Majorossy Judit: A Ferenczy Múzeum régészeti gyűjteményei - A Ferenczy Múzeum kiadványai, D. sorozat: Múzeumi füzetek - Kiállításvezetők 5. (Szentendre, 2014)
Rajna András: Rézko
got then a different name? In the territory of the Carpathian Basin copper already appeared at the end of the Neolithic, though at that time only as an import good. The new objects and the new raw material reached our region from the South through the existing trading connections, as it had happened with the old products. These new objects were mainly jewels, made of the so-called native copper found in nature, shaped by cold hammering. Thus, supposing that copper appeared only at that time and that is why this period had got its name, is not exactly true. Historians already hundred years ago led serious debates about the denomination. Finally, the convincing argument for handling this era as a distinct period and placing it between the Neolithic and Bronze Age was not only the fact that copper had reached the region by this time, but also that its mass production had been started, using more and more developed technologies and greater quantities. Consequently, after the production of simple jewels that is how the much more elaborated beads, bracelets, and later in the Middle Copper Age weapons as well as copper hackers, axes, and chisels turned up in large quantities and sometimes of suprisingly heavy weight. It is also worth mentioning that due to the modern environmental research methods, today it is already known that in contrast to the climate of the early agriculturalist New Stone Age, the weather during the Copper Age became much rainier and cooler, at the same time the vegetation changed a lot, and animal species tolerating cold became dominant. As a result, the lifestyle of the people living then also altered. The former farming communities basically living in permanent villages slowly dissolved, the various, smaller or larger groups continuously migrated from the currently known large Neolithic settlements, and animal husbandry became more and more important. From that time onwards, instead of the extended settlements remains of smaller sites are known, especially the remnants of temporary dwelling places were uncovered, and according to the excavated bone material big ruminants became the most popular in stock-breeding. As a consequence of a more mobile lifestyle, the centre of a group was not the jointly used settlement any more, but the cemetery. Such territories were developed that became more and more populous and were exclusively used for burials for a long time. On the basis of the investigation of the funerary gifts placed in the grave pits, a clearer picture crystallised about the strong stratification of the society. In the graves of some high-ranking people, besides of the copper jewels and the weapons used as symbols of power, golden objects also turned up. Within the whole Copper Age period three main phases can be differenciated: the Early, the Middle, and the Late Copper Age. The exhibition follows this division, too. In the Early Copper Age the former Neolithic settlements were gradually dissolved, the land between the Danube and the Tisza rivers, as well as the territories East from the River Tisza were occupied by the people of the Tiszapolgár culture. In the Great Plain smaller and short life-span settlements developed instead of the extensive habitation sites, but at the same time larger and larger cemeteries turned up, in which the families were buried in a more or less regular order. Prior to the large-scale excavations done at the highway construction sites, scientists knew hardly anything about the life of their settlements. The recent excavations accomplished in Pest County have discovered more new sites, and consequently the houses of the Tiszapolgár culture were also found at the railway station in Abony. These houses were supported by posts and had a very small living space. Díszített tál, Baden-komplexum / Decorated bowl, Baden complex 17
