;(3200) 2700–1100
BC) ). For a long time the Romanian Bronze Age had been divided into four periods, but the archeological facts have imposed in the last decades the use of a three-part system: Early, Middle, and Late Bronze. As communities acquired the secrets of
alloying brass and arsenic, tin, zinc, or lead, achieving the first items in bronze, the long period during which stone constituted the main raw material for fashioning implements and weapons was coming to an end. The emergence and development of bronze metallurgy is accompanied by numerous substantial changes in economic and social life, in the spiritual life, and in the arts. The ensemble of these modifications – archeologically identifiable especially midway in the Bronze Age, yet already prefigured early on in the transition period from the Eneolithic to the Bronze Age – indicates a civilization far more sophisticated than we had imagined.
Baden culture, Coțofeni culture ,
Alba Iulia The first stage of the
Early Bronze Age is a genuine cultural mosaic, juxtaposing transitory civilizations with those typical of the Bronze Age. For the first, the most typical is the
Baden–Coțofeni cultural bloc, which perpetuated in many aspects a transitory lifestyle, but evolved in parallel to the pre-Schneckenberg and
Schneckenberg civilisations, which were more active in taking over the products of the
Aegean-
Anatolian Early Bronze. One can no longer speak of
Eneolithic or neo-Eneolithic cultures, as defined by this historical period, for the changes occurring in the social structure are radical. The rise in status of the chieftains, indicated by the erection of tumulus funeral monuments, the different type of
metallurgy, the different type of economy based on greater mobility as evinced by the impressive number of
settlements belonging to the
Coțofeni culture. During the second stage, in the center of Transylvania there develops a cultural group bearing the name of the locality of
Copăceni,
Cluj County, which favored the locations afforded by the elevated sites in the eastern, and probably western, arch of the
Western Carpathians and the upper basin of the
Someș rivers. Their main pursuits were agriculture, animal breeding and ore extraction. They had surface dwellings, medium-sized (3x4m) with a rectangular layout, and pottery displays mainly high-necked pots with a short bottom portion often decorated with
barbotine. Frequently the pots' rims are thickened and decorated with rope impressions. The dead are buried in
tumuli such as those at
Cheile Aiudului,
Cheile Turzii, and
Cheile Turului. The Copăceni group evolved in parallel to the
Șoimuș and
Jigodin groups, the former in the south-west, and the latter in south-east Transylvania. Finally, the third stage is the least known, and is characterized by the use of
ceramics with brush decorations and
textile impressions. Non-ferrous metallurgy in
Early Bronze Age, given the substantial fall in production as compared to the
Eneolithic, should be regarded as undergoing some sort of realignment, or repositioning, rather than indicating an acute decline. The causes of this phenomenon are many and diverse (exhaustion of the usual
mineral sources, major technological changes, disturbing ethnic reshuffling, etc.). Significantly, the first bronze items (
brass alloyed with
arsenic, and later tin) now emerged. The
archeological sites of this period have uncovered more varied jewelry (hair rings, bracelets, necklaces, pendants made in
copper, bronze or gold),
poniards, flat axes as well as 'raised margin' axes. Yet the most important achievement of the age is the single-edged axe. Apparently the majority of these products were manufactured in local workshops. The proof is the numerous moulds for casting axes discovered at
Leliceni,
Harghita County, part of the
Jigodin group. Hard to ignore is the often evoked ritual hole at
Fântânele, part of the
Copăceni group, where were found fragments of
moulds for casting metal items (little
chisels, poniards, massive axes), testifying that the level of the
Vâlcele,
Cluj County, type of
axe had certainly been attained.
Periam-Pecica/Mureș culture This culture occupied the Middle and
Late Bronze Ages. In the diffusion of the archeological cultures on the lower course of the
Mureș River, the
Periam-Pecica/Mureș culture (also known as the Maros culture in Hungary), emerges, bordered in the south by the
Vatina culture and in the north (territories in Hungary and Slovakia included), by the Otomani culture; the
Transylvanian Plateau was occupied by the
Wietenberg culture, which gradually ceded part of its northern area to the
Suciu de Sus culture. All of these cultures evolved together, the earliest being evidently the
Mureș culture, the Suciu de Sus culture appearing later. Among the five regional cultural groups, the Wietenberg and
Otomani cultures occupy a special position. The division into periods, according to the stratigraphy of the sites at
Derșida,
Sălaj County, and
Otomani,
Bihor County, represents in addition to that of
Sărata Monteoru in
Muntenia, the major demarcations of the Romanian Bronze chronology.
