Etelköz - Mezopotámia

Abstract

Due to the lack of sources one of the most debated issues of the Hungarian prehistory is the localisation of the ancient homelands, among them that of Etelköz. Because of this special attention should be paid to every new piece of information, which can be associated with the geographic situation of the ancient homelands, including Etelköz. OIKONOMIDÉS Greek Byzantologist discovered and published an 11th century document titled Taktikon' in 1972. In this document a province called Western-Mesopotamia is mentioned, which he localised to the territory of the Lower-Danube. The Greek scholar on the one hand supposed a close, genetic relation between the name of the Byzantine province and the Hungarian toponym 'Etelköz', as, according to him, the meaning of the Hungarian name 'Etelköz' was 'Mesopotamia', on the other hand he localised the 'Etelköz' ancient homeland of the Hungarians between the Lower-Danube and the Dnieper rivers. The author of the present study, however, does not take it for granted that there is a close, genetic relationship between the Hungarian 'Etelköz' and the Greek 'Mesopotamia' toponyms for linguistic reasons, and thinks that the existence of the province Western-Mesopotamia cannot help the geographic localisation of'Etelköz'.