Phase a of the Petrești Culture and Foeni Cultural Group: Two Distinct Concepts? A Bayesian Approach
Phase a of the Petrești Culture and Foeni Cultural Group: Two Distinct Concepts? A Bayesian Approach

Summary/Abstract: Two different archaeological entities, the phase A of the Petrești culture and the Foeni cultural group were defined in the second half of the XXth century and, respectively in the first two decades of the XXIth century. At some point these two concepts were considered to be distinct, being considered characteristic to the Transylvania and Banat areas; lately the phase A of the Petrești culture was integrated into the Foeni cultural group, its youngest stage being seen as a continuation of the Foeni phenomenon from Banat into the Transylvanian territory. Using the Bayesian approaches based on thoroughly selected prior-estimates it was demonstrated that the events connected with these two archaeological concepts, both in the Banat and Transylvania, can be separated on several chronological stages which are not influenced by their territorial affiliation. This aspect, corroborated to the similarity regarding the pottery styles considered characteristic for Foeni group and phase A of the Petrești culture are strong arguments in the assertion regarding the fact that these two concepts act like a singular cultural manifestation in Banat and Transylvania, which can be labelled as Petrești A/Foeni phenomenon and can be considered as the first phase of the Transylvanian Petrești culture as was defined by I. Paul.

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