The basic results of interdisciplinary analysis of primeval faience beads (terminus technicus in archaeology) have been presented. They were found in the grave N. 1 at the site Spišské Tomášovce, position 3, Fortification I. The findings of five beads with partially saved layers of glass glaze with turquoise colouring on the surface have been examined. The beads were found in the skeleton grave No 1 of the Košťany Culture from Early Bronze Age. The optical investigation has been made by microscope Jena Vert Carl Zeiss Jena with CCD -Iris Sony camera. The chemical content of the beads has been specified with the help of electronic microscopy (SE M). The petrographic characteristics of the findings have been specified with microscope Olympus EX50. The conclusion was that the beads were produced probably with the method of cementation and were coloured with the use of oxide of copper.
Thirty years after publishing Petru Roman's article in Acta Archaeologica Carpathica about the beginnings of the 'early Bronze age' in the area of contemporary Romania, a survey of new facts was carried out. The significance of Danubian regions, such as Muntenia, Oltenia, Banat, and Dobrogea, where many new complexes have been discovered, has been emphasised. New materials are also known from Moldova. The recapitulation presents conclusions on the formation of the early Bronze Age civilisation in the area of the lower Danube and the role of local factors in this process.
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A faience as an artificial material is connected with the development of pyro technologies and metallurgy. In south-western Slovakia it occurs in graves of the Nitra culture. In the terminating classical phase of the Únětice culture the faience was replaced by amber here. In eastern Slovakia faience appeared as soon as in the Košťany culture. The amber occurred later in this region and in the contexts of Otomani culture beads made of the both materials exist also simultaneously. Analyses proved the amber finds in the Carpathian basin being of Baltic origin. Its spreading to the Carpathian basin was connected with another aspect of metallurgy – uneven occurrence of raw materials and barter.
The article concerns the problem of the appearance of the oldest aerophonic instruments in Central Europe in form of the bone pipes. The people of the Mierzanowice culture knew them in the Early Bronze Age. This fact is confirmed by the remains in the graves from Malopolska and Sandomierz Uplands. Pan flutes were known however already in Eneolithic Age in the Corded Ware culture.
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The article treats finds from the Early Bronze Age and the beginning of the middle Bronze which were obtained in the rescue archaeological excavation at the foot of the Nitra castle hill, in the area of Nitra Gallery (Ponitrianska galéria). In prehistoric times, the settlement was most intensive in the Early Bronze Age, when a fortified settlement of the Maďarovce culture was raised on the whole area of 8 ha. The analysed material comes from rescue excavations in years 1996 and 1997. The dating of finds and situations is done on the basis of pottery fragments, which come from the standard pottery of the Maďarovce culture. A large part of the pottery can only generally be dated to the Early Bronze Age or to the period of the Maďarovce culture. The identifiable part of the pottery dates the settlement on the castle hill as early as the Únětice-Maďarovce horizon. To the most remarkable finds of this excavation of the settlement of Maďarovce culture belongs to the double grave situated on the bottom of the settlement pit. A comprehensive view of horse finds in the milieu of the Maďarovce culture or the Maďarovce-Věteřov-Böheimkirchen cultural circle does not exist yet. In our case the object could be interpreted as a human sacrifice. The ditch, which was partly unearthed in the rescue excavation on the area of the gallery, is probably related to the fortified entrance to the settlement area on the castle hill. The division of the castle area is clearest in case of the settlement and grave finds from the Early Bronze Age and the beginning of the middle Bronze Age. They were found during the rescue excavations under the castle hill. The several of the newly published objects from this area are related to handicrafts. A part of the characteristic finds indicates activities in the post-classical phase of the Maďarovce and subsequent Tumulus culture. We assume that this area was divided from the area of the castle hill by the natural water course of Nitrička, and not by an artificial water ditch. At first, a more detailed publication of material will be able to throw light on the development and on both the inner and functional structure of this more than 40 settlement area.
