Vekerzug Culture

In this article an assemblage made out of bronze and amber finds, that had been found in the autumn of
2018 in Mezőzombor-Békás-ér is going to be presented. The chronological analysis of the finds shows,
that the assemblage can be dated to the second half of the 7th century BC and the first half of the 6th
century BC. According to their analogies each type of objects in the assemblage can be interpreted as
jewelleries or clothing decorations. Judging by the signs of wear on the finds we can assume that originally these were not made to be buried. The original context of the objects is uncertain – however it is
probable that the artefacts belonged to a burial.

This study deals with graves of Vekerzug culture, which contained weapons and horse harness. These graves reflect an evident social differentiation of Vekerzug society. Special attention in the study was paid to the most accurate geographic and cultural determination of the origin of individual weapon types and horse harness components in the context of new knowledge about Vekerzug culture and answering the question to what extent these finds reflect its interregional contacts. Important is also definition of possible armament schemes of Vekerzug culture and their comparison with armament schemes in the neighbouring cultural regions, especially with the forest-steppe Western Podolian group, Ciumbrud culture and Ferigile culture. Cultural and spatial analyses of individual types of weapons and horse harness as well as of the armament schemes of Vekerzug culture show that the problem of interregional contacts of this culture, mainly the eastern ones, must be considered more differentially than it has been previously presented in scientific literature. At the same time, they confirm the recent knowledge that the effect of eastern influences on Vekerzug culture is in scientific literature without a reason constantly overestimated.
Keywords: Eastern Hungary, Southern Slovakia, Hallstatt and Early La Tène periods, Vekerzug culture, weapons, horse harness, graves, armament schemes, interregional contacts, innovations.

Abstract: „Something happened in the East but more in the West and South.“ Some critical remarks on the  eastern  influences  in  Vekerzug  culture.  In  the  study  presented,  we  discuss  the  eastern  influences  in  the  Vekerzug culture based on a detailed analysis of  its material sources and some selected aspects, such as funerary customs and costumes. In the research of  the Early Iron Age the eastern influences in the Vekerzug culture tradi-tionally are not only overestimated in comparation to the influences of  the Eastern Hallstatt culture and the Cen-tral and Eastern Balkans but also incorect as scythian interpreted. The participation of  the eastern influences from the East European forest-steppe zone as well as from the North Caucasus in the formation of  the material sources of  the Vekerzug culture is indeed not negligible, but it is not so significant and strong that it is possible to indicate the Vekerzug culture as Eastern, Skythoid or even Scythian culture.Vekerzug culture as a culture of the Hallstatt Period was not part of the sphere of influence of the eastern elites, but it was itself  a driving force in the cultural and historical development of  the Iron Age in the eastern part of  Central Europe and she had been in the strong integration process with the Eastern Hallstatt culture. The foreign influences were selectively absorbed by the Vekerzug culture, selectively modified into local and selectively passed on into the neighboring cultural regions.

Keywords: Vekerzug culture, Eastern influences, Hallstatt and Early La Tène Periods, analysis of finds, funerary cu-stoms, costumes, innovations, interregional contacts

Abstract: „Courageous as an eagle, fast as a horse.” The graves with weapons and horse harnesses in Vekerzug culture: case study. In this paper, we discuss graves of the Vekerzug culture, which contained weapons and horse harnesses. Providing a more complex overview of these graves was at the centre of our interest, focused mainly on a culural-spatial analysis of the various types of weapons and horse harnesses, the possibility of identification the social status of the warriors and horsemen within their community, the possible relation of weapons and horse harnesses to the specific gender or age category of the buried individuals and identifying the factor, which affected the composition of these graves and the mutual combination of different types of weapons and horse harnesses. The graves with weapons and horse harnesses are key to assessing the question of the nature and intensity of the eastern influences in the formation of the Vekerzug culture. The results of their analysis confirm the previous conclusions, that in the research of the Early Iron Age the share of the eastern influences in the Vekerzug culture is still overestimated, while the western and southern influences as well as the local traditions of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age are underestimated.

