Avars in Croatia: New Wine in Old Bottles

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The number of Avar-age finds from Croatia has rapidly increased over the last years or so, with many from burial assemblages in the north(east)ern part of the country. This chapter is an attempt at synthesis, taken into consideration the social significance of belt sets. Many of the finds in the environs of Vukovar, the Croatian part of the Danube region and the valley of the Drava river were part of the qaganate during the Late Avar period (ca. 680 to ca. 820). This is also true for a few finds on settlement sites in the Mura region of Slovenia, but in that country, belt fittings are typically found on hillfort sites. In Dalmatia, spectacular finds such as the belt set from Smrdelje near Kistanje may have been the conceptual parallel to the rich male burials with horses in northeastern Croatia. Finds in Dalmatia must be interpreted as the desire of local elites to emulate those inside the Avar qaganate. There may even be indications of the local imitation of belt fittings coming from the Carpathian Basin. The phenomenon seems to coincide in time with the flood of gold coins minted in Sicily under Constantine V. Whether or not the penchant for Avar belts was a response to the latter phenomenon, the revision of the chronology of belt fittings raises new and important questions about the political connections with the Avar qaganate during the last decades of its existence.