1984, 23–4; Constantin 2003–04, 189–91; Simeonov 2020, 430).
417 Although attested in northern England as early as the 7th century, transhumance was a
418 primarily Mediterranean phenomenon in the Middle Ages (Wickham 1985, 440–6;
419 Cherubini 2021). In Eastern and East Central Europe, medieval transhumance has so
420 far not been the object of archaeological study, largely because the phenomenon is often
421 ‘invisible’ in the absence of written sources, even in those areas where the archaeo-
422 logical-topographical documentation is more substantial (Brigand et al 2018, 254, 260;
 10 FLORIN CURTA

423 Pasquinucci 2021, 36). In South-eastern Europe, the phenomenon typically has been
424 associated with Vlach communities, largely because of the written sources, and dated to
425 the centuries following the Byzantine reconquest of the central and northern Balkans
426 under Emperor Basil II (976–1025; Bidaut 2024, 51). Writing in the 1070s, Byzantine
427 author Kekaumenos knew that the herds of the Vlachs from Larissa, as well as their
428 families, went to the mountains and cool places from April to September (Spadaro
429 1998, 210; see also Marcu 1976, 67 and 72). More than a century later, the Vlach shep-
430 herds of the Monastery Great Lavra on Mount Athos (Greece) took their herds to a
431 summer pasture in the theme (Byzantine province) of Moglena (now Almopia or Enotia,
432 in northern Greece, at the border with Macedonia). They were entitled to use summer
433 shelters next to that pasture, called mandriai, one belonging to a certain Stanes, the other
434 to the sons of a certain Rados Koutzos (Lemerle et al 1970, 344; for the meaning of
435 mandriai, see Mironescu 1965). Winter and summer pastures are also mentioned in 14th-
436 century charters of Serbian kings, as zimiste and planina (or letiste), respectively (Dragomir
437 1959, 124–5; Vojvodi
c 2021, 73).
438 The archaeology of pastoralist communities in the medieval Balkans is under-
439 developed (Tak
acs 2004, 2022b). Ethnoarchaeological studies of transhumant commun-
440 ities of Vlachs in north-western Greece have typically focused on buildings of temporary
441 shelters (the so-called st^ani, see Findrik 1976), possibly similar to mandriai, but other stud-
442 ies have called attention upon intermediary settlements (between the permanent hamlet
443 or katun, and st^ani), each called salas, , on which small-scale horticulture may be practised.
444 While only men may be found in a st^ana, both women and children are regularly pre-
445 sent in intermediary settlements (Nandris 1999, 116–17; Biagi and Nisbet 2018, 581).
446 By contrast, the material recorded in the non-destructive field survey at Certova  louka
447 in the Krkonose Mountains of northern Bohemia (at the present-day border between
448 the Czech Republic and Poland) and associated with four abandoned structures and
449 their outbuildings dated to 18th and early 19th centuries, strongly suggests the exclusive
450 presence of men (Hartmanov
a 2005). Two circular structures (houses 19 and 20) from
451 the 8th- to 9th-century settlement excavated in Port, (near Şimleul Silvaniei, in north-
452 western Romania; Fig 1) have been interpreted as herders’ huts (Stanciu 2017, 60).
453 However, they were in the middle of a relatively large settlement and not isolated
454 (Matei and Bacuet, Cris, an 2011, 11–12, pl 2).
455 Ethnoarchaeological studies imply that discriminating between localised herd
456 economies and transhumant animal keeping is not all easy. For example, a salas, can
457 hardly be distinguished from a st^ana based on the ground plan alone (Nandris 1999,
458 117). Notwithstanding such difficulties, transhumant sites are characterised by enclosures
459 and milking pens, in addition to herder’s huts, while in zones of year-round pastoralism,
460 one should expect to find stables for fodder storage, as well as animal shelters and folds
461 (Chang 1999, 141). An Avar-age herder’s hut was identified in the irregular structure
462 flanked by a free-standing baking oven, which was discovered in Veresegyh
az (near
463 Budapest, Hungary) and dated to the late 7th and 8th centuries from associated pottery
464 (Mesterh
azy 2017). Whether the herders in Veresegyh
az were engaged in transhumant
465 pastoralism remains unclear, but elsewhere groups of wells have been interpreted as
466 part of a temporary settlement, possibly of transhumants (Tomka 2003). The evidence
467 of enclosures and milking pens is much stronger. The large corrals for cattle discovered
468 in Kiskunfel
egyh
aza (near Szeged, Hungary; Fig 1) and dated to the 8th century were
469 clearly associated with small-scale mobility. Indeed, the analysis of the horse bones from
 PASTORALISM AND NOMADISM 11

470 the site shows that the horse stock was quite heterogeneous, which contradicts the idea of
471 nomadic herds (Szenthe 2019, 234). Similarly, the 7th- to 8th-century, triple ditch of kid-
472 ney shape, which was discovered in Szedres (Tolna County, Fig 1) surrounds between
473 60,700 and 80,900 square meters of land. The turned-in terminals suggest a narrow point
474 of entrance/exit indicative of a pre-milking (holding) pen (Szab
o 2012; for pre-milking
475 pens as features most typical for transhumant pastoralism, see Brigand et al 2018, 252). In
476 the medieval archaeology of Spain, animal-bone assemblages have been used very success-
477 fully to draw distinction between different types of transhumant pastoralism geared towards
478 meat, wool, or milk production respectively (Moreno Garc
ıa 2001, 2004). There is as yet
479 no parallel to that research in the medieval archaeology of South-eastern Europe. It is
480 important to note, however, that ethnographic analogies suggest that communities of
481 mobile pastoralists slaughtered their animals only rarely (Bartosiewicz 1998, 160).
482 The archaeological evidence from the Carpathian Basin and the steppe lands
483 north of the Black Sea, which pertains to the 6th and 7th centuries, is in direct contra-
484 diction with all models of (early medieval) nomadism (Marginean and G
all 2021, 267,
485 notes 26–7). Nonetheless, and despite the absence of any archaeological traces of a
486 nomadic lifestyle, nomadism in Avar society is taken for granted, largely under the influ-
487 ence of historians (Szenthe [2015, 294] blames Pohl [1988, 165–70] for the stereotype;
488 but Pohl is much more cautious, ‘Even the concept of nomadism is too multifaceted to
489 be conveniently applied to the European Avars’ [2018, 199]) However, neither the sup-
490 posedly nomadic nature, nor the ideology of the Avar society was examined in sufficient
491 detail to justify the use of the term ‘nomadism’ (Szenthe 2016, 358, n 64). No such con-
492 cerns have been expressed so far in the archaeology of the steppe lands in Eastern
493 Europe, in which the uncritical use of the term nomads continues unabated (Komar
494 2008; Pugovolok 2016; Kazanski 2020; such usage would have been easily recognisable
495 to scholars of the Soviet era). A re-evaluation of economic and social processes at work
496 in Eastern Europe during the early Middle Ages is only possible after abandoning mod-
497 els of subsistence that rely on unwarranted assumptions of specialised economies. A con-
498 ceptual overhaul is therefore recommended at the bifurcation point of the current
499 research in medieval archaeology.
500
501
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
502
503 No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
504
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