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 2 - The Neolithic and the Copper Age (6000-2800 B.C.) (Nándor Kalicz, Pál Raczky)

26. Copper implements from the collection of the Hungarian National Museum. Copper Age, 4000-3600 B.C. which were highly popular, as shown by their occurrence in regions lying far from their place of manufacture. Malachite, copper and gold were the primary expressions of wealth during the Copper Age, and it is therefore hardly surprising that there was an upswing in the acquisition and trade of these metals and the articles made from them. The cultural continuity between the Neolithic and the Copper Age can be convincingly demonstrated through the use of prestige items. One such item was the perforated disc pendant with smaller holes for suspension made from Spondylus shell, believed to have a special, symbolic meaning. Ornaments of this type have been recovered from both settlements and cemeteries; their rarity made them into highly valuable articles. While the form of these ornaments and their symbolic meaning survived into the Copper Age, they were now made from gold, the new prestige raw material of the age. Large gold pendants of this type have been found at Tiszaszőlős, Hatvan (Fig. 25) and Hencida; smaller variants used as