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The contribution evaluates ceramic vessels from two new sites of Hatvan culture in south-western Slovakia. In field walk undertaken on the hill-fort of Hatvan culture in Kamenica nad Hronom a pottery set was collected consisting of an amphora and a vase of Hatvan culture and a jar of Kisapostág culture. These finds could theoretically come from a grave collection, but they may also represent a pottery deposit. On the site in Veľké Turovce, in part Dolné Turovce, a cremation grave containing an amphora and a dish was accidentally discovered. Based on analogies and stratigraphy on the fortified settlement in Malé Kosihy, the pottery from both sites was dated to the later phase of Hatvan culture in Slovakia.
Relevant palaeodemographic data (synoptic data on age, or sex and life expectancy) from the multicultural archaeological site in Jelsovce (south-western Slovakia), where 616 graves of the Early Bronze Age were excavated. The graves included the skeletal remains of 660 individuals in total. Among them, 213 individuals were of the Nitra culture, 126 individuals of the Unetice culture and 321 individuals of the Madarovce culture. The burial site was actively continuously used in the Early Bronze Age and is dated approximately to the period between 2200 up to 1500 BC. The presented results of the palaeodemographic analysis are summed up in three tables and six diagrams. Despite the remarkable differences in numbers of the buried individuals, the population average age (31-32 years) seems to be stable during the almost seven centuries of burying at the site. In all three groups the average age of men was higher than that of women. If assuming the stationary population, numbers of burying groups could represent almost 24-25 inhabitants of the Nitra culture, 22 inhabitants of the Unetice culture and 55 inhabitants of the Madarovce culture.
Geographic area of the northern inner west-Carpathian foothills, that is almost identical with the territory of present-day Slovakia, was a part of the south-western border line of cultures of the corded complex at the turn of the older and younger periods of prehistory. In spite of the fact that in this area no distinct settlement structure belonging to any of the cultures of this group has been found up to now, the corded ornament has its phenomenal position here. The study, which is including also a palaeotechnological reconstruction, is investigating the corded ornament and its semantic, cognitive and philosophical aspects by the method of structured research. In addition to information about the creator himself, the ornament can bear also information about his community and contact communities as well. In the local west-Carpathian society, where the ornament was an element of different culture, the symbolic sign (wounded cords) could repeatedly demonstrate the creator's exclusivity within the sociogroup, i. e. affiliation (a foreign but established member) with another - originally 'corded' community. In different category - as an index sign - the ornament could represent also a relation to a specific family line or also information of different kind (measure, exchange, commodity parameters of the object - representative, or associations). The structured approach leads to presentation of two basic ornament forms - the aesthetic (artistic-utility-decorative) form and the informative (communication- purpose) form. Subjective platform of the ornament, however, in the both cases was created by a system of deep abstract thought - the corded civilization episteme. The notion is expressing a distinctive cultural code, general perception of world, a conception, arrangement, order and also spontaneous structure of thinking of prehistoric society. It represented a sum of values and principles of remarkably strong inner energy, which probably unconsciously kept a trend of group thinking. We interpret it as the corded civilization episteme, which in the given area and time represented itself by a special, inside converging and outside delimiting way of leading. In autochthonous communities of the west-Carpathian territory the corded civilization episteme survived for almost thousand years. In spite of the fact that it did not occur as a whole-society domain, but rather as a distant civilization episteme, the most probably it kept leading for the whole period of its existence. This concealed, unconscious and peculiar structure of thought, which was remarkable by its exclusivity, specific perception of world and in the long term symbolized by the corded ornament, survived in a turbulent heterocultural environment of the borderline of north-eastern and southern cultural complexes during the whole period of upper metallicum from the Late Aeneolithic up to the entering Tumulus cultures.
