A Dunántúl Története A Későbronzkorban (BTM műhely 1. kötet ...

THE HISTORY OF TRANSDANUBIA DURING THE LATE BRONZE AGE
CHRONOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SURVEY
The ethnic and cultural background of the early Urnfield Culture was the developed Tumulus culture in Western
Hungary. This area was populated by the groups of the developed or rather the late Tumulus culture during the first
phase of the Urnfield Culture. The culture is well defined in the areas of Vas and Veszprém counties, however,
similar groups can be defined in southern Transdanubia, Baranya, northeastern Transdanubia and in the areas of
Komárom and Pest counties. Their settlements can be found in inundation area isles, on the hillocks of riverside
mounds; their basic economy and lifestyle being at the beginning shepherding. This is especially true for the group in
the Bakony area which seems to have established its settlements here. Skeletal burial dominates the funeral rites
only to be taken over by cremation later. Mound type burials are very frequent in the Bakony area, although the
same can be said for the Kemenes area in the neighbouring Vas county, with some examples in the counties of Zala
and Tolna as well. It was the lack of agricultural cultivation in the mountain areas which preserved hundreds of
contemporary barrows for us having little or no possibility for it elsewhere.
Warriors and their families evidenced by several female graves were buried under barrows in this period. The usual
armory of the warriors included the type Il/a flange hilted sword, winged axes as battle axes, spearheads with curved
edge, occasionally a dagger, furthermore naturally the vessels containing the remains of the funeral feast were also
part of the grave furnishings. Jewelry is frequent in the female graves. Solid, open ended bracelets with scratched line
decoration, ball-headed ornamented pins, different pendents, and pottery are the usual furnishings of such graves.
The graves were usually covered with stones, occasionally "sarcophagi" were constructed of stone sheets to be covered
by the not too high earthen mound. Under the mounds there are irregularly placed multiple burials as well
which might prove the idea of these being family burials.
The group defined in the area of Keszthely slightly differs from the culture of the shepherds with their mound
burials. Several find types of its most important site, the cemetery of Csabrendek, seems to prove that the culture is
more established in Transdanubia than the Bakony group. The difference between them may come from their different
economic system and lifestyles as well. Presumably their cultures were not built on quite identical ethnicities.
The four early UK find groups defined in Transdanubia (two inner Transdanubians, a northeastern and a south
Transdanubian) are supplemented by a few units from the area between the Danube and the Tisza. The main find in
this loose group comes undoubtedly from the Soltvadkert settlement. The early phase of the Csórva group supposedly
overlaps the same période.
Relatively little is known about the northeastern Transdanubian group since their finds are known mostly from
surface collecting, and only a little more of the southern Transdanubian group. The most important site of the latter
one can be defined to the Siklós Brickyard settlement of two levels with significant autochton Bronze Age traditions
beside the Tumulus Culture. 492
The same traditions can be detected in the find group of the Csórva group in spite of
the fact that a Tumulus Culture find horizon of a full phase preceded its formation. All this reminds us of the fact
that beside the territory east of the Tisza must also be considered as the survival of autochton Bronze Age elements
further west during the Late Bronze Age. 493
The time limits of the phase can be relatively easily determined with the help of the several bronze and pottery
types. The upper limit is more questionable since there are such finds in the period which are still characteristic of
the BC period as well. The majority of our finds however were used already in the next BD period. Parallele can be
drawn with the material of our first phase, corrolated with the neighbouring areas, the circle of western Slovakian
"Vor-Caka", the southern Moravian Bluöina, and the northern Austrian Herzogenburg, the younger horizons of the
northeastern Hungarian Piliny, and the Egyek Culture of the Great Plains, the latest phase of the Felsőszőcs Culture,
the beginnings of the Csórva group and the north Croatian Virovitica type cemeteries. 494
Our flowering second phase is contemporary with the older period of the Middle Danubian Urnfield Culture.
In fact the find groups of the first phase developed continually into the new period without any serious breaks.
Its most important finds can be found in the Bakony area and in the joining Győr-Sopron county stretch, notwithstanding
the importance of the find group of southern Transdanubia and in the northeastern part of this region.
The transition seems continuous in the Keszthely area group as well. This is the flourishing of the related Csórva
type finds of the southern Plains, contemporary with the early find groups of the Transdanubian UK.