A 2700-year-old collection of more than 60 bronze and iron objects found in Bükk in north-western Hungary
As a result of research involving volunteers and students carrying out an excavation project led by a university team specializing in the Bronze and Iron Ages at Bükk in north-western Hungary, they have uncovered a rich collection of extremely interesting items, including more than 60 bronze and iron objects.
The research focuses on an ancient village located on the mountaintop of Verebce-bérc. Before being destroyed by an attack, this village flourished in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. This year is the sixth year of field searches and the third season of excavations.
In three research events this year, the team identified buildings burnt down during the previous siege and continued to survey the area with metal detecting equipment.
The treasure before being unearthed. Péter Mogyorós PhD student, Nikolett Dienes, and Angéla Farkas archaeology students.
Metal detector surveys conducted in the region revealed an astounding array of metal artifacts, offering fresh perspectives on the cultural ties within this area.
The most outstanding discovery is a collection of over 60 bronze and iron objects, primarily jewelry and horse harness parts, likely buried during the siege.
This treasure is especially noteworthy because of its ties to the cultures of southeast Europe, especially the Balkan region. Researchers believe this assemblage was interred to ward off the assault, rendering it invaluable documentation of the village’s past battles, commerce, and cross-cultural exchange.
Excavations at the discovery site
Numerous eminent experts from different universities have been drawn to the project, and they have worked together on various facets of the project, including research and logistics. Berlin-based archaeologist Bernhard Heeb and University of Olomouc professor Martin Golec are among the guests.
The Bükk National Park staff has also assisted the team, with assistance from specialists such as Bartha Attila, Ézsöl Tibor, and Holló Sándor.
Members of the Hungarian National Museum’s National Research Institute, including Fullár Zoltán and Bakos Gábor, have also provided support.
Lost 14th Century Church Discovered under a Tennis Court in Hungary
During an archaeological excavation in Visegrád, a fortified medieval castle on a hill overlooking the Danube in northern Hungary, the ruins of the Church of the Virgin Mary, built during the reign of King Sigismund, were found under a tennis court.
Traces of a clash from hundreds of years ago were also discovered in the area surrounding the crypt in front of the excavated high altar.
Sigismund of Luxembourg founded a Franciscan monastery that included the Church of the Virgin Mary, which was constructed next to his palace.
Charles IV’s son, Sigismund, ruled as king of Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, and Croatia before ascending to the throne as Holy Roman Emperor in 1433 and dying in 1437.
“No doubt, most promising for archaeologists was the excavation of the tennis court next to the royal palace, where the Franciscan monastery founded by Sigismund of Luxembourg once stood.”
The former tennis court became a development area of the Visegrad Renaissance program.
On the first day, the church’s remnants were discovered, and in front of the high altar, a crypt was discovered. Among the debris of the collapsed crypt lay the remains of three bodies.
The objects found beside them, such as a spur and several shots (pellets made of lead), suggested that they were soldiers. There was a copper bowl near them, which may have been used for defense, as its surface shows indentations made by weapons.
This could suggest that the church was not only the scene of looting, but also of a bloody clash.
After the beginning of the archaeological work, the foundation of the buttress of the sanctuary of the church belonging to the monastery was found.
After the Ottomans captured Visegrád in the sixteenth century, the building is believed to have collapsed. The lower, fortified part of Visegrád also revealed traces of an Ottoman settlement, including coins, an Ottoman cemetery, and an oval-shaped oven.
In 2021, the Visegrád Renaissance Development Program was initiated with the goal of revitalizing Visegrád Castle and its environs. The Royal Palace, the Visegrád Citadel, and Solomon’s Tower will all be rebuilt in the upcoming years in addition to the Lower Castle.
The lower, fortified part of Visegrád also revealed traces of an Ottoman settlement, including coins, an Ottoman cemetery, and an oval-shaped oven.
The castle system’s upper and lower levels will be connected, and the complex will be made pedestrian-friendly. In order to allow for visits to the citadel, lower castle, and portions of the Royal Palace during the reconstruction, the work will be done in stages.
Archaeologists Discovered Medieval Silver Communion Set and 70 Silver Coins in Hungary
A 14th-century silver communion set (chalice and wafer holder) and a treasure trove of 70 silver coins were discovered in a research project by the Hungarian National Archaeological Institute (Nemzeti Régészeti Intézet) near Lake Tisza.