On October 2002 a small burial ground of the Nitra culture was explored east of Slatinice (distr. of Olomouc). A dense concentration of the graves on a rather small place in the context with excavated area leads us to the result that we explored the entire burial site. The shortest distance to the river Morava's right bank is 11 km. The graves were situated along the oval perimeter with an empty centre, the longer axis of which was SW-NE oriented and 22.5 m long; the shorter axis was NW-SE oriented and 15 m long. Fourteen graves were of oblong ground plan, in six graves the pit shape can be classified as a deformed rectangle, other two were trapeze. All of them have more or less rounded corners. The sidewalls of four graves were stepped. As far as their size is concerned, the grave pits rather varied. Apart from the children graves, the size of which corresponded with the deceased's age, the limits ranged between 215 x 135 cm and 130 x 85 cm. In the both men were buried. Comparing the size of these grave pits with those in which the women were buried, we found no substantial difference between male and female burials. The burial ground is characterised by a strict bipolarity in burying the deads. The men were lying on their right side, with the head to the SW, and the women on their left side, with the head to the NE. Equipment of the graves under study was relatively poor, consisting of pottery, copper jewellery, cylindrical bone or antler beads, flat nacre beads (total number of approx. 1000 pieces), the beads made of green-blue glass material - faience, bone awls and silicite blades and arrow points. Remains of meaty food, found at bottoms of vessels or in their vicinity can be classified as a charity. Only in one case the animal ribs were lying free behind the dead's back. Pottery was found in 9 graves (41%) and only 4 burials were without any equipment. The spectral analysis of the metal ornaments showed they were made of copper of the Slovak provenience; the analysis of the faience proved their Egyptian origin. Apart from the graves also industrial objects were explored on the area, 5 of them were of La Téne origin, 11 from the Roman period and 6 objects cannot be dated, lacking any finds.
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Origin of the Košťany culture partly explained material (research in the years 1965 – 1966) from the cemetery on the position Nižné Kapustníky in Košice. The cemetery is situated in the inundation area river Hornád, south of the heating plant. Overall was uncovered 2400 m2. Graves of the Košťany culture are spread almost in regular rows and the average distance between them is about 150 cm. The graves don´t forming isolated groups by age, gender or social affiliation. In all the tombs were found buried skeletal individuals in a crouched position. The most widely combination in two skeletal graves is mother with a child. Several graves were damaged contemporaries (stealing), younger interventions of the Otomany culture (superposition) and modern sand and gravel mining. Type chronological analysis, horizontal stratigraphy and partly seriation was foundation for internal chronology of the cemetery. There are three developmental stages: initial, transient and classic Košťany culture.
The study is dedicated to the problem of expansion of the Únětice Culture on the territory of Slovakia in the Early Bronze Age. It critically follows the experience elaborated about centenary research on the Slovak Únětice Culture. It follows the chronological and territorial framework of expansion, but even the causes and options of its realization. Archaeological finds on the expansion of this entity from the original territory to Slovakia are divided into three groups. The first group is associated with infiltration of the Únětice Culture into the settlement area of the Epi-Corded Ware Cultural Complex, reflected in the so-called small mobility. Further, it observes the intensification occurrence of the artefacts and cultural expressions of the Únětice Culture during the late classical phase of the Nitra Culture and the culmination of this process during the so-called Nitra-Únětice phase. In this phase, more extensive migrations were performed, showing attributes of the so-called great mobility – expansion of the Únětice Culture to the east of the river Morava. The second group already documents settlement of the Únětice Culture in western Slovakia. The progress is observed in the prehistoric crafts as well as changes in the burial rite, settlement dynamics and others. After establishment of the classical phase of the Únětice Culture and substantial innovation of economic sphere, ‘Carpathian colouration’ occurred in its inventory. It is considered as accelerated development and the beginning of the so-called Únětice-Maďarovce phase. The Únětice Culture in the observed area demonstrably accelerated social development and contributed to the birth of proto-urban civilization of the advanced period of the Early Bronze Age. The third group documents finds of the Únětice Culture outside of its settlement area. They point to the spread and impact of the Únětice goods, but also to the decay of its characteristic production at the end of the Early, eventually at the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age. Cardinal discovery is its ‘exchange-trade-prospector’ background and association to the main communications and exchange-trade routes in the Early Metal Age. Migrations connected with the Únětice Culture may have been realized through overland, as well as river connections. Routes leading through the Bratislava Gate or through the Bratislava West Carpathian passes are hypothetically considered.
