Burials barrow, Germany, 1840 BC From a technical point of view, Úněticean graves can be divided in two categories: flat graves and barrows. The Únětice culture practiced skeletal inhumations, but
cremation occasionally took place as well. A typical Úněticean cemetery was situated near a settlement, usually on a hill or
acclivity, and in the vicinity of a creek or river. The distance between the cemetery and the adjacent settlement very rarely exceeded . Cemeteries were usually spatially organized, with symmetrical rows or alleys. Burials were orientated according to stars and the relative position of the sun on the horizon during the year, which may indicate advanced prehistoric astronomical observations.
Barrows—princely graves To date, over fifty Úněticean
barrows have been found in
Central Europe; the majority of the monuments have been published in archaeological literature, but only about 60% of that number have been excavated according to modern standards. Some of the tombs found in the early 19th century, such as the many tombs in
Kościan County, Poland, were incorrectly identified and robbed or otherwise destroyed. burial mound, Germany. The largest concentrations of Úněticean barrows, also known in archaeological literature as "princely graves", can be found: • in Czechia—in the vicinity of Prague, e.g.,
Brandýs,
Březno,
Mladá Boleslav–
Čejetičky–
Choboty, Prague 5—
Řeporyje, Prague 6—
Bubeneč; • in Central Germany—in, for example,
Bornhöck,
Leubingen,
Helmsdorf,
Baalberge,
Dieskau II,
Sömmerda I–II and
Groß Gastrose; • in Poland—in
Greater Poland, e.g.,
Łęki Małe I–V, in
Silesia, e.g.,
Szczepankowice Ia–Ib,
Kąty Wrocławskie. The size of the tombs varies, with the largest originally being the Bornhöck burial mound (the largest Bronze Age burial mound in Central Europe), dating from . The mound belonged to a ruler or "prince" who was likely associated with the
Nebra sky disc. It was originally around 65 metres in diameter and 15 metres in height, but it was mostly destroyed in the late 19th century. A
brotlaibidol clay tablet was also found in the grave. The largest surviving burial mound is Barrow No.4 at Łęki Małe, associated with the Kościan Group of the Únětice Culture—which is 50 metres in diameter and 5–6 metres in height today. In the classic phase, a typical "princely grave" was approximately 25 metres in diameter and 5 metres in height.
Gold weapons , Germany (drawing), 1800 BC.|178x178px A gold axe and jewellery dating from 1800 BC were discovered at
Dieskau in Germany and are thought to be associated with the ruler buried in the Bornhöck mound. A gold dagger dating from the Early Bronze Age has also been recovered from
Inowrocław in Poland, associated with the
Iwno culture. a dagger from Mala Gruda in Montenegro, associated with the
Vučedol culture, a dagger from
Dabene in Bulgaria, and daggers and halberds from
Perșinari and
Măcin in Romania, belonging to the
Tei culture. The Tei culture weapons were found buried with Únětice-style gold bracelets. In Switzerland, a large ceremonial axe of a type also found in the Únětice culture (the
Thun-Renzenbühl axe) was inlaid with gold decorations using a
damascening technique also known from gold-decorated weapons in
Mycenaean Greece. A similar axe inlaid with gold was found in a hoard from
Trassem in Germany, dating from 1600 BC.
Flat graves necklace and metal artefacts from the Únětice grave site, Czechia.|234x234px A typical Úněticean flat grave was a rectangular or oval pit 1-1.9 metres long, 0.6-1.2 metres wide, and 0.30-1.5 metres deep. Depending on the shape of the bottom and the depth, graves can be divided into four sub-types: rectangular, concave, trapezoid, or hourglass. One of the most prominent characteristics is the position of the body in the grave pit. The deceased were always buried in a north–south alignment, with the head south and facing east. The body was usually placed in the grave in a slightly contracted position. Exceptions from this rule are sporadic. In the classic phase (approximately 1850–1750 BC), the Úněticean burial rite displays strong uniformity, regardless of the sex or age of the deceased. Men and women were buried in the same north–south position. The grave goods consisted of ceramic vessels (usually 1–5), bronze items (jewellery and private belongings, rings, hair clips, pins, etc.), bone artefacts (amulets and tools, including needles), occasionally flint tools (the burial of Archer from
Nowa Wieś Wrocławska, for example, was buried with colour flint arrowheads). A body deposited within a grave might have been protected with mats made from plant materials or in a
coffin, but in the majority of cases, there was no additional coverage of the corpse. A well-known example of wicker-made coffin inhumation derives from the
Bruszczewo fortified settlement, near
Poznań in Greater Poland. In approximately 20% of burials, stone settings were found. Erection of a full stone setting or just a partial one (a few stones in the corners of the grave) seems to be quite a common practice observed in all phases of the EBA in Central Europe. Wooden coffins were discovered at several sites such as in
Lower Silesia. Únětice culture coffin burials can be divided into two types, according to their construction: coffins of the stretcher type, and coffins of the canoe type. Coffins were made of a single block of wood. The most prominent example of a rich cemetery containing many such inhumations is in Przecławice, near Wrocław. Coffin burials appear in Central Europe during the
Neolithic and are well known from
Bell Beaker and
Corded Ware cultures in
Moravia. At the large Early Bronze Age cemetery of
Franzhausen in
Lower Austria, social hierarchy is indicated by differing grave depths, the use of oak log coffins, and different quantities and qualities of grave goods. These included animal remains, ceramic vessels, bronze weapons and tools, and jewellery made from bronze, gold,
amber, and glass. Some elite women were buried with elaborate bronze headdresses. The cemetery has also provided the earliest preserved fragments of striped fabric clothing in central Europe.
