Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 4.-5. 1963-1964 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1965)
Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Bóna István: The Peoples of Southern Origin of the Early Bronze Age in Hungary I–II. IV–V, 1963–64. p. 17–63. t. I–XVII.
the Early Bronze Age; this aristocracy were a ruling stratum forcing its will on the local population in every invaded territory and reorganizing the local cultural and social foundations. It is to their material culture of oriental character that he attaches the „Caucasian" copper axes, coiled lock-ring and cordornamented sherds and vessels produced by various techniques, including also Early Heiladic sherds, appearing in South —Eastern Europe. Thus both authors fall into the Fuchs — Kilián line with the important difference that they support their theories also by the extension of an important and characteristic burial form on one hand, and they derive the South —East European corded ware from Eastern instead of Central Europe. We are faced by a real problem here. Doubtless there are numerous eastern cordornamented sherds in the Schneckenberg settlements of Transylvania, and also tumulus cemeteries containing eastern corded ware in Eastern Slovakia, further cord-ornamented vessels and "herds occur in Northern —North —Eastern Hungary too as stray finds (and their occurrence coincides with the extension of the ochre-grave tumuli in part), nay the Szerbkeresztur burial mound hid a cord-ornamented vessel in the Tisza—Maros corner, finally a corded bowl has been found at Zemun, a similar sherd even at the Dalmation Rumié—Bitelic. lin Here we are brought to a halt for the following reasons: 1. In Thessalia the corded ware uncovered on the Argissa Magula in an Early Thessalian I layer confirms the earlier view of V. Milojcic that the cord-ornamented sherds of the Early Helladic settlements belong to phases I —II, 178 being thus earlier than the appearance of any corded pottery in South —Eastern and Central Europe. (Nor can a few cord-ornamented sherds occurring in the South —East —Thracian Mihelic settlement be assessed to a later date, 179 since this settlement precedes the evolution of the Pécel— Baden complex in Danubian relation.) 2. In a flat contradiction to the views of some Hungarian students, open to misunderstanding, 180 we may state that not a single cord-ornamented sherd was discovered in the Danube — 177 Cf. to the latter A. BENAC: BRGK 42 (1962) 154-158, PI. 32 no. 7. 178 W. MILOJCIC: Hauptergebnisse 26-27, Fig. 21 nos 1-2. 179 V. MTKOV: RP 1 (1948) 15-, Figs 7-8. 180 E. g. the study of A. MOZSOLICS: Zur Frage der Schnurkêramik in Ungarn, WPZ 29 (1942) 30-50, is unable to pressent even a single cord-ornamented sherd from Hungary, in spite of the title! 181 Cf. recently F. KŐSZEGI: Arch Ert. 89 (1962) 13-22. 182 SCIV 3 (1952) 163—; SCIV 4 (1953 408—, etc. 183 R. POPOV: IAI 6 (1930-31) 89-116. 184 A comprehensive work on the Early Bronze Age in the Caucasus: V. I. MARKOVIN: Kul'tura piemen severnogo Drave square or in the region between the Danube and the Tisza so far, they are missing doubtless to the south of the Danube in the Balcans and in the Serbian burial mounds equally. 3. It must be stated clearly that the various tumulus burials cannot be equalized on the basis of the mound only. In the South-European region two different tumulus burials are appearing at the beginning of the Early Bronze Age. One is represented by the burial mounds of the Bashalma —Kárhozotthalom type in the Tisza region, 181 those of the Corlateni —Plenita type on the Rumanian Plain, 182 those of the Endze type on the plains of North-Eastern Bulgaria. 183 These three types are entirely identical both with each other and the pit-grave tumuli extended along the northern shore of the Black Sea as regards the unique and special burial rite and also the grave-furniture of a steppe character. So their eastern origin suffers no doubt whatever. On the contrary, the mounds of Vládháza —Bedeló type in Transylvania, those of Verbify type in Oltenia, of Belotic —Bela Crkva type in Serbia and of Negrisori —Nezsider type in Serbia or in the Danubian region, respectively, are related to each other only, not to the former ones either as to rite of to archeological material, except for the mere fact of tumulus burial. However, this statement is no solution for the problem of their origin yet. The objects discovered recently in the South —East European graves of the preceding pit-grave tumuli, betraying a Caucasian character (so-called maces, copper axes, lockrings made of copper, silver or electron), present the possibility of the Caucasian origin of tumulus burial in Europe. As a .matter of fact, in the northern foreground of the Caucasus 184 both tumulus and plain cemeteries with a stone covering or stone ring, containing humation graves with skeletons lying on their backs or in a contracted position in stone cists,' become general at the turn of the third and the second millennia. Even the orientation W —E is found in several cases. Nor can it be doubted that finds corresponding to a part of the archaeological Kavkaza v epohu bronzy, MIA 93 (Moscow 1960), especially chapter HI and Figs or tables, respectively, 7-8, 19, 25-27 and 50. For details we have used the following papers: E. I. KRUPNOV: MIA 23 (1951) 18-74, Figs or tables 7, 21 and 27; A. A. LESSEN: MIA 23 (1951) 75.124. Figs 28-29; K. E. GRINEVITCH: MIA 23 (1951) 125-139, Figs 4-5, 7-9, 11; E. I KRUVNOV: Drevnaya istoriya i kultúra Kabardy (Moscow 1957) chapter III and Figs 10, 13; R. M. MUNTCHAEV: MIA 100 (Moscow 1961) Figs 19, 45 and PI. 21-23; A. P. KRUGLOV: MIA 68 (Moscow 1958) chapter III and Figs 20, 24, 27, 29-31, 35-46, 50-66, 70. For the maces see A. A. IESSEN: KS 46 (1952) pp. 48-59. 58
