Kőszegi Frigyes: A Dunántúl Története A Későbronzkorban (BTM műhely 1. kötet Budapest, 1988)

Időrendi és történeti áttekintés (The history of Transdanubia during the late bronze age.) Bilingual-bilingvis.

the same age in the Carpathian Basin and similarly the Techirghiol type treasure finds of Dobruja.

512 Due to the lack of more precise chronological factors the main direction of these connections unfortunately cannot be determined, thus the question of the role of the southern Danube area in the creation of the fluted pottery must be left open.

512

* The Italian connections of the Transdanubian Late Bronze Age are no less important than the links towards the eastern Mediterraenean. Although the possibility of their ethnic character had come up earlier, no proof is available.

513 The data which prove the influence of the Italian late Peschiera-early Protovillanova on the Kurd type metallurgy of the Carpathian Basin are much more reliable. These latter connections are especially important for us to establish the chronology.

514 The southern German Riegsee type bronzes are almost completely lacking from the depots of the Kurd horizon

, pointing to the fact that the west, north-west orientation of the Transdanubian early UK was not as strong as we tought earlier. It could not have had intensitive connection with the circle of the earlier flourishing eastern Hungarian Aranyos type bronze hoards, only somewhat later, in the period slightly prior to the time of the Kurd type depots do such bronzes appear in the Transdanubian environment like the triple ribbed flange hilted sword which was begun to be made here after the initiative of the bronze industry of the Hungarian highlands. The slanted fluted pottery developing during the second phase became characteristic to the warrior society burying under tumuli. The recently excavated tumulus burials in Burgenland, in the Lake Fertő (Neusiedlersee) marks the route along which this characteristic pottery became indigenous to the early UK of northern Austria in the Baierdorf find group. The similar vessels of the Lednice group were communicated by the southwestern Slovakian Caka circle to southern Moravia. The pottery type is strange to both areas and is distinctively separated from the plain, mainly undecorated vessels of the Velatice period. It seems that the getting undergorund of the Kurd type hoards happened due to historical events and this process was not an isolated event in Transdanubia. The eastern Hungarian Tálya type hoards, the storage finds collected in the area between the Drave and Save, and in the nearly Szerémség, the western Slovakian Martincek circle treasures represent the same horizon and simultaneously point to the fact that a historical disaster, valid for the whole of the Carpathian Basin, might stand behind the hiding of all these storage finds.

515 The character and the time of the disaster cannot be determined satisfactorily yet, we might only suspect that the development of the younger Urnfield Culture might have been related to its events. Relative to Transdanubia presently the development and migration of the Vál Culture is considered as such a cause which acceptably explains the decline of the earlier Urnfield Culture. Although the sites of the Vál Culture concentrate in the eastern part of the region, their radiating circle might have been much larger. The expansion of the people of the culture can primarily be traced toward south, and the development of the Dálya-Kiskőszeg group may also be related to its name. This expansion put an end to the life of the Belegis type sites in the Szerémség and the Vál type pottery appearing at the settlements most likely is related to the development of the Dálya-Kiskőszeg group. These events, however, go bevond the frame of the early UK and for a larger expansion of the culture happens only later, in the younger phase of UK. The history of the final phase of the earlier UK is not clear yet in the area between the Danube and the Tisza, in the region of the Csórva group. We presume that occasionally the finds of the Gáva Culture replace the Csórva material, but the circumstances are not cleared yet. The early Urnfield period was the first real great period of prehistory of Central Europe. It was the time when the people of this region participated in "making world history". The beginning of this period coincides with the decline of the Mediterraenean civilizations and with the sceptically accepted first wave of the Aegean migration.

516 To state that elements of Transdanubian origin might have taken part in this migration would be rather difficult. A whole series of arguments for and against could be listed here. Among the "arguments for" the Danubian origin material to be detected among the finds of the northern Greece settlements are quoted most frequently the best parallels, of which according to some scholars, can be found among the finds of the Caka Culture.

517 This theory suggests that Danube region elements had reached the periphery of the Mycaenean empire. This presumption though stands on rather unstable ground, on the one hand the quality of the pottery of the mentioned settlements of Vardaroftsa, Vardino, Saratse leave a lot to be desired, compared to the finely worked thin walled polished wares of the early UK in the Danube region, on the other hand the majority of bronzes considered of middle European origin in the Mediterraenean, chronologically cannot prove anything.

518 Although no doubt surrounds the existence of the agressors invading thro ugh t the Vardar valley

, their ethnic origin is far from being determinded

. It is reasonable to look for their origin in Epirus or elsewhere in the Balkan peninsula.

519 Nevertheless the possibility of the maintained indirect connections should not be discarded, since it can be proven that the radiating influence of the early Urnfield Culture of Transdanubia can be noticed at several places in the Balkan, especially in the northern part of Bosnia.

520 The appearance of the so called hand made knobbed ware in Troy most likely does not effect the Late Bronze Age history of western Hungary.

521 The VII/bl-2 layers following the devastation of the Homeric city yield this along with the stamped-cord ornamented pottery which undoubtedly is closely related to the Coslogeni -BabadagPsenicevo Culture of the lower Danube area, thus it could barely have any link to the Late Bronze Age of our region.

522