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)

used at roughly the same time (in the earlier 2nd millennium B.C.) in the Balkans, in Transylvania and in the Tisza region. Most of the bone cheek-pieces and strap distributors known from the Carpathian Basin (numbering about one hundred) can be dated to the middle third of the 2nd millennium B.C., although their use continued up to the 11 th—9th centuries B.C. The archaeological evidence would imply that while horses were definitely ridden by Bronze Age man, they may also have been used for drawing wagons during the first half of the Bronze Age. The deformations noted on cattle horn-cores imply that cattle were used for drawing the heavy wooden wagons with cumbersome, solid wheels. When wagons became lighter and were fitted with more easily rolling spoked wheels, horse-drawn wagons began to play an important role. The form of Bronze Age wagons can be reconstructed from the clay wagon models. The closed wagon body had curved sides and the position of the axles on the base (indicated by two ribs) can be clearly observed on the specimen from Törökszentmiklós. Many of these wagons continued to be fitted with solid wheels; the use and gradual spread of spoked wheels is reflected by clay wheel models on which the spokes are indicated with incised lines. During most of the Bronze Age, only highranking persons could boast the possession of a wagon or a war-chariot (whose ancestry can be traced to South-East Europe) or of funerary wagons which made their appearance towards the end of this period. Evidence for the use of two-wheeled chariots comes from a richly decorated clay urn dating to the 15th century B.C. found in Slovakia bearing the depiction of a two-wheeled war-chariot drawn by two horses. The spoked wheels covered with bronze from what was probably a funerary wagon found at Arokalja, exhibited in the section displaying the relics of Bronze Age beliefs, date from a later period (the 10th century B.C.). 8. RAW MATERIALS AND TRADE CONTACTS The extensive trade contacts of the Bronze Age communities living in the Carpathian Basin played an important role in the flourishing economy of this period and stimulated the emergence of a wealthy and powerful elite. Control of the major ore deposits and of the key trade routes, as well as of the profits of their exploitation, undoubtedly contributed to the prosperity of certain population groups and the rise of high-ranking individuals or families within a particular community. During the early centuries of the Bronze Age, a part of the traded commodities came from the surplus of agriculture, animal husbandry and various crafts. Following the advances in bronzeworking, the trade of raw materials and various finished products took precedence over other commodities. One of the most fascinating problems in Bronze Age research is the sourcing of the raw materials used in the bronze industry and of the form in which they were traded. Metal reached the workshops in the Carpathian Basin in one of two ways: in the form of metal buns produced in the smelting furnaces near the ore mines (which lay beyond the present borders of Hungary), whence they were transported to the large metalworking centres (Sághegy, Velem-Szentvid), where they were made into various articles. The other form of raw material supply was the trade of ingots, coming in a wide array of shapes and alloys. These bun, bar, loaf and ring shaped ingots reached the bronzesmiths working on smaller settlements from the large bronze workshops. It has been suggested that ring shaped ingots perhaps also functioned as indicators of value, as a kind of early money. The growing demand for metal led to the emergence of an elaborate trading network which, in addition to the movement of raw materials, enabled the transportation of finished bronze products to distant regions. The Amber Road, one of the major European trade