The discovery was announced on the Institute’s Facebook page. In 2023, experts from the National Archaeological Institute of the Public Collection Centre of the Hungarian National Museum discovered the remains of a medieval Benedictine abbey founded by a clan during their microregional research near Lake Tisza, a unique cultural heritage.
The main purpose of the ten-year research plan of the National Archaeological Institute is to identify all the sites in the country within the framework of the “Archaeological Topography Programme”. To this end, micro-regional pilot projects have been launched, one of which can also provide the basis for developing tourism in the southeastern region of Lake Tisza based on its historical and cultural heritage.
In October 2023, in the village of Tomajmonostora, the remains of the former Benedictine abbey church were revealed during a trial excavation of the archaeological work carried out by archaeologists on the site of the former monastery.
Photo: Hungarian National Archaeological Institute
“Last year the layers of the three-nave monastic basilica and the early round church were also clarified. So we have found the medieval Benedictine abbey and the church of the settlement that preceded it,” he said. Excavation leader Gábor Virágos, archaeologist, deputy director general of the Public Collection Centre of the Hungarian National Museum, and president of the National Archaeological Institute.
A special discovery made during this year’s excavation was a communion set that was in the deceased person’s hand at the time of burial. The ceremonial vessels are thought to be from the 13th or 14th century and include a wafer holder and a silver chalice.
They were put into the hands of a deceased individual. Although more excavation is required to determine the precise findings, it is most likely a burial component.
The micro-regional research, including the excavation at Tomajmonostora, also produced other outstanding results.
The National Archaeological Institute of the Public Collections Centre of the Hungarian National Museum also pays special attention to the sites of key, fate-transforming events in Hungarian history.
Photo: Hungarian National Archaeological Institute
One of the milestones of this work is the identification of key sites of the battle of 1596 near Mezőkeresztes, and the collection and interpretation of artefactual material related to the battle.
Here, archaeologists have found a treasure trove of 70 silver coins of the Viennese penny (denar). The hidden treasure, dating back to the 13th-14th centuries, was uncovered during a search by volunteers from the Community Archaeology Programme, led by archaeologist Gábor Bakos.
The Viennese denarii that make up the treasure were issued by the Austrian princes, contrary to their common summary name, not only from the Viennese mints but also from the Enns and Bécsujhely mints. Due to the intensive trade relations, their traffic also extended to the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary in the 1200s and 1300s.
Photo: Hungarian National Archaeological Institute
“Their presence is attested by the presence of coins such as the one just discovered, mainly from the western part of the country and along the trade route through Kassia to Cracow.
The latter includes the medal material found in the Mezőkeresztes area,” said Enikő Kovács, numismatist and research associate.
Research continues with the participation of volunteers and local people.
Lost 14th Century Church Discovered under a Tennis Court in Hungary
During an archaeological excavation in Visegrád, a fortified medieval castle on a hill overlooking the Danube in northern Hungary, the ruins of the Church of the Virgin Mary, built during the reign of King Sigismund, were found under a tennis court.
Traces of a clash from hundreds of years ago were also discovered in the area surrounding the crypt in front of the excavated high altar.
Sigismund of Luxembourg founded a Franciscan monastery that included the Church of the Virgin Mary, which was constructed next to his palace.
Charles IV’s son, Sigismund, ruled as king of Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, and Croatia before ascending to the throne as Holy Roman Emperor in 1433 and dying in 1437.
“No doubt, most promising for archaeologists was the excavation of the tennis court next to the royal palace, where the Franciscan monastery founded by Sigismund of Luxembourg once stood.”
The former tennis court became a development area of the Visegrad Renaissance program.
On the first day, the church’s remnants were discovered, and in front of the high altar, a crypt was discovered. Among the debris of the collapsed crypt lay the remains of three bodies.
The objects found beside them, such as a spur and several shots (pellets made of lead), suggested that they were soldiers. There was a copper bowl near them, which may have been used for defense, as its surface shows indentations made by weapons.
This could suggest that the church was not only the scene of looting, but also of a bloody clash.
After the beginning of the archaeological work, the foundation of the buttress of the sanctuary of the church belonging to the monastery was found.
