 The stag and the eagle , which are popular motifs of 10th @-@ century Magyar art , have close analogies in Scythian art . The Scythians , Sarmatians , and other peoples who spoke Iranian languages dominated the Eurasian steppes between around 800 BC and 350 AD . During this period , all ethnic groups in the steppes were nomads with almost identical material cultures , for which the certain identification of the Magyars is impossible . Consequently , the location of their original homeland is subject to scholarly debates . Róna @-@ Tas says the development of Hungarian started in the region of the rivers Kama and Volga , west of the Urals . Archaeologist István Fodor writes that the original homeland lay to the east of the Urals . He says that some features of the tumuli erected at Chelyabinsk in the 4th century BC , including the northward orientation of the heads of the deceased and the geometric motifs on the clay vessels put in the graves , are similar to older burials that he attributes to Ugric peoples . 
