The history of Hungary before the Hungarian conquest spans the time period before the Hungarian conquest in the 9th century of the territories that would become the Principality of Hungary and the Kingdom of Hungary.
The first known traces belong to the Homo heidelbergensis, with scarce or nonexistent evidence of human presence until the Neanderthals around 100,000 years ago. Anatomically modern humans arrived at the Carpathian Basin before and belonged to the Aurignacian group. The rest of the Stone Age is marked by minimal or not-yet-processed archeological evidence, with the exception of the Linear Pottery culture—the "garden type civilization" that introduced agriculture to the Carpathian Basin.
During the Copper and Bronze Ages, three significant groups were the Baden, the Makó and the Ottomány (to not be confused with Ottoman Turks) cultures. The major improvement was obviously metalworking, but the Baden culture also brought about cremation and even long-distance trade with remote areas such as the Baltic or Iran. Turbulent changes during the late Bronze Age gave an end to the native, relatively advancedOttomány culture#Collapse and legacy civilization, and the beginning of the Iron Age saw mass immigration of Indo-European nomads believed to be of ancient Iranian ancestry. However, as the time went on, the Carpathian Basin attracted immigration from all directions: the Hallstatt Celts from the west were the first and most influential at around 750 BC, the mysterious Sigynnae around 500 BC, the Pannonians—an Illyrian tribe gave the future Roman province its name, while the very east became occupied by other Thracian, Iranian, and later Celtic tribes. Before 100 BC, most of the area was occupied by various Celtic or celticized people, such as the successor of the Halstatt culture, the Taurisci, the Boii, and the Pannonians.
The Roman era began with several attacks between 156 and 70 BC, but their gradual conquest was interrupted by the Dacian king Burebista, whose kingdom stretched as far as today's Slovakia at its greatest extent. However, the period of Dacian dominance did not last long, and by 9 BC the Romans had subjugated the entire area and made it into the Pannonia subprovince of province Illyricum and eventually Pannonia province. Under Roman rule, many contemporary cities such as Buda, Győr and Sopron were founded and the population romanized, and culture as a whole flourished. Roman emperors sometimes tolerated other tribes settling in the territory, such as the Iazyges or Vandals. Christianity spread during the 4th century, when it became the state religion.
In the first years of the Age of Migration, the Carpathian Basin was settled by the Huns who by 430 had established a vast, if short-lived, dominion in Europe centered in the basin. Numerous Germanic tribes lived alongside them such as the Goths, Marcomanni, Quadi or Gepidi, the last of which stayed the longest and whose peoples incorporated into the Hunnic Empire. The next wave of migration during the 6th century saw other Germanic tribes, the Lombards and Heruli overpower the Gepidi, only to be ousted by another major nomadic tribe, the Avars. Like the Huns, the Avars established an empire there and posed a significant threat to their neighbours but were eventually defeated by both neighbouring states and internal strife (around 800). However, Avar population remained quite steady until the Hungarian conquest. The territory became divided between East Francia and First Bulgarian Empire with the northeastern part under Moravian Slavic Principality of Nitra. This state lasted until the arrival of the Magyar tribes in the late 9th century.
Prehistory
Stone Age
Vértesszőlős, Homo heidelbergensis
The oldest archaeological site which yielded evidence of human presence—human bones, pebble tools and kitchen refuse—in the Carpathian Basin was excavated at Vértesszőlős in Transdanubia in the 1960s. The Middle Pleistocene site was situated in calcareous tuff basins with a diameter of that the nearby warm springs had formed. The site at Vértesszőlős was occupied five times between about 500,000 and 250,000 years ago.The occipital bone of an adult male Homo heidelbergensis, who is now known as "Samu", and a child's milk tooth were found. Tools of quartzite and silex pebbles collected at the nearby river were also found, as well as a fireplace with hearths made from crushed animal bones, with remains of wild horses, aurochs, bisons, red deer, deer, wolves, bears, and saber-toothed cats.
Gap in the records There is a gap in the archaeological record, with no evidence of human presence between about 250,000 to 100,000 years ago.
Middle Palaeolithic, Neanderthals The earliest Middle Palaeolithic sites are dated to the transitory period between the Riss and Würm glacial periods around 100,000 years ago. Remains of skulls show that Neanderthals inhabited northeastern Transdanubia and the Bükk Mountains during this period. The Neanderthals who lived in the region of Érd between around 100,000 and 40,000 BC used quartzite pebbles. They led hunting expeditions as far as the Gerecse Hills for cave bears, wild horses, woolly rhinoceros and other animals. A Neanderthal community settled near the hot-water springs at Tata around 50,000 BC. They hunted mammoth calves, brown bear, wild horses and reed deer. A flat oval object made from mammoth tooth lamella, similar to the Indigenous Australians' ritual tjurunga, was found at the site. A third group of Neanderthals settled in the caves of the Pilis, Vértes and Gerecse Hills. They regularly visited the Bükk Mountains and the White Carpathians to collect raw material for their tools. Ibex was the main prey of the Neanderthals of the Middle Palaeolothic sites in the Bükk Mountains. In addition to local stone, they used raw material from the White Carpathians and the region of the river Prut. Archaeological research suggest that the Neanderthals disappeared from the northern regions of the Carpathian Basin around 40,000 years ago.