Otomani culture pottery, 13th century BC The late period of the Bronze Age brings to Transylvania a marked process of cultural uniformity, whose direct manifestation is the local variety of the
Noua culture. It is now, too, that the
Lăpuș groups spins off the
Suciu de Sus culture while the western areas are covered by the
Cehăluț and
Igrița groups. Ceramics are the prehistoric artifacts that have been available in the greatest quantity and variety, thus providing the foundation of all of the above-mentioned cultural classifications. The pattern repertoire of these cultures is abstract and geometric. The Wietenberg, Otomani and
Suciu de Sus cultures, regularly and predominantly, displayed dynamically designed solar symbols (continuous spirals, crosses with spirals etc.) in the early stages of their cultural development. The same symbols appeared, in static form, (crosses, spiked wheels, rays, etc.) for the other cultures (
Vatina,
Mureș). Natural elements occurred rarely, and mainly as figurative art. Most remarkable in this context were the super-elevated handles, shaped into ram heads, of a large size receptacle found south of the Carpathians, at
Sărata Monteoru,
Buzău County. The motif is repeated in markedly stylized forms on numerous pot handles of the
Wietenberg culture. They were abstract to the extent that an animal was represented by a single defining element, for example a ram's horns. The same culture exhibits two rare achievements: a fragment of a cult wagon, exquisitely decorated, with both extremities ending in
protomes, shaped as sheep-goat heads, discovered at
Lechința de Mureș,
Mureș County, and a gold axe displaying a fine engraving of a human silhouette next to a bovine silhouette, whose provenance is the thesaurus of
Țufalău,
Covasna County. axes at the
Aiud History Museum,
Aiud Close scrutiny of the production technique of the more complex vessels—the perfect duct of some complex decoration patterns—strengthens the probability that the ceramics were produced by specialists. This does not exclude the possibility that other social groups, mainly children and adolescents, performed a secondary role. The transport of receptacles over long distances, in the absence of good roads, must have been an equally difficult operation, requiring itinerant craftsmen or special workshops near the more important centers. The partial representations, the schematic physiognomies, as well as the faithful thematic rendering, though rare, all speak of a new symbolic expression that dominated the art of statuettes too. The moulding of the
zoomorphic and
anthropomorphic statuettes no longer attain the rich realism of the prior epoch, which is explained by the changes occurring in the religious and cult structure of the society. The incised and engraved decorations focus particularly on the details of the costume and the jewelry worn (hair rings, diadems, pendants, necklaces, etc.) The importance of the settlements, as a constructed and limited human space for the prehistoric population, is graphically suggested by
Mircea Eliade, when he interprets them as symbolic of the "centre of the world". The analyzed archeological sites evolved from simple groupings of lodges to complex urban facilities, directed towards maintaining collective lifestyle quality, ensuring the protection of life and goods, and meeting specific social, economic, defense and cultic needs. Thus, there are central sites, with long-term developments, epicenters of a larger territory (
Derşida, Otomani, etc.), and secondary sites evolving at the level of hamlets or seasonal dwellings (
Suatu,
Cluj-Napoca, etc.). The Otomani civilization in particular features a marked settlement hierarchy manifested in the ordered positioning of the dwellings, suggesting a pre-urban tendency. For instance, at
Otomani – Cetățuie a circular settlement has been investigated, located on a hilltop and enclosed by a ditch and rampart. The dwellings were distributed in two concentric circles around an empty space at the center. The same organizing system is evident at Sălacea, where a
megaron-type sanctuary has been explored. Prior to this century, the
Intra-Carpathian space has been predominantly a land of farmers, as well as of craftsmen and animal breeders. In settlements belonging to the classical period of the Bronze Age were found charred seeds, numerous farming implements, grinding mills of diverse types, all attesting the intensive cultivation of grains. The widespread use of a primitive type of plough drawn by oxen is indicated by a great number of plough shares made of deer horn. Wheat,
millet, barley, and rye were found in several Bronze Age sites. A Wietenberg ritual complex researched recently at
Cluj-Napoca uncovered charred buckwheat, chick-peas and sesame seeds, and the ritual complexes at
Oarța de Jos (
Maramureș County) revealed the use of notch weed and sorrel. The animal economy of the
Bronze Age, with the familiar local variations, was based on pig, sheep and goat breeding, with a decline in large horned cattle. Thus, the inhabitants of the Vatina and Otomani cultures seem to have focused on breeding swine, sheep, goats, and on intensive hunting; while among the Wietenberg and Noua communities cattle were most common, used both for food and for traction, followed by sheep, goats, swine and horses. Horses were constantly present and revolutionized transportation and communication. The wagon with big wheels, later with spikes, emerged and spread, either as a warring and hunting vehicle, or to symbolize
social status.
