LATE BRONZE AGE

(1500-800 BC)

At the end of the Middle Bronze Age, the advanced economy of the koszider period collapsed. The inhabitants quickly deserted their layered, fortified settlements, and they also stopped using the cemeteries. Researchers think that besides the increasingly wet climate, the inflow of people from around Lower-Austria and South-western Slovakia, who were named after their burial customs the Tumulus culture, caused this change. These people kept large farm animals and lived on seasonal settlements. Though not in great numbers, people of these groups also reached the Budapest area (Zugló, Rákoskeresztúr, Békásmegyer).

In this period a continuous economic and social development started, which led to the formation of the Urnfield cultural block in a uniform manner all across Europe. In the beginning soldiers occupied the leading positions in society. They were buried with their swards, spears, shields and greaves in barrows indicating great economic differences. The traces of  this can still be seen on the barrow fields on the Slovakian Plain and at several places in the Transdanubia, near Lower-Austria. The second half of this period is characterised by large urn-cemeteries with high number of graves, very developed and standardised bronze industry, and huge fortified settlements, “earth-forts”. These can be found around Budapest as well, where the artefacts of the local Urnfield cultural entity, the so-called Váli culture can be found. At this time the most populated areas were around the Danube bend and Budapest, and in the Slovakian regions closely connected to them. Here a dense network of settlements and large, long-term cemeteries were established, which indicate a peaceful political atmosphere and a prosperous industry. Around Budapest, especially along the riverbank in Buda, the strikingly long chain of large settlements (Békásmegyer-Vizmüvek, Pünkösdfürdő, Filatorigát, Tölgyfa street, etc.) and cemeteries (Békásmegyer-Királyok útja, Kossuth Lajos Üdülőpart, Gázgyár, Békásmegyer-Vizmüvek, Galvani street, Háros-sziget, etc.) can be explained by the excellent geographical location (both nature- and transportation-wise) of the region. The standard metal and ceramic artefacts discovered at the sites from this era are the legacy of a people with a developed bronze industry and extended trade relations. The first signs of the gradually forming social differences were the increasing number of elevated fortified settlements (e.g. Gellérthegy, Buda Castle-hill, Dömös-Árpádvár, Pomáz-Kőhegy), and the bronze treasures hidden underground for sacrificial purposes or in the hope of return. These were personal valuables accumulated by the aristocracy, or the stocks of bronze craftsmen.

The cemetery excavated in III. Királyok street, which is one of the most significant sites of this kind in Central-Europe, was also used in this era. 60-70 % of the cemetery has been excavated and the 324 graves of the 477 found contain artefacts from the Váli culture. The people of this culture cremated their dead on pyres, then the ashes and clothing items were placed in burial urns in the grave, or were scattered on the bottom of the grave (scattered ash ritual). The grave was sometimes marked by a standing stone. In several cases the urns and graves were covered with stones or placed in stone crates – made of flat stones –  due to fear of the dead’s return. The cemetery is unique because of the items placed in the graves. Among these we can find clay pots in the shape of boots and birds, so-called sucker pots with spouts, urns decorated with bronze pins and “windows”, clay sorcery (astral) tools in the shape of moon or sun with a handle, clay rings, and Firedogs. Besides bronze burial tools that were common in the era and turned up in strikingly great quantities in this cemetery (daggers, knives, needles, brooches, hair rings, necklaces, bracelets, buttons, spears, razors, paste-beads, spool rings), there were rare items such as bronze cups, belt plates, golden rings and bird eggs (related to fertility).

This peaceful period characterised by long development ended with the influx of a mobile, nomadic group of people from the east to the Alföld. These people had very different burial customs from the earlier culture, the remains of their skeleton burials were found also around Budapest (burial artefacts: Csepel-Szabadkikötő).

Literature

Kalicz-Schreiber Rózsa: Későbronzkori sírleletek Rákoskeresztúrról – Spätbronzezeitliche Grabfunde von Rákoskeresztúr - Spätbronzezeitliche Grabfunde von Rákoskeresztúr. Budapest Régiségei 22 (1971) 293-299.

Kalicz-Schreiber, Rózsa: Die spätbronzezitliche Gräberfeld in Budapest. Praehistorische Zeitschrift 1991. 161-196.

Kőszegi Frigyes: Későbronzkori kutatások a főváros térségében – Spätbronzezeitliche Forschungen im Bereich der Hauptstadt. Budapest Régiségei XXII (1971) 51-84.

Kőszegi Frigyes: A Dunántúl története a későbronzkorban - The history of Transdanubia during the late bronze age. BTM Műhely 1. Budapest 1988.

Óbuda évszázadai. (Szerk.: Kiss Csongor) Budapest 2000

Patek Erzsébet: Die Urnenfelderkultur in Transdanubien. Archaeologica Hungarica XLIV. Budapest 1968.

URNPOT - Tumulus culture (Budapest, XVIII. district Rákoskeresztúr, Szárny street 7.)

BRONZE CUP WITH A HANDLE - Tumulus culture (Budapest, Királyok street)

URN DECORATED WITH BRONZE PINS - Urnfield culture (Budapest, III. district Királyok street)

BRONZE JEWELLERY AND BRONZE TOOLS - Urnfield culture (Budapest, III. district Királyok street)

BIRD-VASE - Urnfield culture (Budapest, III. district Királyok street)

POT IN THE SHAPE OF A BOOT - Urnfield culture (Budapest, III. district Királyok street)

CLAY ARTEFACTS -Urnfield culture (Budapest, III. district Királyok street)