In 2009 on the position Piesky in Zohor, dist. Malacky, the cemetery of the Nitra culture was unearthed. It is situated on the sand dune that has been permanently inhabited since the Neolithic. A total of 22 skeletal graves were excavated. Graves in the central part of the cemetery were arranged in a line, in the direction of NE-SW. North and south parts consisted of only few graves. Burial pits had a more or less regular rectangular ground plan with rounded corners, but also oval and elongated shape and trapezoidal ground plan. The largest graves belonged to adults. In two female graves traces of coffins were detected. Graves of boys were oriented in the direction of W-E, one of them in the direction of NE-SW. Women and girls were buried in a crouched position on the left side, while men and boys on the right side. Within the burial rite several particularities have occurred. It is primarily the absence of parts of bodies or whole skeleton. In one grave lacking a skeleton, beads were found on the bottom of the burial pit. It is remarkable that the absence of parts of bodies or grave disruption is observed only in children´s graves. From the nine identified children´s graves in Zohor, in eight of them skeletons were evidently disrupted, eventually some bones absented. Only in one grave the disrupted body belonged to an adult woman. In connection with disruptions of children´s graves ritual reasons are considered primarily, although it is not excluded that some displacements in a burial pit could have occurred due to activities of animals. Grave inventory represented bone and antler beads, which were placed only in graves of women and girls. Round head ornaments in the shape of a willow leaf were also found only in female graves. At the cemetery a bone awl, chipped stone industry, a semi-finished artefact probably of stone crusher and few pottery shards were also included. To determinate the chronological position of the graves particularly head ornaments in the shape of a willow leaf with a slight central rib contributed. These appear in the burial grounds of the Nitra culture in the earlier stage.
19 individuals (10 non-adults and 8 adults – including four women, three men, one adult and one unspecified individual) were identified during the analysis of 23 graves. Most of them, nine skeletal remains belonged to children aged 0.6 – 15 years and eight to older adults aged 30 – 59 years. Women died younger than men and all adults are older than 30 years. Their skulls appear to be long to very long, and narrow to very narrow, while they are similar to the Early Bronze Age skulls from other sites. Five women and a man have moderately robust arm bones, robust radii and moderately robust femora. According to the height calculated for six adults, they were all, except two women, tall. Cribra orbitalia occurred in three non-adult individuals. One child had injured skull, another one had deformed the left elbow joint and shortened the right femur. An increased number of dental caries (at least four) occurred in seven adult individuals. Even on the skulls of two adults, there were visible injuries. Other abnormalities or pathological changes occur only sporadically.
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The article deals with a reconstruction of face from skulls of two adults – a middle-aged man from grave 80 and a young woman from grave 234 at the cemetery in Pata. The reconstruction drew on data acquired from osteological study. Drawings were made at two levels: norma frontalis (en face) and norma lateralis sinistra – for the man, norma frontalis (en face) and norma lateralis dextra – for the woman. The comparison of the recorded values of morphological and metric features of both individuals with average values recorded for the whole set indicates that typologically the man and the woman are typical representatives of the population which buried at the cemetery in Pata in the Early Bronze Age. The results of the anthropological study showed that morphologically it was a relatively homogeneous group of people. The recorded anthropological indexes, which generally characterise the proportionality of the body, sex and the affiliation of the individual to a certain morphological type, indicate that both man and woman from the cemetery belonged to the so-called robust leptodolichomorfs or “nordics” with long and narrow skulls. The drawn facial reconstructions and results of anthropological study in Pata add to our picture of the carriers of the Únětice culture, which is also spread on the territory of south-western Slovakia. The drawing reconstructions are to a certain extent influenced by the artistic creativity of their author, yet they were made on the basis of scientific data and render essential morphological features of the peoples of the Únětice culture.
