Károlyi Mária: A korai rézkor emlékei Vas megyében (Szombathely, 1992)
were closely related to each other in this area in the Late Neolithic and Early Copper Age, and Slovenia, the northwestern part of Croatia, the wide strip of Western-Transdanubia, the basin of Vienna and Moravia belonged to this area. The basic element of this cultural area could be the natural route, which lead under the Alps' footing from the seashore northwards, and later in the Roman times the classical amber road was built onto it - first of all for military purposes (plate l.-fig.2.). We think, that this region is strengthened by the repeating acts of the everyday relations and small or large-scale exchanges of commodities. Today we have no knowledge of all the materials and goods exchanged yet, for the moment the home researches try to uncover the regions in which the lithic materials moved, the traces of which can be followed and examined in the easiest way, many new well utilizable results have been achieved. The examinations of the spread of copper articles and golden disks deriving from Copper Age and also the researches of the places of origin are promising further results 49 . The strange potteries and their sherds unearthed at the settlements and cemeteries can be also of a help in observing a community's many-sided connections. We have already mentioned the Dalmatian potteries unearthed at Se in County Vas, but we can also mention the Sopot culture's vessels found in Dalmatia 50 , the appearance of finds of the Stroked Pottery culture at the Sopot culture's settlement 51 , these signs are proofs of the long distance commerce between North and South. I wish to mention an example of the everyday exchanges in the modern times - yet having a prehistoric type - in the south-western corner of County Vas, where potter's settlements were working and supplying their articles to among others - the Mura and Drava regions at the beginning of this century. Covering sometimes more than 100 km, in the travels made by carts the potteries were exchanged for wheat, corn and wine 52 . The partakers of these travels told, how they had made longlasting friendships with the inhabitants of these remote areas sometimes. One of the main targets of the future archaeological researches of prehistory would be the uncovering of more or less significant routes of the prehistoric trade. With the help of these routes we could get acquainted with the network in which goods and knowledges were spreading, and we could determine those regions, the cultures of which were closely connected -partly due to the mutual trade - and can be proved even after thousands of years. 93