After the Ottomans captured Visegrád in the sixteenth century, the building is believed to have collapsed. The lower, fortified part of Visegrád also revealed traces of an Ottoman settlement, including coins, an Ottoman cemetery, and an oval-shaped oven.
In 2021, the Visegrád Renaissance Development Program was initiated with the goal of revitalizing Visegrád Castle and its environs.
The Royal Palace, the Visegrád Citadel, and Solomon’s Tower will all be rebuilt in the upcoming years in addition to the Lower Castle.
The lower, fortified part of Visegrád also revealed traces of an Ottoman settlement, including coins, an Ottoman cemetery, and an oval-shaped oven.
The castle system’s upper and lower levels will be connected, and the complex will be made pedestrian-friendly. In order to allow for visits to the citadel, lower castle, and portions of the Royal Palace during the reconstruction, the work will be done in stages.
The archaeologists of Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Jász Museum, and the Eötvös Loránd Research Network have unearthed a find unique on a European scale: the tomb of a Roman physician from the 1st century AD, along with his complete equipment, in the Jász region of Hungary, MTI reports.
In the first phase of the excavation near Jászberény in 2022, the objects discovered were from the Copper Age and the Avar period, and then the site was surveyed using a magnetometer, Tivadar Vida, director of the Institute of Archaeology at ELTE said at a press conference in Budapest on Tuesday.
Levente Samu, the assistant research fellow at the institute, said that an earlier structure had also been found among the rows of tombs in the Avar cemetery, with several metal objects having been recovered from this relatively shallow grave.
The examination of the tools quickly revealed that this was a Roman burial complex, and the grave was that of a physician, whose equipment had been placed in two wooden boxes next to his feet. The tomb contained the remains of a man aged between 50 and 60 years, with no signs of trauma or disease. The grave was almost completely undisturbed, except for an animal disturbance which had moved one of the scalpels from the foot to the head. The tomb yielded pincers, needles, tweezers and high-end scalpels suitable for surgical operations, as well as remains of medicinal products.
The copper alloy scalpels were decorated with silver plating and fitted with interchangeable steel blades. A muller was placed at the knee of the deceased, which, judging by the abrasion marks, could have been used to mix herbs and other medicines.
According to Levente Samu, these instruments represent the highest quality of the age and were suitable for use in complex medical procedures.
László Borhy, archaeologist and rector of ELTE, pointed out that such a complete medical kit is unrivalled both inside and outside the borders of what was the Roman Empire.
According to radiocarbon dating, the tomb dates back to the 1st century AD, the period of the formation of the province of Pannonia. Ongoing genetic testing will hopefully shed light on the Roman doctor’s origins.
Benedek Varga, Director of Semmelweis Museum of Medical History
called the discovery of such an assemblage from the Barbaricum of the 1st century BC a world sensation. Only one similar medical kit from the period has ever been discovered: in Pompeii, which was one of the richest settlements in the empire.
Levente Samu said that in addition to genetic research, they also plan to carry out an isotopic analysis of the skeleton, which will help determine whether the doctor was of local origin.
András Gulyás, archaeologist and museologist at Jász Museum, pointed out that this period in Jászság may have been a transitional period between the Celtic and Roman Sarmatian populations.
It is not clear from the current data whether the physician buried in the tomb was there to heal a local leader of high prestige or whether he was accompanying a military movement of the Roman legions.
A metal detectorist has discovered a small silver coin marked with the name of a famous Viking king. However, it was unearthed not in Scandinavia, but in southern Hungary, where it was lost almost 1,000 years ago.
The small silver coin was found near the Hungarian village of Várdomb. It dates to between 1046 and 1066 and is inscribed with the name of the Norwegian king.
The find has baffled archaeologists, who have struggled to explain how the coin might have ended up there — it’s even possible that it arrived with the travelling court of a medieval Hungarian king. The early Norwegian coin, denominated as a “penning,” was not especially valuable at the time, even though it’s made from silver, and was worth the equivalent of around $20 in today’s money.
“This penning was equivalent to the denar used in Hungary at the time,” Máté Varga, an archaeologist at the Rippl-Rónai Museum in the southern Hungarian city of Kaposvár and a doctoral student at the Hungary’s University of Szeged, told Live Science in an email. “It was not worth much — perhaps enough to feed a family for a day.”
