Janus Pannonius Múzeum Évkönyve 26 (1981) (Pécs, 1982)

Régészet - Ecsedy István: A kelet-magyarországi rézkor fejlődésének fontosabb tényezői

A KELET-MAGYARORSZÁGI RÉZKOR 95 daggers of the Bodrogkeresztur Culture and the mould found in the Vucedol layer of Sarvas specially as the Bodrogkeresztur and Vucedol metallurgy are strikingly different.

81 It seems probable that the Vucedol development started on the former Lasinja - Retz - Gajary area synchronously with the Late Baden Culture. It was the connection with the Adria-coast which possibly became important especially from the respect of the Early Bronze Age diffusion of the Aegean metallurgy in the Late Vucedol - Somogyvár-Vinkovci - Belotic-Bela Crkva-Cetina time. The mediatory role of the Vucedol Culture must have been similar to that of the Mihalic (Ezero B) Culture during the same period.

82 Returning to the beginning of the Baden - Cotofeni block, it can be said that the Pit-Grave population appears as the only new ethnic component demonstrable in Eastern Hungary. It seems obvious, however, that the Baden-Cotofeni cultures contained not only the surviving population of the Middle Copper Age but ethnic groups originated from the West-Pontic and Middle Balkans as well. The Aegean elements of the material culture must have been mediated by them. It can be supposed that also the Pit-Grave tribes were gradually integrated culturally and ethnically in the course of the Late Copper Age. This process was completed in the Early Bronze Age. The impact of the steppic groups must have been mainly of political character resulting in the diturbance an rapid transformation in the Late Copper Age. Its direct cultural influence was by no means decisive. Only a few elements of the characteristic Pit-Grave ritual is to be found in the graves of other cultures. An influence of this kind can be supposed in some cases, like the kurgans at Glavtsheska Mogila (North Bulgaria),

83 the Cotofeni grave at Magura Tomii yielding an ochre - clod

84 and the cremation grave of the Baden Culture found under a barrow at Mokrin.

85 The earliest dispersal of the domestic horses can be connected with the Pit-Grave intrusion in MiddleEurope.

86 The possibility, that also the first wagons were brought by them, cannot be excluded since we lack the finds demonstrating the appearance of the wheeled vehicle in Europe in a period definitely earlier than the Pit-Grave intrusion. It seems fairly possible, however, that this important innovation appeared already in the Gumelnita - Tiszapolgár time in South-East Europe if accepting the traditional chronology.

87 The Pit-Grave tribes must have been able to hold the occupied territories circumvented by the non nomadic populations belonging to the Cotofeni and Baden cultures. This „status quo" of the Late Copper Age" changed gradually in the course of the stabilization of the Early Bronze Age when the population of steppe origin became an integrated part of the emerging new cultures.

88