Garam Éva szerk.: Between East and West - History of the peoples living in hungarian lands (Guide to the Archaeological Exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum; Budapest, 2005)

HALL 3-4 - The Bronze Age (2800-800 B.C.) (Ildikó Szathmári)

HALLS 3-4 The Bronze Age (2800-800 B.C.) The Bronze Age of the Carpathian Basin was a time of successive population movements and warfare. The Bronze Age history of this region, enclosed by the eastern Alps and the Carpathians, was shaped by cultural impacts from many different regions and the arrival of the most diverse population groups. The Danube formed a natural internal boundary, separating the eastern and western half of the Carpathian Basin. This is the most likely explanation of why the Carpathian Basin was never united under a single culture during the Bronze Age. In addition to agriculture and animal husbandry, the economy of the Bronze Age was based on the appearance of a new metalworking technology: the introduction and, later, widespread use of bronze and the growing familiarity with bronze casting. This long process, lasting for several centuries, wrought fundamental changes in Bronze Age society and economy. Bronze eased the accumulation of wealth. Articles made from this new metal were at first rare and valuable prestige items, which could only be obtained by a small social group. The possession of bronze objects, especially of weapons, symbolised the wealth and power of their owners. This both stimulated and accelerated social differentiation in Bronze Age societies, a process which in the archaeological record is reflected by the changes in the layout of settlements and cemeteries, by the growing number of bronze and gold hoards signalling the increasing power of an emerging elite, and by the appearance of hillforts and, in some cases, of genuine citadels. The dynamic economic development during the 2nd millennium B.C. stimulated many advances in bronze metallurgy both as regards metalworking techniques and the amount of metal artefacts produced, eventually leading to the mass production of finely crafted weapons, tools and jewellery articles in large bronze workshops by the end of the millennium. The fact that some of the major trade routes traversing Europe passed through the Carpathian Basin - crossing the Great Hungarian Plain and the Alpine foreland - also played an important role in this development by easing the acquisition of raw bronze, semifinished and finished products. The flourishing trade in these commodities would hardly have been possible without a well-organised economy. 1-4. BRONZE METALLURGY FROM THE FIRST WORKSHOPS TO A FLOURISHING INDUSTRY: THE TECHNOLOGY OF BRONZEWORKING The discovery of bronze, the mastering of the art of bronze casting and the advances made in bronze metallurgy were the results of experimentation lasting for several centuries. The earliest evidence for bronze casting comes from Mesopotamia and Egypt, from the 4th millennium B.C. Bronze metallurgy first spread to Asia Minor and North Africa, and thence to South Europe during the later 3rd millennium B.C., from where it was diffused to other regions of the continent. The earliest metal finds of the Bronze Age were for the greater part still made from copper. It seems likely that the first alloys were created accidentally, when arsenic minerals were smelted together with copper ore. Articles made from arsenic bronze were harder and more durable than their copper counterparts. Experimentation with alloying eventually led to the discovery of genuine bronze (90 per cent copper and 10 per cent tin or antimony). The discovery of bronze was not immediately followed by its widespread use. Tools and implements made from antler and bone continued to be used around the house, as well as in fishing and hunting, in agriculture and animal husbandry, retaining their importance for a long time, as did polished stone axes and adzes. Only a handful of bronze articles are known from the early phase of the Bronze Age; most of these are jewellery articles, with the occasional small dagger or shaft-hole axe.