Monteoru culture The food provided by agriculture and animal breeding was supplemented by hunting and fishing. Their proportion within the economy varied among the communities of the
Bronze Age. For instance, at
Sărata Monteoru (the
Monteoru culture) they represented 8.11% and at
Pecica, of the
Mureș culture, 17.95%, in contrast to the area of the Noua culture where the percentage of hunting was, as a rule, much below 3%. Deer remained the most prized game in the
Bronze Age, followed by wild boar and roebuck. A larger and more constant flow of the rivers, determined by an increasingly wet climate, is evident from the large fish bones found in many
Bronze Age settlements. There is no clear indication whether agriculture or animal breeding predominated within Bronze Age communities, with research revealing that both were being practiced together within the same area. But as populations stabilized, they tended towards a
pastoral East and a farm-dominated West. Men became more economically productive, due to improved metallurgy and better animal husbandry, and the use of draught animals in agriculture. Men acquired a dominant position within the family and in society. For the Bronze Age people, the mountains provided hunting,
timber and fruit, and held the copper and precious metal ores.
Copper, silver and gold have always constituted major assets of the
Intra-Carpathian region. The
Apuseni Mountains are especially rich, as are the ores in the
Maramureș Mountains, or the copper in the
Giurgeului Mountains and
Baia de Aramă. Metal outcrops are claimed to have been searched for by specialists, who perhaps then kept them secret. By washing gravel, or by digging pits for nuggets, the ore seekers satisfied the demand of local, prehistoric Europe, and even for the Mycenaean elites. The unique direct proof of prehistoric exploitation of non-ferrous metals in Transylvania is the stone axe found in a gallery in
Căraci (
Hunedoara County). An impressive anthropomorphous statue was discovered at
Baia de Criș Hunedoara or
Ciceu-Mihăiești,
Bistrița-Năsăud County. It portrayed implements (
pickaxe and basket), whose absolutely sensational analogs were found in the photos of miners, taken by
B. Roman at the middle of the last century, strongly suggesting that the mining of
non-ferrous metals was also performed underground. Furthermore, the
Natural History Museum in Vienna preserves two hair rings with the caption 'Dealul Vulcoi (
Roșia Montană), district
Câmpeni, region Cluj'. The museum in
Lupșa exhibits a miner's axe and a club, both having come from the
Lupșa valley. These exhibits demonstrate the presence of prehistoric miners in the ore-rich
Apuseni Mountains. Increasingly, traces of people involved in bronze-related activities are found. There are finished or semi-finished items,
moulds, deposits or isolated items. The tracks of
quarries and work-sheds are rather frail, firstly, because of subsequent exploitation, secondly, because of far too few exhaustive archeological investigations. The little workshop for moulding bronze pieces in the Wietenberg settlement at
Derșida is well known. The most complete and spectacular data related to metal processing workshops gathered so far, although partial, come from
Palatca,
Cluj County, from the
Late Bronze Age, where the workshop was in close proximity to the dwelling area. The research has brought to light numerous moulds for casting metal items, unfortunately extremely fragmented, the fragment of a bronze cake, rectangular in shape, with curved sides, a bronze anvil, slag, several fragments of hand-mills, burnt out fireplaces and diverse rocks. Space in the workshop was organized in a complex way, depending on the current activities (selecting and grinding rocks, cutting and melting cakes, casting and retouching items). The presence at
Palatca of the
plano-convex type bronze cakes and, for the first time ever on Romanian territory, of the
Aegean type, as well as the probable absence of metal reduction
kilns demonstrate that this operation was performed in the
mining areas. bronze sword found at
Dumbrăvioara,
Mureș County. In display at the
National Museum of Transylvanian History,
Cluj-Napoca The conversion of minerals to metal by means of fire was a process accompanied by rituals, magic formulas, and chanting to bring about the "birth of the metal". At the foundation of a kiln at