Keywords: East Hungary, Southwest Slovakia, Hallstatt and Early La Tène Periods, Vekerzug culture, graves with weapons and horse harnesses, grave accesories, funerary customs, schemata of weaponry, male costumes, social aspect, innovations

The division between the dimensional groups of blade weapons is conditional and, probably, the boundary between them can vary from one epoch to another. The analysis of variation series of such features as “total length” and “blade length” showed the heterogeneity of the sample (more than 800 ex.) and the existence of several functional standards. Five groups were distinguished: daggers (with a blade length of up to 21 cm), short swords (21-37 cm), average swords (38-53 cm), long swords (54-75 cm) and extra-long swords (with a blade length in excess of 75 cm). Mapping of spearheads and axes also made it possible to reveal some regularities. It became obvious that it is possible to build a typological grouping of regions on the basis of the contents of weaponry and move from small cultural groups to cultural blocks, enclaves, communities of people who preferred similar types of weapons. The counting of the degree of similarity by the method of classification by unequal features was demonstrated by several such enclaves: “Carpathian” one, where the greatest degree of similarity was manifested between Western Podolian, Transylvanian and Moldavian groups. The main types for this enclave are a dagger or a short sword and an axe. The next, “Steppe” block includes the Lower Danube, Lower Dniester, South Carpathian and South Danubian groups, in which the spearheads and average or long swords are widely distributed. The third, “Western” block united the Hungarian and Polish groups, for which the axes and spearheads are more characteristic.

Előadásunk kiindulópontja Nyírparasznya – III. forduló szkíta kori településének ,,import” kerámiáinak régészeti-ásványtani vizsgálata, ugyanakkor a hasonló korú Nagytarcsa – urasági-dűlői lelőhely anyagát is közzé tesszük. Munkánk a lelőhelyek komplex feldolgozásába illeszkedik, és noha a vizsgálatok elsődleges célja a régészeti értelmezés megerősítése, illetve finomítása volt, mára önálló kutatási programmá kezdi kinőni magát. Ennek súlyponti kérdései a szkíta kori fazekasság alaprétegeinek szétbontása, a technológiai innovációk (korongolás) beépülésének vizsgálata és az import kerámiák széleskörű elemzése. Vizsgálataink során igyekeztünk a lehető legteljesebb mértékben megjeleníteni a szkíta kori Alföld-csoport kerámiájának alapformáit és technológiai változatosságát, emellett különösen nagy gondot fordítottunk az ,,import” árukra. A kerámiák szövetének makroszkópos megfigyelése után 55 (Nyírparasznya) mintából készítettünk vékonycsiszolatot, ezen túlmenően pedig a nagytarcsai kerámiákon lehetőségünk volt röntgen-pordiffrakciós (XRD) és lézerablációs induktív csatolású plazma-tömegspektrometriai (LA-ICP-MS) mérések elvégzésére.

In the Scythian time in the territory of the Middle Danube, Transylvanian and the Southern Carpathian regions, the original group of single-edged akinakai is distributed. By the time the Scythians penetrated Carpathian region, a part of the population of Basarabi culture (bearers of the Illyrian tradition of single-edged weaponry) moved to the north, to the South Carpathians and Transylvania. Perhaps it is the circumstance that can explain the appearance of single-edged akianakai with a T-shaped handle of the Nógrád type in the foothills of the Southern Carpathians and the Apuseni Mountains in the south-west of Transylvania. The basis for the Nógrád akinakai, apparently, was the akinakai of the Shumeyko type (or Piliny type according to A. Vulpe), which spread at the turn of the Early and Middle Scythian periods. This is indicated by the features of Nógrád akinakai, characteristic of the Shumeyko type like a narrow elongated blade (often triangular), a massive kidney-shaped crosshair, a two-part handle and decoration with its transverse notches, a narrow elongated rhombic pommel. Like Shumeyko akinakai, the single-edged swords of the Nógrád type appear at the turn of the 7th – 6th centuries BC and exist until the end of the 6th century. At the same time, the bulk of the complexes with akinakai of the Nógrád type belong to the second half or even the end of the 6th century BC.

