Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 32/2. (2012)
Book reviews
Bondár, Mária, Agyag kocsimodellek a Kárpát-medencéből (Kr. e. 3500-1500) [Prehistoric wagon models in the Carpathian Basin (3500-1500 BC)], Archaeolingua, Budapest, 2012,132 pages, 5 figures, 28 plates, 2 maps. Book review by Rita E. NÉMETH Mária Bondár is a researcher of the Archaeological Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Science. She has published many papers in the past regarding the problem of the prehistoric wagon models in the Carpathian Basin. The present volume sums up the earlier works of the author, published in a Hungarian and an English edition, under the aegis of the Arheolingua Foundation. The volume is structured in eight chapters. After the first, introductive chapter (p. 7-9), and the comprehensive research history regarding the appearance of the wagon (p. 11-19), Bondár presents her opinion regarding the discovery of the wheel and wheeled vehicles. She believes that the innovation of the wheel and the wheeled vehicles most likely originated from the Pontic region, and raises the possibility that they were invented simultaneously in several places (p. 19). The third chapter dedicated to the presentation of the Cooper Age wagon models (p. 21 -45) is structured in five subsections. The first one is a review of the earliest archaeological evidence regarding wheeled vehicles, detailing all of the wagon models and animal depictions associated with wheeled vehicles discovered in the Carpathian Basin (p. 21-45). The second subsection points to the different approaches in the archaeological literature regarding the archaeological finds which can be considered wheeled vehicles or miniature wheels (p. 26-29). The opinion of the author according to witch “the joint occurrence of several technical elements and a resemblance to genuine wagons offer secure criteria for claiming that a particular artifact can be interpreted as a wagon model”, is precautious, on the other hand a relevant ascertainment (p. 28). Interdisciplinary studies have proven that wheels are not in themselves proof that they where accessories of wheeled vehicles, they may have also been parts of other wheeled conveyances as well. In the third subsection the list of all the wagon models datable between 3600/3500-3000/2800 BC is given, which were found in different Late Cooper Age sites from the Carpathian Basin (p. 29-43). The detailed analysis of the currently known wagon models from the early (Boleráz) and classical period of the Baden culture is outlined in the forth subsection (p. 43-48). In the last section the MARISIA XXXII, p. 221-223 HONDÁK MÁRIA AGYAG KOCSIMODELLEI A KÁRPÁT-MEDENCÉBÖI (Kr. c. 3500-1500)
