A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyve 44. (Nyíregyháza, 2002)

Régészet - Zsolt Székely: Ethnocultural interferences and interpenetrations in South-Eastern Transylvania in the Bronze Age

Zsolt Székely Central and North-Western Transylvania. The chronological system elaborated by N. Chidio§an refers to a peripheric zone with cultural interferences in the Otomani area. Unfortunately, in South-Eastern Transylvania, Wietenberg settlements with several levels of living have not been discovered yet and all attempts of chronological definition of all these settlements are based on the typology of potsherds, searching for similarities with the material from Dersjda. In South-Eastern Transylvania, a lot of cultures from the neighbouring regions, having a large area of expansion contributed to the development of the Middle Bronze Ages cultures (SZÉKELY 1988. 161). The Noua Culture constituted in a very large space in Eastern Europe, penetrated in Transylvania, covering not only the Olt, Raul Negru, Tärnave, Somes, valleys, but Mure§ valley too, when Wietenberg Culture reached its final development phase (SZÉKELY 2000C. 179). Relying on some common forms of pottery of both cultures, we can state that genetically it links with the previous development of the Bronze Age. We cannot exclude the possibility of a parallel existence in a shorter or longer time in the last phase of the Wietenberg Culture and the beginning phase of Noua Culture. Summarising the questions of ethnocultural interference and interpenetration in SouthEastern Transylvania, during the Bronze Age, we can state the following: The depression zone of South-Eastern Transylvania is linked to the neighboring regions from Wallachia and Moldavia owing to its special geographical position and land configuration. The Eastern Carpathians were never an obstacle for this ethnocultural interference; they represented a binding among the communities, which evaluated on both sides of these mountains. On this territory, with special forms of relief and very favorable for the development of human society, a very strong eneolithical local basis was formed which came in contact with these communities penetrating from east, south and sometime from west and contributed to the formation of other cultures, too. The cultural phenomena formed in this territory, in most of the cases represent a mixture of ethnocultural individualisation under the form of some local cultures which integrate in different cultural complexes keeping their characteristic features. These special characteristic features gave a special way to the development of local communities. References ALEXANDRESCU 1974. Alexandrina D. Alexandrescu: La nécropole du bronze ancien du Zimnicea (dép. De Teleorman). Dacia 18. 1974. 79-93. ANDRITOIU-RUSTOIU 1997. Ion Andritoiu - Aurel Rustoiu: Sighisoara-Wietenberg. Descoperirile preistorice §i a§ezarea dacicä. [Sighi§oara-Wietenberg. Les découvertes préhistoriques et f emplacement dacique.] Bibliotheca Thracologica XXIII. Bucuresti 1997. CAVRUC 1997. Valeriu Cavruc: The final stage of the Early Bronze Age in South-Eastern of Transylvania (in the light of new excavations at Zoltán). Thraco-Dacica XVIII: 1-2. 1997. 97-133. 42