The paper tries to evaluate the position of the horse in the life of communities of the Pannonian Basin in the Early Iron Age, based on the presence of horse remains in the burial rite.
In the Hallstatt Period groups of the East-Alpine region, buried horses were always part of the burial of a person of high social rank. However, remains of small parts of horse bodies also occur in graves of members of elites as well as of those belonging to the “higher middle class”. The sacrifice of a horse and its being placed into a human grave should have demonstrated the status and wealth of the deceased, or his/her survivals or successor. The Dolenjska group of Slovenia occupied a special place amongst these groups. Burials of horses are recorded throughout the whole Hallstatt Period. Sporadic finds in the early period (HaC) multiplied considerably from the turn between the 7th and 6th centuries BC.
The situation with the Vekerzug culture of the Late Hallstatt Period, on the contrary, was different. Especially the burials of horses in separate pits are quite numerous. This burial type reflected the economic focus of the whole society. Participation of wider strata of the population in the cult of horse could be attributed to greater importance of the animal throughout the wider social range, resulting from their engagement in intensive horse breeding. Similar separate horse burials occurred in the Late Hallstatt and Early La Tène Periods in the southern part of the Pannonian Basin and in the Sveta Lucija group. In these have probably reflected lively mutual contacts and also the vicinity to “horse breeders” from the East. These contacts could be linked further to the North-Italian Venetians.

The work examines the significance of a horse in life of the Early Iron Age societies from the perspective of burial rite. Namely, it is focused on depositions of horse bodies and body parts in human burials and pits on cemeteries. It is attached to the Hallstatt Period, with some interference in the La Tène Period evidenced in cultural groups, of which development dates back to the Early- or Later Early La Tène Period. Geographically, it is monitoring the territory of Pannonian Basin, with the interference over the entire East-Alpine Hallstatt region.
More radical readjustment of the book in English is being planned in near future.

Abstract: Head ornaments of the Vekerzug cultur on an example of cemeteries in Chotín. In the study presented, we discuss head ornaments from cementeries of the Vekerzug culture in Chotín IA und IB in south-west Slovakia (Komárno District). Bronze hairrings belong to the category of head ornaments whose typology is less varied, and are a typical feature mainly of the costumes of adult women. Providing a more complex overview of the hairrings was at the centre of our interest, focused mainly on a cultural-spatial analysis, the possibility of identification the status of the hairring wearers within their community and society, their possible relation to the specific gender or age category of the buried individuals and identifying the factor which affected the composition of each costume with hairrings. Based on the occurrence of hairrings together with other categories of decorations for the body and parts and decorations of clothing, it was possible to define several types of female costumes on both cemeteries, which only partially reflects the social differentiation of the community which buried its members in Chotín.

Keywords: cemeteries in Chotín, Hallstatt Period, Early La Tène Period, hairrings, Vekerzug Culture, grave accessories, graves with hairrings, female costumes, social aspect

The article discusses a fragmentary appliqué made of gold sheet which was discovered at Veţel and was preserved in the Museum of Cluj in the 19 th century, but is lost nowadays. The artefact is only known from the archaeological notes of I. Téglas, who drew it in 1886. As for the function of this object, it has been identified as a horse forehead ornament (prometopidion). Other similar objects were probably discovered at Békéscsaba, one being still preserved in the National Hungarian Museum in Budapest, as well as another at Cugir. The inventory of tumulus # 2 from Cugir allows the dating of these decorative artefacts to the end of the 2 nd century and the first half of the 1 st century BC. The appliqué from Veţel could have come from a funerary context belonging to the Padea-Panagjurski Kolonii group.

The topic of the study is a cultural spatial analysis of iron axes occurring as one of the types of striking weapons at the beginning of the Early Iron Age on a relatively wide area, above all in eastern parts of the Carpathian Basin and on the Lower Danube, in the inventory of cultures and cultural groups with nomadic elements, such as the Vekerzug culture and Ciumbrud group, partly also the Ferigile culture. Important comparative material is represented by the finds of iron battleaxes from the Early Iron Age grave units in the North Caucasus and partly also Transcaucasia (Koban culture, proto-Maeotian group of sites, Early Maeotian culture).

