Liviu, Marta - Szőcs Péter Levente (szerk.): Catalogul colecţtiei de archeologie (Satu Mare, 2007)
Epoca Bronzului
The Bronze Age The Bronze Age (3500-1150 B. C.) is the best represented period in the archaeological collection of the County Museum of Satu Mare. A great number of finds were discovered as a result of the special attention given to the research of this period during the last half of the 20th century, and of the richness in artifacts of the settlements and bronze hoards in the Bronze Age. Few finds were discovered in graveyards, too. The first discovery of the Bronze Age from Satu Mare is represented by the golden bracelet found on the shore of Crasna river, in Acâş (1855). During the second half of the 19th century, a great number of hoards containing weapons, tools and bronze ornaments were discovered in Domăneşti (I), Cehăluţ (I), Prilog, Stâna, Livada etc. These metal finds and the fine pottery discovered, provoked fascination, and caused the first archaeological research: József Mihalik at Boineşti and Aladár Vende at Carei-Bobald carried out excavations at the turn of the 20th century. Beginning with the second half of the 20th century, the research of the Bronze Age in Satu Mare County became permanent, a lot of archaeological sites being investigated. Large excavations were made in: Culciu Mare, Carei-Bobald, Lazuri, each research lasting for more than a decade. New research was started at the crossing point of the Romanian-Hungarian border at Petea-Csengersima, where a surface of 2,5 hectares, the largest for a prehistoric site, was excavated on both sides of the border. The richness of Bronze Age archaeological finds from the north-western Romania is the result of many favorable conditions. First, there is the general progress brought by the new age. The progress is not only the consequence of using efficient bronze tools, but also the changes occured in the subsistence strategies of the human communities: the husbandry shifts the focus from processing raw products (meat, leather and bones) to the wielding of secondary animal products (dairy products, wool, animal drive). This change started in the Late Eneolithic and lasted untill the Early Bronze period. This type of economy is based on a special attention given to husbandry, having the advantage of favorable geographic conditions in the Satu Mare area: the grazing of the animals and especially their wintering was encouraged by the rich vegetation in the large swampy areas: Ecedea and Ier Swamps, and the flood plains of the Someş, Tur, Crasna, and Flomorod rivers. This is why, the contact areas between the fertile plains and the surrounding hills are the most inhabited. Two or three ecosystems provided varied resources that brought people higher possibilities of survival when facing atmospheric disturbances that could damage the ecosystems: drought, pest, epidemics in the animal livestock etc. The distribution of subsistence resources offered the communities a greater autonomy that would find them less vulnerable in the case of any conflicts between tribes. The lifestyle that focuses on animal breeding is visible during Baden and Coţofeni cultures. The two archaeological cultures spreading on vast territories in the central European region and in the region between the Carpathians and the Aşezare de tip tell de la Carei-Bobald A Nagykároly-Bobáldi tell típusu telep The tell-type settlement of Carei-Bobald 47
