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)

There were two major metalworking centres, which had a profound impact on the bronze workshops in Hungary during this period. One was part of the Central European metallurgical province, which emerged in the Alpine region and the Sudetenland in the first century of the 2nd millennium B.C. Transdanubia was part of this cultural province and of its trading network, as shown by the striking increase of Central European products (daggers with bronze hilt, cast neck-rings, rimmed chisels, disc-headed pins) appearing among the metal finds from the 18th-17th centuries onwards. The Transdanubian workshops in part imitated these types and in part created new ones, the latter specific to a particular cultural unit. The other lay east of the Tisza, with a centre in Transylvania. These workshops turned out elaborately ornamented shafthole axes, bronze-hilted swords and spiral terminallcd arm-rings. The magnificent weapons and sophisticated jewellery contained in the bronze hoards reveal much about the costume and the personal adornments worn during this period. The diamond and heart shaped pendants of sheet metal in the Ercsi hoard reflect cultural contacts with the south, while the cast neckrings were the typical products of the Central European workshops. The profusely ornamented battle-axes in the Szeghalom hoard represent some of the most superb products of the workshops in Transylvania and in the Tisza region. The events around the turn of the 15th14th centuries B.C. can be associated with the arrival of a new population group (the Tumulus culture) from the west. Their appearance in Transdanubia sparked off a chain of events, one outcome of which was that the local population was forced to abandon its earlier settlement territory. The concealment of hoards containing the implements and jewellery of a new type of Central European metallurgy, such as openwork heart shaped pendants and sickle-headed pins (Százhalombatta, Fig. 39), ribbed bracelets, ribbed pendants and disc headed pins (Rákospalota) can be linked to 61 this turbulent age (known as the Koszider period). Cross-ribbed comb and anchor shaped pendants (Kölesd-Nagyhangos) were made in Transdanubian bronze workshops (Encrusted Pottery culture). The Zajta hoard, a spectacular assemblage of weapons, can be dated to the end of this period. 14. BRONZE HOARDS FROM THE DAWN OF THE LATE BRONZE AGE ( 14th12th centuries B.C.) The cultural impact of the population occupying the greater part of the Carpathian Basin after the 14th century B.C. (the Tumulus culture) can be felt even in areas, where smaller communities emerging from the amalgam of population groups who had fled their earlier homeland and the former inhabitants of the area continued their life. The workshops producing distinctive jewellery and weapons of one such population (the Piliny culture), distributed in northern and Upper Hungary (present-day Slovakia), soon grew into major bronzeworking centres. Their products blended the traditions and decorative patterns of earlier local (Koszider type) metalwork and the bronze industry of the immigrants (Tumulus culture). The skilful bronzesmiths of these communities developed a series of new tools, implements and jewellery articles, such as two-armed axes, possibly serving also as symbols of rank (Felsöbalog), openwork razors (Piliny) and large, superbly crafted openwork pendants (Kisterenye). The spiral ornamented diadem found at Vácszentlászló was sent to the Hungarian National Museum in the 1870s. According to the description provided by the donor, the diadem was part of a hoard. However, some of the artefacts "excavated" at the same time date from a much later period. The diadem is one of the metal masterpieces of the 13th century B.C.; its owner was no doubt a high-ranking, privileged member of his community.