The article presents the problem of occurrence of pottery of foreign provenience at the turn of the Early and Middle Bronze Ages in Slovakia from the point of view of a complex process that led to formation of a new quality - the so-called Tumulus cultures and oldest Urnfield cultures (the Suciu de Sus and Piliny cultures). This transformation process was reflected in lively trade and cultural contacts of the north Carpathian region with cultures of almost the whole Carpathian basin and probably also in movements or shifts of smaller ethnic groups from the south northward and from the east westward, what is evidenced by presence of foreign cultural elements or imports in collections of finds belonging to particular cultures. They are mostly finds of pottery from the north Balkan region of the Vatin-Vrsac-Girla Mare-Cirna cultural circle and from the area of Otomani culture spread at the north-eastern part of the Carpathian basin. Older finds of this kind were recently enriched with pottery of foreign provenience from further sites. Pottery from the both newly excavated sites reflects distinguishable heritage of the Otomani and Vatya cultures. Origin of decoration motifs of the so-called 'Litzen' decoration have to be sought in the north Balkan milieu of the Belegis I or Cruceni- Belegis cultures. As far as their chronology and cultural environment are concerned, these finds are connected with those from the necropolis in Dolny Peter from the sites in Muzla-Cenkov and Sutto and from the necropolis in Menfocsanak and they approximately coincide with younger phase of the Kosziderian horizon bronze hoards. The work also presents a problem in terminology, which is connected with appellation of the time horizon with occurrence of these finds in the south-western Slovak region by various researchers, such as the Old Tumulus stage of the Carpathian Tumulus culture; the Dolny Peter phase of the Madarovce culture; late or post-classic stage of the Madarovce culture. At the same time the time interval is proposed to be named the Madarovce culture - Tumulus culture horizon also in connection with its provable continuity of the local development in following stages of the Middle Bronze Age. Hence, this would be a time period that can be synchronized with the horizon of finds of the Rakospalota group of the Vatya culture, the Streda nad Bodrogom group of the Fuzesabony culture or with the transitional Otomani culture - Piliny culture horizon.
The cemetery of Geitzendorf with 15 documented graves provides an important contribution to the knowledge of Únětice Culture in Lower Austria. Among the grave group, the female grave V3 certainly represents the most important one. In a depth of 70 cm below the actual surface the grave shaft was clearly visible. In a depth of 120 cm a brown layer with an extension of 160 x 58 cm can be interpreted as wooden coffin. The skeleton was severely disturbed in the pelvis and the thorax regions. Like all the graves from Geitzendorf, this burial was robbed in ancient times. Besides the preserved jewellery like rings or spiral tubes, two amber beads were found as well. Among the ceramic finds the imitation of a leather poach is worth to be mentioned. Four cushion stones could have been used as tools for metal working. The stones were found dispersed in the back of the burial, outside the dark layer. Stone ST22 was covered by a small cup, immediately behind the skull. Anthropological examination of the skull – the pelvis is not preserved – point to the woman who died at the age of 45 – 60 years. The skeletal remains also showed some pathology. The arthrotic transformations were visible at the right temporomandibular joint as well as at the corresponding Fossa mandibularis of the skull. The right clavicle shows a severe, but healed fracture. The female goldsmith buried in Geitzendorf seems to be a unique phenomenon and raises new questions regarding the role of women in the Early Bronze Age society. It is not quite sure whether the stone tools in the burial represent the complete tool set of a goldsmith. The objects could also be regarded a pars pro toto. In the Early Bronze Age area of study, nonambiguous burials of the metal workers have been rarely found. Overall, the badly preserved finds from the cemetery, consisting mainly of ceramics, can be dated into the classic phase BA2 of the Únětice Culture.
The archaeological site Vráble-Fidvár belongs to one of the most well-known sites in Slovakia. Current field activities have been realized since 2007 within the framework of the joint Slovak-German project the aim of which has been to explore the origin, development and the fall of the fortified settlement from the viewpoint of a broad spectrum of research disciplines. A geo-magnetic survey detected several components from Prehistory and Proto-history. Field-walking survey and excavation were carried out in different areas within the large settlement complex from the Early Bronze Age. They showed that the houses in the central part of the settlement (acropolis) differed from others in their architecture and building materials. Eastward and southward from the fortification, there are dozens of storage pits which may the evidence of different reserve management. The burial ground was located approximately 300 m south of the fortified area. Up till now there have been excavated 37 graves dated to the Únětice Culture; an absolute majority of them were secondarily opened. An important aspect of the formation of the Early Bronze Age settlement was a suitable geographical location and proximity to sources of the non-ferrous metal ores.