An 1865 engraving of the Harald Hardrada penning coin. (Image credit: By Zeichner: C. I. Schive, Lithograf Bucher in Bergen – C. I. Schive: Norges Mynter i Middelalderen. Christiania 1865.
Metal detectorist Zoltán Csikós found the silver coin earlier this year at an archaeological site on the outskirts of the village of Várdomb, and handed it over to archaeologist András Németh at the Wosinsky Mór County Museum in the nearby city of Szekszárd.
The Várdomb site holds the remains of the medieval settlement of Kesztölc, one of the most important trading towns in the region at that time. Archaeologists have made hundreds of finds there, including dress ornaments and coins, Varga said.
There is considerable evidence of contact between medieval Hungary and Scandinavia, including Scandinavian artefacts found in Hungary and Hungarian artefacts found in Scandinavia that could have been brought there by trade or travelling craftsmen, Varga said.
But this is the first time a Scandinavian coin has been found in Hungary, he said.
Who was Harald Hardrada?
The coin found at the Várdomb site is in poor condition, but it’s recognizable as a Norwegian penning minted between 1046 and 1066 for King Harald Sigurdsson III — also known as Harald Hardrada — at Nidarnes or Nidaros(opens in new tab), a medieval mint at Trondheim in central Norway.
The description of a similar coin(opens in new tab) notes that the front features the name of the king “HARALD REX NO” — meaning Harald, king of Norway — and is decorated with a “triquetra,” a three-sided symbol representing Christianity’s Holy Trinity.
The other side is marked with a Christian cross in double lines, two ornamental sets of dots, and another inscription naming the master of the mint at Nidarnes.
Harald Hardrada (“Hardrada” translates as “hard ruler” in Norwegian) was the son of a Norwegian chief and half-brother to the Norwegian king Olaf II, according to Britannica(opens in new tab). He lived at the end of the Viking Age and is sometimes considered the last of the great Viking warrior-kings.
This is a photo showing the Kirkwall Cathedral’s stained glass window of Harald Hardrada.
Traditional stories record that Harald fought alongside his half-brother at the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030, where Olaf was defeated and killed by the forces of an alliance between Norwegian rebels and the Danish; Harald fled in exile after that, first to Russia and then to the Byzantine Empire, where he became a prominent military leader.
He returned to Norway in 1045 and became its joint king with his nephew, Magnus I Olafsson; he became the sole king when Magnus died in battle against Denmark in 1047.
Harald then spent many years trying to obtain the Danish throne, and in 1066 he attempted to conquer England by allying with the rebel forces of Tostig Godwinson, who was trying to take the kingdom from his brother, King Harold Godwinson.
But both Harald and Tostig were killed by Harold Godwinson’s forces at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in northern England in 1066; whereupon the victor and his armies had to cross the country just a few weeks before the Battle of Hastings against William of Normandy — which Harold Godwinson lost, and with it the kingdom of England.
Medieval travels
The penning found at Várdomb could have been lost more than 100 years after it was minted, but it’s more likely that it was in circulation for between 10 and 20 years, Varga and Németh said. That dating gives rise to a possible connection with a medieval Hungarian king named Solomon, who ruled from 1063 to 1087.
According to a medieval Hungarian illuminated manuscript known as the “Képes Krónika” (or “Chronicon Pictum” in Latin), Solomon and his retinue (a group of advisors and important people) encamped in 1074 “above the place called Kesztölc” — and so the archaeologists think one of Solomon’s courtiers at that time may have carried, and then lost, the exotic coin.
“The king’s court could have included people from all over the world, whether diplomatic or military leaders, who could have had such coins,” Varga and Németh said in a statement.
Another possibility is that the silver coin was brought to medieval Kesztölc by a common traveller: the trading town “was crossed by a major road with international traffic, the predecessor of which was a road built in Roman times along the Danube,” the researchers said in the statement.
“This road was used not only by kings, but also by merchants, pilgrims, and soldiers from far away, any of whom could have lost the rare silver coin,” they wrote.
Further research could clarify the origins of the coin and its connection with the site; while no excavations are planned, Varga said, field surveys and further metal detection will be carried out at the site in the future.