Palatca formed by a burnt out clay fireplace and several slabs of whetstone laid one on top of the other, probably round in shape, a clay vessel had been deposited. Close to the workshop, a large ritual area has been explored. Receptacles with offerings were placed in multiple
hypostases next to ore-refining items (hand-mills, bronze items, ash, coal, etc.), underneath or on top of the whetstone slabs, head down or head up. The mass of the
ethnographic data which associates the ground with the belly, the mine with the womb, and the ore with the
embryo, speaks of the sexuality of the mineral realm, and of the
blacksmith's belongings and implements. The production of items is the equivalent of a birth and takes on an obstetrical dimension. The
blacksmith's implements have a sexual connotation. The anvils, for instance, are identified with the female principle. In this context, the closeness between the shape of the orifice for setting in place the anvil at
Palatca, and the female generating organ was not coincidental. Another unique discovery was the meteorite. Meteorites coming from the skies fell on Earth with a celestial sacred charge and were often associated with the blacksmiths' activity. The scarcity of settlements with metallurgic activity also hints at the possible existence of itinerant
artisans and/or the centralization of the activity. This new development in bronze processing denotes a specialization in production with the appearance of prospectors, blacksmiths and
merchants, who exported the surplus produce. Through exchange, the Transylvanian and east-Hungarian type
axes with spiked discs spread as far east as
Bug, and to the north, to the
Oder and
Elbe region,
Pomerania included, a phenomenon connected with
The Great Amber Road and the exploitation of brass and
tin in the Elbe region. The metal artisans are not in power, but rather work under the control of an elite, which had seen the contingencies between metal and wealth, technology, war, and even the social and cultic structure. The first level with gift depositaries consisted in two main themes: the sword and the
axe, outlining the role of the two weapons in the
Intra-Carpathian warrior. The lance must have been yet another important weapon, but is a lesser find. The characteristics of the period are the bronze deposits at
Apa,
Satu Mare County (two swords, three war axes and a defense bracer),
Ighiu,
Alba County (two axes with spiked discs and four defense bracers) and at
Săpânța,
Maramureș County (a spiked disc axe of type A2, exquisitely decorated, older than all the other pieces, spiral bracers, arm bands, and
cordiform pendants). In the following stage, undecorated bronze items (single-edged axe and spiked disc axe), were produced and stored in ever increasing quantities. Many continued in the earlier style, but were also new types. Among the best creations of Bronze Age metallurgy were the
Mycenaean type swords, whose dating is still debated.
Wietenberg culture battle axes found at
Valea Chioarului,
Maramureș County, Romania. In display at the
National Museum of Transylvanian History,
Cluj-Napoca The thesaurus found in 1840 at
Țufalău,
Covasna County, in the area of the Wietenberg culture, speaks clearly of the wealth and refined tastes of a social
elite. Kept in a clay pot, the
thesaurus contained several solid gold
axes, ornamental
phalerae with spiral motifs, hair rings, one bracelet and one large gold piece. A great number of
gold and silver items (
bracelets, loop
rings, etc.) were found at
Oarța de Sus, with accurate stratigraphy, in a ritual space belonging to the
Wietenberg culture. Such thesauruses containing hundreds of pieces weighing several kilograms, such as those at
Sarasău,
Maramureș County) or
Hinova,
Mehedinți County, are few and likely to represent the community treasure. They are outnumbered by those displaying fewer items which seem to have been the private property of some leaders.
Metal, bone, stone or clay processing were most certainly operations performed by specialists, who worked in small workshops, or sometimes larger ones such as those at
Derșida or
Palatca. There certainly existed many wooden tools or receptacles, but they have not been preserved. Animal skin processing for fashioning clothing items,
shields, harnesses, etc. must have been widespread. The Bronze Age
necropoles reveal funeral practices peculiar to each community. The graves, with variations specific to the different cultural entities, by their design and their contents attest to an advanced spiritual culture.