Metal objects , Germany The Únětice culture is distinguished by its characteristic metal objects, including ingot
torcs, flat axes, flat triangular daggers, bracelets with spiral ends, disk- and paddle-headed pins, and
curl rings, which are distributed over a wide area of Central Europe and beyond. , Czechia|210x210px The ingots are found in
hoards that can contain over six hundred pieces. Axe-hoards are common as well: the hoard of
Dieskau (
Saxony-Anhalt) contained 293 flanged axes. Thus, axes might have served as ingots as well. These hoards have formerly been interpreted as a type of storage by itinerant bronze-founders or as riches hidden because of enemy action. They have also been interpreted as evidence for the existence of organized groups of warriors or 'armies'. Hoards containing mainly jewellery are typical for the Adlerberg group. After 2000 BC, a major expansion of bronze production took place, with tin bronzes becoming dominant. Ring ingots were exchanged widely. Special weapons and ornaments were produced as status symbols for high-ranking individuals. Gold processing and forging is attested at the fortified settlement of
Bruszczewo in Poland from 2300 to 1800 BC. The famous
Nebra sky disk is associated with the Central Germany groups of the Únětice culture. Gold and tin used to make the Nebra disc was imported from
Cornwall in southern England, whilst the copper was imported from Austria. The same source of gold was used to make important objects from the early Bronze Age in Britain, such as artefacts from the elite
Bush Barrow burial near
Stonehenge. According to the archaeologist
Sabine Gerloff, the gold plating (or inlay) technique used on the disc originated in Britain. A similar gold inlay technique is seen on the contemporary
Thun-Renzenbühl axe from Switzerland, which has also been connected to Mycenaean Greece.
Settlements , reconstruction.|182x182px Typical Úněticean housing structures are known from Czechia and Germany. The houses were constructed of wood and were rectangular in plan, with an entrance on the western side. The
gabled roofs were
thatched, and walls were constructed using the
wattle and daub technique. One of the most characteristic features associated with settlements are storage pits. They were located beneath the houses and were deep and spacious, with a cylindrical or slightly conical neck, arched walls, and a relatively flat bottom. These pits often served as granaries. fortified settlement, Slovakia, 2100-1800 BC. The vast majority of settlements consisted of several houses congregated in the communal space of the village or hamlet. Larger fortified villages, with ramparts and wooden fortifications, have been discovered as well, in, for example
Bruszczewo in Greater Poland and
Radłowice in
Silesia. These larger villages played a role as local political centres, possibly also market places, facilitating the flow of goods and supplies. The 'proto-urban' fortified settlement of
Fidvár in Slovakia was an important centre for the exploitation of nearby gold and tin deposits. Hillforts are known from the Late Únětice period, such as Cezavy in the Czech Republic, which featured stone fortification walls. The large fortified settlement of
Nitriansky Hrádok in Slovakia was built in the latter part of the Únětice period and continued to be used into the subsequent
Mad'arovce culture. , Germany, 2300 BC. Around 2300 BC, large circular enclosures were built at
Pömmelte and nearby
Schönebeck, in central Germany. These were important ritual sites that remained in use until 1900 BC. The largest known Early Bronze Age settlement in central Europe was built next to the Pömmelte enclosure. Some Únětice buildings were exceptionally large, such as the
Dermsdorf longhouse (44m x 11m) and Zwenkau longhouse (57m x 9m), both in central Germany. The Dermsdorf longhouse is estimated to have been at least 8.5 metres in height. The Dermsdorf longhouse was built a short distance from a settlement at
Leubingen, in direct alignment with the nearby
Leubingen burial mound. A large number of axes were ritually deposited together in front of the longhouse, which may have belonged to a contingent of warriors or soldiers. Construction techniques included the use of rectangular beams, planks and boards,
mortise and tenon joints,
scarf joints, single-notched joints, slots, grooves, pivots, wooden pegs, and
rabbets. Amber was also traded, but small fossil deposits may have been used as well as
Baltic amber, which may have reached Mycenaean Greece from the Únětice culture. Baltic amber beads have been found as far as
Aššur in Iraq, dating from , where they were discovered in a foundational deposit beneath the
ziggurat. Contacts were already established between central Europe and the eastern Mediterranean from the later third millennium BC, as shown by the presence of identical ring ingots in central Europe and city-states in the
Levant (such as
Ugarit and
Byblos), and identical
Schleifennaldeln-type toggle pins found in both regions. Kristiansen & Larsson (2005) suggest that these contacts were initially the result of 'migrating groups from central Europe'. Connections with the
Aegean may have originally been established in this period via a migration of the Bell Beaker-related
Cetina culture into the region.
