Der Beginn der mittleren Bronzezeit am Beispiel von Mähren
| Title in English | The onset of the Middle Bronze Age as exemplified by Moravia |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | The existing chronological systems of (not only) the Early Bronze Age are based on an arbitrary division of attributes which have been associated with chronological specifics. Among them are not only the properties of artefacts, but also individual forms of burial rites and settlements. The present research, on the other hand, strives to define more robust phases and follow up the continuity of individual phenomena. Systematic recording and rescue excavations enable to get an idea of quantity and types of archaeological evidence, both settlements and burial grounds, and of periods when they gradually vanished. These trends are evident with burial rites, where they lead to only minimal archaeological recordability of burials since the end of the Early Bronze Age. Settlements, on the other hand, were evidently continuous. The Early Bronze Age hilltop sites gradually declined, but flatland settlements continued. This paper is focused on burial rites at the end of the Early Bronze Age; on the possibility of archaeological recording of burials, above all on the problem with the end of burial grounds of Únětice Culture in Moravia and their transformation into burials on the ground surface under barrows; on attributes, which have been considered chronological but which are in fact distributed over a longer period of time; and on absolute dates, which can verify these trends. The paper wants to answer three questions based on known radiocarbon dates: Are burials in settlement pits typical for the end of the Early Bronze Age?, When do the Únětice burial sites end? and Where are the graves of the final horizon of the Early Bronze Age in Moravia? |