Genetic Study Tracks Warriors from Mongolia to Hungary
Less known than Attila’s Huns, the Avars were their more successful successors. They ruled much of Central and Eastern Europe for almost 250 years. We know that they came from Central Asia in the sixth century CE, but ancient authors, as well as modern historians, have long debated their provenance.
Reconstruction of an Avar-period armoured horseman based on Grave 1341/1503 of the Derecske-Bikás-dűlő site (Déri Museum, Debrecen).
Now, a multidisciplinary research team of geneticists, archaeologists and historians, including researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, obtained and studied the first ancient genomes from the most important Avar elite sites discovered in contemporary Hungary.
This study traces the genetic origin of the Avar elite to a faraway region of East-Central Asia. It provides direct genetic evidence for one of the largest and most rapid long-distance migrations in ancient human history.
In the 560s, the Avars established an empire that lasted more than 200 years, centered in the Carpathian Basin. Despite much scholarly debate their initial homeland and origin have remained unclear.
They are primarily known from historical sources of their enemies, the Byzantines, who wondered about the origin of the fearsome Avar warriors after their sudden appearance in Europe. Had they come from the Rouran empire in the Mongolian steppe (which had just been destroyed by the Turks), or should one believe the Turks who strongly disputed such a legacy?
Historians have wondered whether that was a well-organized migrant group or a mixed band of fugitives. Archaeological research has pointed to many parallels between the Carpathian Basin and Eurasian nomadic artifacts (weapons, vessels, horse harnesses), for instance, a lunula-shaped pectoral of gold used as a symbol of power. We also know that the Avars introduced the stirrup in Europe. Yet we have so far not been able to trace their origin in the wide Eurasian steppes.
In this study, a multidisciplinary team—including researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, the ELTE University and the Institute of Archaeogenomics of Budapest, Harvard Medical School in Boston, the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton—analyzed 66 individuals from the Carpathian Basin.
The study included the eight richest Avar graves ever discovered, overflowing with golden objects, as well as other individuals from the region prior to and during the Avar age.
“We address a question that has been a mystery for more than 1400 years: who were the Avar elites, mysterious founders of an empire that almost crushed Constantinople and for more than 200 years ruled the lands of modern-day Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Austria, Croatia and Serbia?” explains Johannes Krause, senior author of the study.
The Avars did not leave written records about their history and these first genome-wide data provide robust clues about their origins.
“The historical contextualization of the archaeogenetic results allowed us to narrow down the timing of the proposed Avar migration.
They covered more than 5000 kilometres in a few years from Mongolia to the Caucasus, and after ten more years settled in what is now Hungary. This is the fastest long-distance migration in human history that we can reconstruct up to this point,” explains Choongwon Jeong, co-senior author of the study.
Guido Gnecchi-Ruscone, the lead author of the study, adds that “besides their clear affinity to Northeast Asia and their likely origin due to the fall of the Rouran Empire, we also see that the 7th-century Avar period elites show 20 to 30 per cent of additional non-local ancestry, likely associated with the North Caucasus and the Western Asian Steppe, which could suggest further migration from the Steppe after their arrival in the 6th century.”
The East Asian ancestry is found in individuals from several sites in the core settlement area between the Danube and Tisza rivers in modern-day central Hungary.
However, outside the primary settlement region, we find high variability in inter-individual levels of admixture, especially in the south-Hungarian site of Kölked. This suggests an immigrant Avars elite ruling a diverse population with the help of a heterogeneous local elite.
These exciting results show how much potential there is in the unprecedented collaboration between geneticists, archaeologists, historians and anthropologists for the research on the “Migration period” in the first millennium CE. The research was published in Cell.
Remains of twin fetuses and wealthy mom found in Bronze Age urn
During the Bronze Age, a pregnant woman carrying twins in what is now Hungary met a tragic end, dying either just before or during childbirth, according to a new study about her burial.
The remains of the elite woman (left) and twin fetuses (right) were cremated, but some of their bones (above) weren’t completely burned.
The woman and her twins were cremated and buried in an urn with lavish grave goods: a bronze neck ring, a gold hair ring and bone pins or needles, indicating that the woman was an elite individual, the researchers said. Moreover, a chemical analysis of the woman’s teeth and bones revealed that she wasn’t local but had travelled from afar, likely to marry into a new community, the researchers said.
