The problem with tells: lessons learned from absolute dating of Bronze Age mortuary ceramics in Hungary

Abstract

Abstract

Transforming Legacy Spatial Data into Testable Hypotheses about Socioeconomic Organization

“…Using a different GIS analytical method, Quinn and Ciugudean (2018) demonstrated the shift away from metal procurement landscapes toward interregional trade routes from the EBA to the MBA. The shift in settlement networks from the MBA to the LBA is also consistent with disruptions in the organization of settlement systems seen after 1500 BC throughout the Carpathian Basin and Transylvania (see Ciugudean and Quinn 2015; Duffy, Parditka et al 2019; O'Shea 2011; O'Shea et al 2019). The emergence of large fortified sites during the LBA is consistent with the presumed population aggregation and selection of more-defensible site locations seen in this model (e.g., Gogâltan and Sava 2010; Szentmiklosi et al 2011; Uhnér et al 2018).…”

Rethinking time, culture and socioeconomic organisation in Bronze Age Transylvania

“…3) The collapse of Middle Bronze Age cultural groups in the Carpathian Basin around 1500 cal BC (see Fischl et al 2013;Duffy et al 2019). This is contemporaneous with replacement by the Noua Culture in south-east Transylvania and changes in Wietenberg settlement and ceramics in the south-west, including the end of Wietenberg D ceramics.…”

“…The largest impediment to addressing Transylvania's position within broader socioeconomic networks has been the absence of a radiocarbon-based chronology for the region. Several surrounding regions have well-established absolute chronologies (O'Shea 1991;Jaeger & Kulcsár 2013;Duffy 2014;Duffy et al 2019), yet without such a resource, archaeologists working in Transylvania have relied on relative dating approaches, particularly through the study of metallurgical and ceramic typologies (e.g. Boroffka 1994).…”

“…Several surrounding regions have well-established absolute chronologies (O'Shea 1991; Jaeger & Kulcsár 2013; Duffy 2014; Duffy et al . 2019), yet without such a resource, archaeologists working in Transylvania have relied on relative dating approaches, particularly through the study of metallurgical and ceramic typologies (e.g. Boroffka 1994).…”

River networks and funerary metal in the Bronze Age of the Carpathian Basin

“…The cemetery is on the northern edge of the town of Békés in Hungary, near the confluence of the Fekete and Fehér Köros Rivers (Crișul Negru and Crișul Alb in Romanian). It was excavated between 2011 and 2019, and has 68 graves, mostly cremations, which have been published and extensively radiocarbon dated [68][69][70][71]. The site was in use between 2460 and 1010 BC, but the most intensive period (Phase 4) was between 1600 and 1280 BC.…”