Incineration (Wietenberg culture) or
inhumation (
Noua culture), the placing of offering-items alongside the deceased, all imply abstract thinking and belief in the
afterlife. Archeological investigations alone are too few and disparate for a detailed reconstruction of the
religions of the Bronze Age people. The
solar symbols, dynamic or static in form, (continuing spirals, simple crosses or crosses with spirals, spiked wheels, rays, etc.) are so numerous that they could be illustrated in a separate volume, and speak clearly about the prevailing role of this cult. . In display at
National Museum of the Union, Alba Iulia
Cultic practices were performed by the people of the Bronze Age in diverse locations: in mountains, trees, springs, rivers, clearings or even, as noted, in specially assigned places inside the settlements. At
Sălacea,
Bihor County, in the southern area of the settlement of the
Otomani culture there was a cultic edifice, a
megaron type
sanctuary measuring 5.20x8.80m, with a porch with two in antis pillars, a
pronaos with an elevated altar and a
naos with two fixed
altars. The solid crust on the altar surface testifies to the rituals involving fire, while the walls nearby were provided with circular orifices (a ventilating system and alternative lighting of the altars depending on sunrise and sunset). On one of them were found nine
clay weights, three curved stone knives, and one
cylindrical clay stand. The other had nine clay weights in miniature, three curved stone knives and one cylindrical stand. The symbolic value of the items and their number speak for themselves. The walls were decorated with
plaster work with geometrical motifs (spirals, continuing spirals) randomly painted in white. Close by the entrance an infant grave has been researched, possibly partially deposited as an
offering. Another founding ritual is encountered in Early Bronze Age at
Copăceni, where under the lodge's floorboard were found five human skeletons (one female adult and four fetuses). Judging by their position – the female in an
obstetric position with the
fetuses around her basin and one between her inferior members – it could well be a mother and her infants. All of these practices, judging by the archeological data mentioned above, as well as being based on other analogies, were accompanied by offerings,
libations, chanting and cultic dancing. Apart from some daily
festivals (sewing, harvesting, reaping, sheep loss or recovery, etc.), there must have been annual or multi-annual festivals of the whole community, or of part of it. This has been made clear from the above-mentioned research at
Oarța de Sus –
Ghiile Botii. The divinities guarding this space were in harmony with the weapons, ornaments or gifts personal or social in nature (grains, plants, food), with the animal, even human,
sacrifices, with ceramics and bone, as well as with gold, silver or bronze. This wide variety of offerings, deposited in the course of grand religious ceremonies, indicate either an all-encompassing
deity, or else several deities all worshiped within the same space. In the
Wietenberg culture area at
Cluj-Napoca the underground deposition of offerings in a ritual hole and their contents (numerous
receptacles filled with
charred seeds) speaks of an agricultural ritual, one which was
chthonic, dedicated to a harvest-giving deity ruling
fertility. In this case sacred agrarian rituals, whose tradition is evident in the historical epochs too, was intended to inaugurate and imprint a rhythm to the agrarian calendar, and to achieve union between sun and soil through the agrarian ceremonial. The repeated occurrence of the solar motifs covering the walls of the receptacles deposited, typically masculine, might be speaking of the joining of the two
spheres: earth-sun, female-male, immobile-mobile, thus demonstrating the
dualism of creeds in the
Bronze Age. The link between the
Carpathian region and the
Mediterranean civilizations has often been the subject of debates, offering quite divergent opinions concerning their dating, direction, and significance. One of the main arguments concerns the bronze swords discovered on the territory of Romania. These long thrusting swords (symbols of dignity and power as well as formidable weapons) are obviously local products. The decorating motifs based on spirals and fine windings on bronze or gold weapons, on bone or horn items, are near to perfection, especially in the areas of the
Wietenberg and
Otomani cultures. If created independently of the
Aegean models, they cannot be too far apart in time. The glass in the
Noua graves at
Cluj-Napoca, and the
Dentalium beads discovered at
Derșida in a Wietenberg
milieu, are also of
Mediterranean origins. At
Oarța de Sus on the shoulder of one of the cult receptacles are symbols in a line that are most certainly
epigraphic. Similar images, also indicating a connection with southern civilizations, are found in the
Otomani culture at
Barca, Slovakia. Similarly, one of the bronze ingots at
Palatca copies the well-known Aegean model. The striking similarities between the Wietenberg
ceramics and the
Apennine culture in northern
Italy are difficult to explain. The assumption made long ago of a common generating center still stands, until final clarification. In the same era, the metals produced on the slopes of the eastern arch of the
Western Carpathians arrived in different ways in distant places all over Europe; so did the salt Transylvania is so rich in. Just as the obsidian, most probably exploited in the
Bükk Mountains (Hungary), is encountered in the Wietenberg cultic complex discovered at Cluj-Napoca. The amber items in the deposit discovered at the
Cioclovina cave came from the
Baltic Sea, while the
Caucasian influences are indicated by the axe discovered at
Larga,
Maramureș County. The marked expansion of pan-European trade in middle and late Bronze Age created growing dependence between the different cultural groups, and an acceleration of uniformity in cultural values and produce. All of which sped up the general development of society and the passage to a new phase in historical evolution.
