Send Gift Baskets to Szolnok, Hungary

The area was first settled in the Paleolithic era–around 40,000 to 10,000 BC. The first known inhabitants lived in temporary tent-like structures made from reeds, or in more permanent dwellings made of hides draped over wooden poles. Archeologists have discovered this era’s discoveries, like tools made of flint. A lot of them are smaller for hunting smaller animals, but it shows that Stone Age people in Europe hunted many different species and types of game.

From a very early point in human history, humans have had an important connection with the ocean. The evidence of this importance is seen in these devices that date back to the Neolithic period. In the recent discovery of the Neolithic settlement in Szandaszőlős, a suburb of Szolnok, the clay statues show that the people of 2200BC were usually made from clay, as well as ritual statues of gods and bulls. This is a very interesting find!

By the Mesolithic era, people had started to settle in villages and practice agriculture and animal husbandry. Reconstructions of these settlements are visible at the Damjanich János Museum in Szolnok. Houses in the 1800s were primarily made from wood. They used carts to transport goods and large wooden granaries for storage purposes.

New people arrived in the Carpathian Basin during the Bronze Age. In Tószeg, a neighbor of Szolnok, a large settlement was established and houses from thick adobe walls were built. The people in the village kept pigs and sheep, as well as gathered shells from the river. One of the things they found is bronze tools, swords, etc., which suggest long-distance trade.

Inhabitants of the Alföld (the area which is today eastern Hungary) were mostly immigrants from Scythia, Celtic tribes, and then Sarmatians around the time before 896 when Hungarians arrived in this area. Several local artifacts have been found during the building of the Zagyva River dikes in a little-known Scythian settlement near Szolnok. These include ancient pottery and iron cookware.

The Celts followed the Scythians. The Celts were mostly artisans, including artists and craftsmen who made iron weapons, saddlers, and other iron components. The Sarmatians originated in Iran and settled in the surrounding regions. The Sarmatian people were a part of the Roman Empire and had contact with them, sometimes through war and sometimes through trade. Roman money and weapons are often found. In 1952, Szolnok’s military airport was enlarged and graves uncovered that contained a rich treasure–gold-plated wooden and iron spears. After the Sarmatians, Germanic-speaking people occupied the region and conquered their rivals in the 6th and 5th centuries BC.

The Gepids were a people in Ó-Szanda in the 4th and 5th centuries who left a rich trove of artifacts. They made heavy beads, wore glass, and had weapon skills they were familiar with. The Avars were a group of people who lived in what is now Hungary after the Gepids. Like their Hungarian predecessors, many of them were buried with horses in their graves. These horses are now known to archaeologists thanks to graves that have been unearthed. The Avar people finally fade away within the 6th century & their remains show up in a burial ground near Szandaszőlős.