This is strictly from memory. I can't seem to locate a
notebook in which I had jotted down information on the
archaeology of Transylvania provided by a Soviet
author in the mid-1970's. This, however, I do recall:
he (Alekseev?) claimed that when the Avar-Lombard
alliance destroyed the Gepid state in 567, a great
many of the latter remained in place under Avar
overlordship. Transylvania (part of Jordanes' "Dacia
antiqua") was politically inherited by the Avars from
the Gepids, but there is evidence that Gepidic
communities continued to exist there until the later
7th c. At which point they seem to disappear, and are
replaced by Avar settlements. Could it therefore be
that it is not the Slavs who left Transylvania in the
second half of the 7th c., but the Gepids under Avar
pressure? If so where did they go? Perhaps they joined
those Gepids who had remained in the area of the
Danubian plains. Paulus Diaconus, writing ca. 790
pointed out that there were still Gepidic populations
in the Avar state at that time. Just as it was about
to be overwhelmed by Charlemagne. The Slavic presence
in Transylvania was still quite noticeable when the
Rus' Primary Chronicle was composed. ******
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