ABSTRACT
Pagan Hungarian tribes occupied the Carpathian Basin gradually towards the end of the ninth century, the so-called conquest period. A major change occurred in the year 1000 when Stephen I, the first king of Hungary, was crowned and with his reign the Christian state came into being. Clearly, the actual process was not so quick and simple, but it marks a crucial point for investigating the development of state power. This went hand in hand with the process of Christianization, which was accompanied by the expansion of a local church system. Although the beginnings of both the reorganization of power structures and the first steps towards Christianity were rooted in the previous century, 1 the formal steps and the organized development started with the foundation of the kingdom. Tracing this, however, is rather challenging. Even though the eleventh and twelfth centuries in Hungary were of major importance for the foundation of the state, and with it the formation of (secular and ecclesiastic) power structures, sources about this period are scarce, especially written evidence. Archaeology, however, can provide large amounts of data through material remains.