Let the bones speak! Bone, antler and tooth artifacts of the Vekerzug culture.
In the present study, we deal with relatively numerous bone, antler and tooth artifacts of the Vekerzug culture, which come mainly from graves. Their settlement findings are yet less frequent because of limited state of publishing. Providing a more complex overview of these finds was at the centre of our interest, focused mainly on their cultural-spatial analysis, identifying the possible function of some types of artifacts and the analysis of decorative motifs on some bone/antler objects. In the Vekerzug culture, bone and antler artifacts are typological though less varied, but some of them like decorated hollow cylindrical objects, iron knives with a zoomorphic and/or geometric ornaments on the bone/antler grip and two-piece razors are its typical feature. Some types of weapons and their parts, horse harnesses, tools and toilet instruments were made of bone and antler. Pieces of bone and animal teeth were sometimes used for personal adornments. In the Vekerzug culture, the occurrence of some types of bone/antler artifacts we can associate with the influences from the eastern Hallstatt cultural milieu, while the eastern relations are rarely observed here.

Keywords: Vekerzug culture, Hallstatt and Early La Tène periods, East Hungary, South Slovakia, antler, animal bones and teeth, analysis of finds, cemeteries and settlements

In the present study, we deal with numerous animal bones from the sites of the Vekerzug culture in Eastern Hungary und Southwestern Slovakia, which come mainly from archaeozoological quite well recorded and analysed settlements. Their grave findings are rare and they are one of the special features of the burial rites of that culture. Providing a more complex archaeological overview of these finds was at the centre of our interest.
Animal bones from the graves and settlements were mainly represented by cattle, sheep/goats, pigs, occasionally horses and their interpretation in graves as the remains of meat dishes is highly probable.

The author of this article proposes periodization of Western-Podolian group of Scythian cultural circle. There 32 complexes of finds were identified. The artifacts, which contribute “something” into periodization of Western-Podolian group, were described severally. Thereafter, all the antiquities had been founded in determined complex were collated. There from absolute chronology was compiled. Thereafter, all the complexes were collated, from which three-way division was distinguished. The charter representing co-occurrence of determined artifacts seems not to contradict to author’s three-way division. The distinguished phases are characterized by complex of features, which are typical to particular phase.

Research on the Hallstatt and La Tène Periods in Bohemia and Moravia covers a number of important topics. So far out of the main interest is the increasing quantity of foreign artefacts which generally belong to the Vekerzug culture (or through its spreading objects of other Eastern cultures). The authors of this paper believe that their systematic evaluation is essential for progress in this area of research. The volume of individual artefacts and associated contexts is constantly increasing. This is due to systematic research conducted by archaeological institutions, extensive development-led excavations (construction of highways, expansion of industrial zones, etc.), and detector survey carried out by amateurs, which has been monitored with partial success. Systematic scientific research by specialists, however, still lags behind. This paper attempts to partly fill this gap.

Iron Age architecture of the Carpathian
Basin is traditionally characterised by rectangular
buildings. A recent large-scale excavation
revealed a Scythian Age (Ha D period)
open lowland hamlet in the specific northeastern
sandy sub-region of the Great Hungarian
Plain, with several semi-subterranean
post-structured circular features. Although the
ceramic assemblage of the site is characterised
by typical pottery forms of the so-called
Vekerzug (or Alföld) culture, the unearthed
circular structures represent an uncommon architectural
tradition in the studied area. Previously
similar circular constructions were
defined as economic buildings, used for crafts
and storage. The fact, that in Nyírparasznya no
evidence on rectangular buildings was documented,
forced us to reconsider the role and
function of Early Iron Age circular structures
in the Carpathian Basin.

