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Late Bronze Age mortuary practices and cultural patterns in the southern Carpathian Basin

Burial practice was one of the criteria for dividing the Bronze Age in Central Europe into the Early, Middle and Late phases. Mortuary practices (above all, patterns in grave goods and deposition) were often used as criteria for distinguishing between communities, that is, cultural groups in the prehistory of Central Europe. By studying Late Bronze Age mortuary practices in southern Carpathian Basin (CSF IRP 11-2013-5327) using combined archaeological and anthropological methodology we are testing the existing cultural models known from the literature. We are trying to comprehend the nature of local societies in which the buried individuals operated. The patterns of body treatment, grave goods and deposition exhibit differences over space and time. Depending of the criterion, in existing patterns it is possible to perceive differences in the body treatment, choice of grave goods and deposition. At certain cemeteries, the reconstruction of mortuary practices using this combined methodology is based on very strong evidence. By combining cemeteries analysed in this way within the existing cultural models a need is raised for adopting different research criteria. Our analyses warn us of the traps in using the existing cultural models. We have adopted a “bottom up” approach, wherein we first try to reconstruct mortuary practices in certain local communities, to connect them with contemporary neighbouring communities based on similar material evidence, and only then to observe them in chronological cultural models. The preliminary results point to a patchwork showing overlapping criteria of previous cultural models and the necessity for their critical evaluation.

Late Bronze Age, southern Carpathian Basin, mortuary practice

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