Weights and money s, spiral bracelets, axes, and dagger, Poland Analyses of Early Bronze Age rings, ribs, and axe blades from across central Europe have found that they had approximately standardised weights and probably served as a form of
commodity money. In the first centuries of the second millennium BC, increasing precision in exchange was achieved by the introduction of lighter ingots. Certain artefacts (e.g.,
ösenrings) may have also been used as a type of
token money. At the end of the Early Bronze Age, rings and ribs were replaced by scrap and raw metal, indicating the development of
weighing scales and the use of weighed metal as a means of payment. This weighing system may have emerged independently in central Europe through the serial production of bronze artefacts with perceptibly similar weights. The use of approximately 1 kilogram of weight is also unusual, as the kilogram was first introduced as a unit of measurement in 1793.
'Enigmatic tablets' Some Early and Middle Bronze Age sites across central Europe and northern Italy, including Únětice culture sites, have yielded numerous small tablets made from clay (and occasionally stone) marked with sequences of geometric figures such as circles, lines, points, crosses, etc. The tablets are known as
brotlaibidole in German ("breadloaf idols") due to their shape and size, and as
tavolette enigmatiche in Italian ("enigmatic tablets"). The function of the tablets is not clear, and the meaning of the incisions has not yet been deciphered. The prevailing theory is that they served a purpose in long-distance communication or trade, possibly of metals. According to
Harald Meller, they probably represent a 'sign system' involved in trade. They are often found broken in two, which may indicate some sort of credit/debt system. Part of a broken tablet was found within the rubble of the 'princely' burial mound of
Bornhöck. Early examples have been found within
Bell Beaker contexts in Italy, associated with metallurgical activities.
Social organisation , Germany, 1800–1600 BC Archeological evidence from 2000 BC onwards points to the emergence of a more complex and ranked society in central Europe and the appearance of a new aristocratic leadership on top of the traditional clan-based organisation of farmsteads and hamlets. The effects were seen across all spheres of society, from technology and economy to settlement and religion. The Únětice culture in central Germany in particular exhibited a remarkably high level of social complexity. Based on the funerary record, metal hoards, and architectural evidence, it has been suggested that by the 20th-19th centuries BC, this society had developed into a type of
state, ruled by a dominant leader supported by armed troops. The diameter and ground plan of the Pömmelte enclosure are almost identical to those of
Stonehenge in Britain (built around 2500 BC), which was aligned with the solstices and has also been interpreted as serving a
calendar function. According to excavators of the Pömmelte site, the similarities between both monuments indicate that they were built by "the same culture" (the
Bell Beaker culture), with "the same view of the world". The
Nebra sky disc, described as 'the oldest concrete depiction of astronomical phenomena in the world', is thought to depict a calendar rule for harmonising the
solar and
lunar years, enabling the creation of a
lunisolar calendar. The cluster of stars next to the crescent moon is thought to represent the
Pleiades, known from other ancient contexts as 'calendar stars', whilst the gold arcs on the edge of the disc (one of which is now missing) represent the angle between the solstices at the
latitude where the disc was found. This feature also appears in a different form on the
Bush Barrow gold lozenge from Stonehenge, dating from 1900 BC, which was found at approximately the same latitude. The number of stars on the disc (32, or 33 if the sun is included) may represent the equivalence of 32
solar years to 33
lunar years. According to the archaeologist Christoph Sommerfeld, the disc may also encode knowledge of the 19-year lunisolar
Metonic cycle. According to the archaeologist
Harald Meller, the Nebra disc allowed for "an extremely accurate positing of time, including even the capacity for predicting
lunar eclipses". As such, it represents "the establishment of a new temporal order" by elites of the Únětice culture and thereby "demonstrates their claim to state power". The site on the Mittelberg hill where the Nebra disc was found is thought to have served as an enclosed 'sacred precinct', delimited by earthen ramparts on two sides of the hill. From this location, when the disc is aligned to the north, the upper terminus of the western gold arc points towards the
Brocken mountain, where the sun is seen to set on the summer solstice (21 June). Another distinctive marker on the horizon is the Kulpenberg hill, where the sun sets on 1 May (Beltane), a date also marked by the Pömmelte enclosure. Other depictions of the Pleiades are known from rock carvings dating from the early Bronze Age, such as at
Mont Bégo in the
southern Alps and on a 'Calendar Stone' at
Leodagger in Austria, which was part of a cult site associated with the Únětice culture. ==Influence of the Únětice tradition==