Noua culture The
Late Bronze Age shows a marked increase in metallurgic production based on the discovery of new non-ferrous mineral sources and the adoption of upgraded technology. The eastern experience brought by the bearers of the
Noua culture and the southern experience (through Central European connections) brought by some late derivatives of the
Otomani culture, both grafted onto the undoubted local experience, made Transylvania the most prolific metallurgic center in prehistoric Europe. The differences identified between the deposits of the period speak not of unitary series, but of types of deposits with a more limited geographic spread. One deposit, characterized by the almost exclusive presence of several types of
axes, socked axes,
bracelets and foot rings, delineates the area of diffusion of the
Suciu de Sus culture. The deposits in the area of the post-Otomani groups (
Igrița and
Cehăluț) contain almost exclusively ornament items, mainly pendants and pins. Finally, in central and eastern Transylvania, in the area of the Noua culture, we encounter the third type of deposit with the prevailing Transylvanian type of socked axes and the
sickle. Only a small number of
bronze items were found in settlements and cemeteries. Most of them have a fortuitous appearance in what we call deposits.
Romanian archaeology has interpreted their storage as a proof of troubled times, yet today a new interpretation is gaining ground: they are cultic deposits functioning as offerings, or at times, as the result of prestigious inter-community auctions of the "potlatch" type. The arguments in favour are strong: long periods of peaceful development, the location of the deposits (confluence of rivers, lakes, springs, clearings, mild slopes looking east, etc.), the number of items, the arrangements, their manipulations (fired, bent, fragmentation through bending, etc.), etc. Moreover, there is no logic in the locals burying their arms in the face of a military threat. artefacts from
Uioara de Sus, accidentally found in 1909. The hoard contains 5,827 items weighing approximately The multiplication of the offensive, in contrast to the defensive, fighting equipment (swords type Boiu –
Sauerbrunn,
battle axes with spiked disc,
daggers, spearheads,
arm bracers, all made of bronze), the development of settlements with man-made defenses, the existence of distinct warrior graves, gives the impression that the Bronze Age was a warring world. But there are numerous arguments that it was really a matter of parading rather than using force. The extraordinary
non-ferrous mineral wealth of the
Intra-Carpathian region has often been remarked upon in the literature. The overwhelming number of finds of copper, bronze, silver, and
gold products is hard to equal in
prehistoric Europe. For instance, no other limited prehistoric space is known to have contained two large deposits dating from the same short range of time (
Hallstatt A1).
Uioara de Sus, accidentally found in 1909, contained 5,827 items weighing approximately 1,100 kg, while
Şpalnaca II 1,000 paces away, in the year 1887, totaling a weight of 1,000 – 1,200 kg, was composed similarly of thousands of items. In addition to Șpalnaca I, Șpalnaca II, a deposit dated Hallstatt B1, was discovered a short distance away in the year 1881 and consisted of 120 bronze items. The local
copper ores often occur together with gold and silver. The gold must have been obtained, both by the washing gravel method in the valleys rich with such ores, as well as through mining the gold ore on the surface, or in shallow veins in ravines or landslides. There is no doubt that the tools and procedures of washing gold-bearing gravel did not differ greatly from those used throughout the ages up to the beginning of the 20th century. A wooden shovel, a
vat (a similar clay item was found in one of the
tumuli at
Lăpuș), a screen, a piece of woolen linen or even a sheep's fleece sufficed. The output was a few grams per day per worker. == Iron Age ==