“Although the external appearance of the urn is not so different from all the others, the prestige objects indicate that the woman stood at the apex of the community or as part of an emerging elite,” study lead researcher Claudio Cavazzuti, an assistant professor in the Department of History and Cultures at the University of Bologna in Italy, told Live Science in an email.
Archaeologists found the woman and twins’ remains in a cemetery dating to the Hungarian Bronze Age (2150 B.C. to 1500 B.C.), which they uncovered during a rescue excavation ahead of the construction of a major supermarket by the Danube River, just a few miles south of Budapest. With 525 burials excavated so far, “the cemetery is one of the largest known in present-day Hungary for this period,” Cavazzuti said. There are likely several thousand more Bronze Age graves in the area that have yet to be excavated, he added.
These burials are from the Vatya culture, which thrived during the Hungarian Early and Middle Bronze Ages, from about 2200 B.C. to 1450 B.C., he said.
The Vatya people had a complex culture, with settlements supporting agricultural farming and livestock, and economy invested in local and long-distance trade (which explains how the Vatya acquired bronze, gold and amber from different parts of Central, Eastern and Northern Europe), and fortifications that controlled parts of the Danube River, Cavazzuti said.
To learn more about those buried in the cemetery, Cavazzuti and his colleagues did an in-depth analysis on 29 burials (26 urn cremations and three were buried). Except for the elite woman (who was buried with the twins), all of the sampled graves contained the remains of just one person, and most of those graves held simple grave goods made of ceramic or bronze.
About 20% of the Vatya burials at the site contained metal grave goods, “but prestige items, such as those of [the elite woman], are rare,” he said.
The three buried individuals were adults of indeterminate sex. Of the cremated individuals, 20 were adults (11 females, seven males, two undetermined), two were children between the ages of 5 and 10, and four were between the ages of 2 and 5. But the youngest of the deceased were the twins, who were likely between 28 and 32 gestational weeks old. The elite woman was between 25 and 35 years old when she died, according to a skeletal analysis, the researchers found.
A further look at the elite woman’s bones indicated that she was cremated on a large pyre that likely burned for several hours. But when the fire extinguished, “the ashes were collected more carefully than usual (bone weight is 50% higher than average [compared with other cremated burials]) and deposited in an interesting early Vatya urn,” the researchers wrote in the study. Given that she was buried with the twin fetuses, the woman probably died from complications related to childbirth, the researchers said.
The elite woman’s grave goods included a bronze neck ring (1), gold hair ring (2) and bone pins/needles (3)
Where was she from?
The research team did a chemical analysis, which entailed looking at the different versions, or isotopes, or strontium in the deceased’s teeth and bones. Different regions have different ratios of strontium isotopes, which people absorb in the water and food they consume.
These strontium isotopes then end up in people’s bones and teeth, allowing researchers to measure and compare them with strontium isotopes found in the environment.
The vast majority of the individuals the team looked at had local strontium signatures, especially the men and children.
The elite woman, in contrast, was born elsewhere and moved to the region between the ages of 8 and 13, Cavazzuti said. Furthermore, an analysis of her grave goods revealed that the bronze neck ring and a gold ring were “prestige objects” similar to valuable items found in other burials and hoards in Central Europe, he said.
“It is not improbable that the neck-ring and pins/needles were meant to symbolize a link with her native land, whereas the gold hair-ring (a wedding gift?) embodied the new local identity she acquired by joining the [new] community at the highest rank,” the researchers wrote in the study.
Another buried woman, who did not have any grave goods, had a strontium signature from elsewhere, possibly from Lake Balaton in western Hungary or central Slovenia, the researchers noted.
Previous research has already shown that women in Europe — especially high-status ones — married outside their local communities since at least the late Neolithic or the Copper Age (about 3200 B.C. 2300 B.C.), Cavazzuti said. During the Bronze Age, societies across Europe were largely patrilocal, meaning that the men stayed in their hometowns while some women travelled from different communities to marry them.
Perhaps these marriages were crucial to the emerging elite “in order to institute or reinforce political powers and military alliances, but also to secure routes [and] economic partnerships,” Cavazzuti said.