Istállóskő Cave, Aurignacian group Latest research shows that the first communities of anatomically modern humans came to the Carpathian Basin between . Consequently, the cohabitation of the Neanderthals and modern humans in the territory, which was assumed by earlier scholarship, cannot be proved. The Aurignacian group of modern humans who settled in the Istállóskő Cave primarily used tools made of bones and used the cave as a seasonal camping site during their hunts for chamois, red deer, reindeer and other local animals. Their tools made of stone suggest that they came to the Bükk Mountains from the northern Carpathians and the region of the Prut.
Szelete culture According to a scholarly view, a local archaeological culture—the "Szeleta culture"—can be distinguished, which represents a transition between the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic and was featured by leaf-shaped spearheads from around . However, the existence of a distinct archaeological culture is not unanimously accepted by specialists, because most prehistoric tools from the eponymous Szeleta Cave (in the eastern side of the Bükk) are similar to those found in the Upper Palaeolithic sites of Central Europe.
Gravettian hunters Attracted by the rich fauna of the lowlands in the centre of the Carpathian Basin, groups of "Gravettian" hunters penetrated into the territory from the west about 27,000 years ago. The central grasslands were not covered by ice even at the maximum of the last glaciation (around 20,000 years ago). The new arrivals settled on hilltops along the rivers Hornád and Bodrog. They primarily hunted mammoth and elk and used stone blades to work skin, bone, antler and wood. Artistic finds are rare; for instance, a disc with serrated edges, which was made of polished limestone, was found at Bodrogkeresztúr. A second wave of "Gravettians" arrived during the warmer period that began about 20,000 years ago. They primarily made their tools from pebbles, similar to Lower Palaeolithic communities, but no continuity between the two groups can be detected. The remains of semi-sunken huts were excavated at a site on a hilltop near Sárvár where reindeer bones were also found. The site also yielded a perforated (but not decorated) reindeer antler. In addition to permanent settlements, the Gravettian hunters' temporary camps were unearthed in the plains of the Jászság and around Szeged. About 15,000 years ago, new hunters came to the territory; their best-known settlements were situated in northeastern Transdanubia. A pendant made of wolf tooth, a pair of red deer teeth and similar finds suggest that these hunters wore ornaments.
Mesolitic Age Mesolithic sites are rare but start to appear after systematic surveys, especially in the Jászság area.
Tardenoisian culture, 9000–4000 BC The Tardenoisian (or Beuronian) is an archaeological culture of the Mesolithic/Epipaleolithic period from northern France and Belgium. Similar cultures are known further east in Central Europe, parts of Britain and west across Spain, extending possibly to the nowadays North-Western Hungary.
Neolithic to Chalcolithic Age
Starčevo culture 6200–4500 BC The Starčevo culture is an archaeological culture of Southeastern Europe, dating to the Neolithic period between c. 6200 and 4500 BCE. It originates in the spread of the Neolithic package of peoples and technological innovations including farming and ceramics from Anatolia to the area of Sesklo. The Starčevo culture marks its spread to the inland Balkan peninsula as the Cardial ware culture did along the Adriatic coastline. It forms part of the wider Starčevo–Körös–Criş culture which gave rise to the central European Linear Pottery culture c. 700 years after the initial spread of Neolithic farmers towards the northern Balkans.
Criş-Körös culture, ~6200 BC Neolithic settlement begins with the Criş-Körös culture, carbon-dated to around 6200 BC.
Linear Pottery, 5500–4500 BC In the Middle Neolithic, the Western Linear Pottery culture in Transdanubia and the Satu-Mare (Szatmar) and Eastern Linear pottery (called "Alföld Linear Pottery" in Hungary) in the east, developed into Želiezovce (Slovakia) and Szakálhát and Bükk, respectively.
Vinča culture ~5400–4500 BC Farming technology first introduced to the region during the First Temperate Neolithic was developed further by the Vinča culture. It was noted for dark-burnished pottery, and fuelling a population boom and producing some of the largest settlements in prehistoric Europe.
Tisza culture, ~5400–4500 BC The Tisza culture is a Neolithic archaeological culture of the Alföld plain in modern-day Hungary, Western Romania, Eastern Slovakia, and Ukrainian Zakarpattia Oblast in Central Europe. The culture is dated to between 5400 BCE and 4500/4400 BCE.
Tiszapolgár culture 4500–4000 BC The Late Neolithic Tisza culture was followed by the Eneolithic Tiszapolgár and Bodrogkeresztúr cultures. These cultures were part of the broader cultural complex known as Old Europe or the Danube civilization.
Bodrogkeresztúr culture 4000 to 3600 BC. The Bodrogkeresztúr culture is best known for its seventy cemeteries. Which show clear genetic links with the preceding Tiszapolgár culture. Bodrogkeresztúr cemetieres make clear distinctions between males and females.
Sopot culture, ~5000 BC The Sopot culture is a neolithic archaeological culture that was first identified in eastern Slavonia in modern-day Croatia, and was since also found in several sites in Hungary.
Baden Culture, 3600–2800 BC