rich treasures: gold-plated and decorated fibulas, iron weapons, bone combs, belt buckles, and pots. After the Sarmatians, Germanic-speaking peoples took possession of the area. In Ó-Szanda, a district of Szolnok suburb Szandaszőlős, archeologists discovered a rich trove of artifacts left by the Gepids, who lived in the area in the 4th and 5th centuries. The Gepids were familiar with glass-making and wore heavy beads made from colored glass. After the Gepids, the area was populated by Avars. Like the Hungarian tribes who came later, the Avars were buried with their horses; a number of these graves have been unearthed. The remains discovered from the time of their rule indicates that the Avars first appeared in the middle of the 6th century. The burial grounds found at Rákóczifalva, some from Szandaszőlős, show that a large permanent settlement once existed there. Middle Ages Szolnok was first mentioned, under the name Zounok, in a letter from Géza I concerning the foundation of the monastery at Garamszentbenedek in 1075. It was named for the first steward of the city, Szaunik or Zounok. In the following centuries it was recorded as Zounok, Saunic, Zounuc, and Zawnuch. The variety of spellings likely comes from phonetic discrepancies occurring when Hungarian sounds - originally written in runic Old Hungarian script - were recorded using the Latin alphabet. Under the rule of the Árpád Dynasty, Szolnok was a market town and the center of Szolnok County. When King István ordered a church built in every tenth village, one was built in Szolnok. The 11th century saw great improvements in the city due to the Tisza river ferry, customs house, and county business. There was great trade and commerce via both the Tisza and the overland roads that ran through Szolnok. Despite this, Szolnok remained a market town through the Middle Ages, without expanding to a city. The Szolnok Castle was, in these times, only an earthworks fort, although later a wooden wall was added. During the Mongol invasion of Hungary in 1241 the town was destroyed; it was re-populated under King Béla IV but even by the end of the 14th century it was still considered a village. King Zsigmond of Luxemburg, in an effort to develop the town, freed Szolnok from certain taxes in 1422, and from customs in 1429. After this, the town slowly began to grow and prosper again. In Ottoman Hungary Due to Szolnok's geographical