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)

35. Ornamented antler cheek-piece from Százhalombatta. J7th-16th centuries B.C. The use of ox and, later, of perhaps horse drawn wooden wagons most certainly enabled larger tracts of land to be drawn into cultivation. Agricultural tools were mostly carved from antler, although stone tools, such as antler hoes combined with stone axes or stone blades continued to be used. These were gradually replaced by bronze sickles, chisels and socketed axes from the mid-2nd millennium B.C., which made harvesting and crop processing considerably more efficient. Evidence for hunting and fishing comes from bone arrowheads and bone hooks, and the needles used for making fish-nets. The finest examples of bone and antler carving are the profusely ornamented tool hafts, discs and dagger pommels. 7. HORSE AND WAGON IN THE BRONZE AGE According to the archaeological evidence, horse first appeared in the Carpathian Basin in the Late Copper Age. Horse domestication, however, can only be assumed from the beginning of the Bronze Age. One major innovation of this period, at least as important as the discovery of bronze, was the harnessing of horses and the use of horse-drawn wagons. Its significance is immense because it paved the way for many advances in transportation, trade and warfare. The main archaeological relics of horse harnessing are the bone cheek-pieces (Fig. 35) and strap distributors. These began to be