An Arpadian age (10th–11th c.) burial ground was unearthed on the plateau of Oberleiserberg along with features and findings from several other periods. It was first discovered during the excavation led by Herbert Mitscha-Märheim and Ernst Nischer-Falkenhof in the 1920s and 30s. In the 1970s and 80s the site was archaeologically investigated by Herwig Friesinger and his team. During these archaeological campaigns 71 additional graves were found. The multidisciplinary analyses of the medieval findings and features as well as the human remains unearthed on Oberleiserberg are part of the international project Frontier, Contact Zone or No Man’s Land — The Morava- Thaya Region from the Early to the High Medieval Ages (I 1911 G21, led by Stefan Eichert and Jiří Macháček funded by FWF (Austrian Science Fund) and GAČR (Czech Science Foundation). The early and high medieval findings indicate contact of the entombed population with nonnative peoples, possibly reaching as far as the Baltic Sea. Anthropological analysis of the excavated skeletons shows us more about the everyday life of the people buried here and together with isotopic analysis of the human remains, conclusions about their living conditions are possible.

The present contribution considers the Pannonian ‘inner fortifications’ in the context of the development of the infrastructure and urban fabric of selected sites on the Lower Danube. Using Sándor Sopronis’ thesis, which postulates that a multiple defensive system gradually expanded in Pannonia after the time of the Tetrarchy, as a starting point, this study concentrates on the inner fortifications founded in the middle third of the 4th century AD in the hinterland of the Limes (Környe, Tác / Gorsium, Keszthely-Fenékpuszta and Alsóheténypuszta) which, together with towns such as Sopianae, Mursa, Cibalae, Sirmium und Bassianae, constituted an inner line of defence. Whether they functioned in a civil or purely military context is a subject that has been, and still is, much debated. However, they appear to have played a significant role in the storage, distribution, and perhaps production, of the annona. A similar situation can be observed on the Lower Danube, in the provinces of Dacia Ripensis, Moesia Prima and Scythia. Here too a series of castra and towns, which took on similar functions in the course of the 4th century AD, are found some 30 to 50 km from the frontier. This area however saw a further development well into the late 6th century AD: several sites continued to play a central role as the sees of bishoprics in the Early Byzantine Period. The examples of Abritus and Tropaeum Traiani, which both possess elements that are strikingly similar to the Pannonian establishments, are used here to gain insights into the processes at work and to discuss the structural parallels comparatively.