Váczi, G.: Cultural connections and interactions in the Late Bronze Age cemetery of Budapest-Békásmegyer, Hungary. (original) (raw)
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Investigation into the utilitarian function of mortuary vessels is often a neglected aspect of ceramic examination. Since, in most cases, a direct link can be assumed between the vessels' size, form, and most optimal utilitarian function, morphometry-based ceramic categoriesalong with ethnoarchaeological examplescan help to understand the role of these vessels in funerary contexts. This article focuses on the relationship between the utilitarian function of ceramics and their roles in graves through the analysis of eight Early Copper Age (4400/4300-4000/3900 BC) burial sites, associated with Tiszapolgár and Bodrogkeresztúr ceramic styles, from the Upper Tisza Region (Hungary). The deposition of ceramic assemblages in graves became common in this period; however, a systematic analysis of their function has never been carried out before. In this study, a morphometry-based methodology was developed to establish the vessels' utilitarian function. These functions were considered in the analysis of the composition of mortuary assemblages, and how they may reflect social status or gender roles of the deceased individual. Results indicate that the Tiszapolgár and Bodrogkeresztúr assemblages cannot be unequivocally distinguished from each other based on morphometric and functional criteria, suggesting similar functional roles in the past funerary contexts.
Musaica, 2017
The practice of re-opening of graves and the removal of grave goods is well-known from large inhumation cemeteries dating to the Early Bronze Age, primarily from the territory of Austria. These events are generally explained by material/economic motivations. Thus, more recently, the re-opening of Bronze Age graves is interpreted within a complex system of a multi-phase mortuary praxis or rite, including temporary burial depositions and post-funerary activities. In this paper I intend to focus on these particular post-funerary activities which transformed the original, primary depositions of inhumation burials dating to the Early Bronze Age recovered from the case-study region of my forthcoming PhD thesis. The closer study region is situated at the confluence of the Danube the Morava River and the Rába River, between 2000-1600 BC, according to the Hungarian terminology, the end of Early Bronze Age and first half of the Middle Bronze Age.
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With its 324 cremation burials, the Urnfield culture cemetery of Budapest-Békásmegyer is one of the largest in the region. It was in use from the beginning of the Ha A2 to the end of the Ha B3 period. Two thirds of the graves contained urns (as part of the rite), while the rest were scattered-ash burials. When the cultural position of this cemetery is studied, the following observations can be made: during the Ha A2 phase, to which the first graves were dated, Urnfield culture populations in northeastern Transdanubia maintained contacts chiefly with groups in Bavaria, Moravia and western Slovakia. Beginning with the Ha B1 period, this system of contacts, i.e. network of communication, was restructured. On the basis of material recovered from this cemetery, increasing influences on the Urnfield culture populations of the Danube Bend Gorge region may be observed from the Eastern Alpine region, the Northern Hills in Hungary and by cultures that occupied the Great Hungarian Plain. Given...
COMPLEX ANALYSES OF THE LATE COPPER AGE BURIALS IN THE CARPATHIAN BASIN
Hungarian Archaeology 2018 Autumn, 2018
In the framework of our four year research we will examine the burials of the so-called Baden Culture that inhabited the major part of the Carpathian Basin from 3600/3000 BC until 2800 BC. Heterogenous burial practices are characteristic to the Baden Culture; one can find burial grounds with several hundred graves, minor graveyards with 10-30 graves as well as lonely burials. Burials reminiscent of mass graves and the interment of animals are also common. Both cremation and skeletal burial rites are present and symbolic graves contaning no human remains also occur. During the centuries of the Baden Culture major changes occurred in the life of societies who had no literary records of their own; many innovations were made that had lasting effects on the history of humanity. These novities spread fast and wide and further deepened economic and social disparities within communities that were reflected in burials. THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF BURIAL GROUNDS The archaeology of burial grounds, studies on funerary rites, i.e. the "archaeology of death", has received particularly great attention in international research, reflected by the immense number of studies that alone would fill a smaller library. Although first applied in the research of ancient high civilisations, the chronological and spatial boundaries of this field of research have been greatly expanded to include also prehistoric periods for which written sources are entirely lacking. 1 The interpretation of cemeteries as "ritual spaces" only gained ground in Hungarian research during the past few years. The funerary symbols and cultural codes used by prehistoric communities were a perfectly intelligible set of symbols that encoded customs and social relations transmitted from one generation to the next. However, the identification and interpretation of these codes is no simple task after several millennia have passed. One of the difficulties encountered when attempting to decode these symbols is that various liminal rites were performed from the onset of death to the funeral and the community's final farewell to the deceased. 2 Inquiries into these all but forgotten practices have been largely neglected by scholarship, which has begun to show an interest in these issues only more recently. While cemeteries are certainly not the direct continuation of one-time life, they are ritual, mystical spaces that have preserved various imprints of former beliefs, ceremonies and rites. Traditional archaeological assessments focus on the grave goods, their position in the grave and their analogies. The goal of complex cemetery analyses is to identify the elements of mortuary traditions preserved and passed on in mortuary rites alongside possible changes in these practices, as well as to identify the archaeological imprints of how a community related to its dead, and to draw meaningful conclusions 1