Gyöngyössy Márton (szerk.): Perspectives on the Past. Major Excavations in County Pest (Szentendre, 2008)

(2700/2500-800 ВС)

©ollowing the disintegration of the cultural complex of the Late Copper Age in the mid-3rd millennium BC, the Carpathian Basin was shaken by a series of upheavals and the archaeological record testifies to large-scale population movements. Cultural impacts from the south dominated at first. Sophisticated bronze articles were first produced by communities of the Vuéedol culture in Slavonia. Scattered relics of the Makó culture to its north, whose pottery decoration shares countless similarities with Vucedol wares, have been found in County Pest too.

The Makó culture disappeared following the arrival of new population groups. Transdanubia was occupied by groups of the Somogyvár-Vinkovci culture arriving from the Balkans, while groups of the Bell Beaker culture advanced as far as Csepel Island along the River Danube. The Bell Beaker migration appears to have been motivated by the need to control the Danubian crossing-places since most of their sites show a concentration near the traditional fording places throughout Europe.

The Nagyrév culture appeared at roughly the same time as these migrations. The impressive settlement mounds, called tell settlements, whose stratified deposits have preserved the remains of superimposed buildings, often accumulated to a height

of 2 meters. Sites of the Nagyrév culture are known from the county’s southerly regions, while the 2. northern areas, the Tápió Valley and beyond, were occupied by groups of the

neighbouring and, occasionally, hostile Hatvan culture, whose communities lived on similar settlements mounds and hilltop settlements.

• András Czene 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6

1. Gold pendant from an inurned burial at Budakalász

2. Bell beaker with painted geometric design from Budakalász

3. Bronze dagger from Budakalász

4. Inhumation burial from Budakalász with vessels at the feet

5. Bronze pin from Biatorbágy

6. Vessel of the Makó culture from Biatorbágy

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THE EARLY BRONZE AGE

(2700-1700 BC)