Present paper aims to study three Iron Age settlement section in details.
In the vicinity of Tiszapüspöki an Iron Age house was unearthed. The
house shows massive characteristics of the Late Iron Age but in a few
cases we can find similar construction in the later period of the Middle
Iron Age. Its archaeological assemblage is very poor, only one barrel
shape pot was found which can be considered as a usual production
of the Vekerzug-culture, although it can be found in the La Tène era too.
This situation makes difficult to give a precise chronological frame,thus
it is only possible to date between wide limits, namely the VI-IV. century
BC:
At Túrkeve-Burkushalom site a rectangular sunken floor house was ex -
cavated which is the first published building from the Nagykunság area.
The finds show a mild mixture of local ceramic tradition and La Tène
ceramic style. The house can be dated to the middle La Tène period,
between the LT B2-C1 phases. Archaeological data of the Nagykunság
is quite unbalanced since only the Túrkeve site is published so far. In this
manner, a recent stray find, i.e.a middle La Tène type enamel brooch-
bears a unique significance. It was given to the museum and reported to
be found in the vicinity of Mezőtúr.
One of the most cited artefact from the Middle Tisza Region is the
stamped kantharoi handle from the Szolnok-Vegyigyár site or more cor -
rectly Szolnok-Vegyiművek körzet (in English: Szolnok-Chemical factory
district). However, the find context is quite unclear. For this reason, it
is necessary to give a short overview of the information known about
the object along with all data of this area. As a new detail,the Szolnok-
Házgyár site is added where an ’S’ stamped pottery fragment was un -
earthed. The Szolnok-Gumikeverő üzem site is also a recent excavation
where a possible double handled jar was discovered.
Our hope is that these new data and sites can help us to evolve a more
complex image and to get a deeper understanding of the Late Iron Age
archaeology of the Middle Tisza Region.

The topic of this paper involves specific two-part objects made of bone/antler and iron, which represent one of the types of toilet tools found mainly in Early Iron Age funerary assemblages on a relatively wide territory of Central Europe, with the highest frequency of occurrence in the north-western and eastern part of the Carpathian Basin, in Eastern Slovenia and on the cemetery of Hallstatt. The objects treated can be counted among important material displays not only of the Vekerzug culture but also of the Dolenjska Hallstatt group. In both of them the functional purpose of these artefacts was discussed in literature (bone knife grips, “pocket knives”, folding razors). The razor finds are uniform in view of their shape and construction; they differ from each other only by the presence or absence of incised decoration on the bone case/grip, on the basis of which we have divided them into two types, namely into decorated (type I) and undecorated (type II) specimens. These were subsequently subdivided into variants according to whether or not they were equipped with reinforcing sockets. Within three regions of their occurrence we can observe some differences, which are manifested in both selection of individual decoration motifs and dating of razor finds. Whereas in the cemetery of Hallstatt the razors are found in graves all over the HD phase and count among the eldest (HD1) within the whole territory of their distribution, in the Dolenjska Hallstatt group they appear first in the HD3 phase and are typical mainly of the following LTA phase. As far as the Vekerzug finds are concerned, these are evidently limited in their occurrence above all to the HD2 phase and partly persist until the HD3 phase. It seems that the incidence of razors on the cemeteries of the Vekerzug culture is associated with influences or contacts to Salzburg and Salzkammergut regions, because in view of decoration the razor finds in the cemetery of Hallstatt resemble rather the Vekerzug finds than the razors from Eastern Slovenia, and the Vekerzug and Hallstatt razors, at the same time, are also chronologically close to each other. A group of folding razors with specific decoration is represented by the specimens found on flat Celtic cemeteries in Lower Austria and Transdanubia, which indicate that several Hallstatt traditions have persisted until
the La Tène Period.

Research on the Hallstatt and La Tène Periods in Bohemia and Moravia covers a number of important topics. So far out of the main interest is the increasing quantity of foreign artefacts which generally belong to the Vekerzug culture (or through its spreading objects of other Eastern cultures). The authors of this paper believe that their systematic evaluation is essential for progress in this area of research. The volume of individual artefacts and associated contexts is constantly increasing. This is due to systematic research conducted by archaeological institutions, extensive development-led excavations (construction of highways, expansion of industrial zones, etc.), and detector survey carried out by amateurs, which has been monitored with partial success. Systematic scientific research by specialists, however, still lags behind. This paper attempts to partly fill this gap.