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In 1988 B. Hahnel published a monograph dealing with a settlement at Buhuberg in Waidendorf. Buhuberg is a cone-shaped protuberance with a 160 x 90 m plateau and a descent on the north. On its western part there is a terrace protruding 3 m over adjacent fields. The plateau eastern side is declining from the 30 m height to the Morava River. The settlement cannot be considered the upland-type one because it was situated only on slightly undulating landscape. Its bloom is dated to the Věteřov culture period, but finds and radiocarbon dating put its 1st phase (phase 1) to the Únětice culture period. However, the finds dated to the Únětice culture were excavated also in higher layers and several pits belonging to this culture. Buhuberg is the only settlement site within the Moravia-Lower Austria group of the Únětice culture, on which horizontal stratigraphy of the Únětice and Věteřov cultures can be expected. B. Hahnel discovered 2 m high group of layers at the south-western part and a profile at the plateau western part revealed that the terrace were formed by gradual accumulation of the settlement layers on approximately 80 cm high knoll. At least this part of the settlement at Buhuberg can be assumed to be of the tell type.
Archaeological research of a burial ground at Mytna Nova Ves, the local quarter of Ludanice, in south-western Slovakia was realized within the years 1982, 1984-1989 and 2003. The excavated 600 graves have enriched remarkably the collection of finds dated to the Nitra and Unetice cultures in Slovakia mainly concerning the group of metal artefacts, in which copper or bronze daggers that are the topic of this article are dominating. On the excavated burial ground 14 daggers were found there in 13 graves. As the cultural chronology is concerned, 8 daggers belong to the Nitra culture and 6 to the Unetice culture, which were divided into three basic types (A-C) according to shapes of but and blade and their chronology (A - the oldest type, C - the youngest type). Special attention was paid to their position in graves. As the daggers occurred in male burials exclusively, age categories of the deceased men were observed. The difference in dagger positioning within the male graves of the Nitra culture and the Unetice culture was evident. Coming out from the assumption that daggers in the graves were placed in the way the deceased had wore them in life, daggers situated on a belt on the right side predominated in the Nitra culture and pointed up on the back in the Unetice culture. This different way of dagger wearing can indicate costume variances of the cultures under study and dissimilarities in infighting methods as well. Situating of graves with daggers within the burial ground area showed their noticeable concentration in its western or south-western section. More graves with daggers had free space around that make us think about possible existence of smaller mounds. Members of higher social post, hunters and fighters are presupposed to be buried in the burials with daggers.
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In the spring of 2014, a joint German-Slovak prospection of the Žitava Valley was conducted with the intent of extending archaeological knowledge from Vráble-Fidvár to other sites in the Žitava Valley, an area in the Carpathian foothills which included a chain of Early Bronze Age fortified settlements. A series of 14 different known or suspected Early Bronze Age sites were evaluated, on three of which we decided to carry out further surveys (Maňa-Veľká Maňa, Bešeňov-Žitavský hon, Hul-Kratiny), including field walking, auger and geomagnetics. Despite very comparable surveying conditions, these three sites yielded very different results attributable to the different states of preservation and functions of the sites. In Maňa-Veľká Maňa, a slope of up to 7 % was recognized which contributed to the strong erosion and bad preservation of subsoil features. According to the geomagnetic results, the site at Bešeňov was not fortified. It seems likely that it was settled only intermittently or for a short period of time during the Early Bronze Age. The prospection in Hul yielded the best results. A fortification consisting of a ditch was detected by magnetometry. According to the pXRF-analyses, there was no human impact on the filling of the ditch, which suggests that the site was inhabited only for a very short period of time. In addition to the Žitava Valley work, a field walking campaign was carried out in Vráble-Fidvár. The distribution and density of the collected finds correlates well with the prospection completed in 2007. In February 2015, additional augers were performed there to collect sediment from the topsoil at approximately 40 cm beneath the surface. According to pXRF analyses, the concentration of phosphorus correlates with the pottery density.
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