EPOCA BRONZULUI ÎN TRANSILVANIA: O PRIVIRE DE ANSAMBLU
THE BRONZE AGE IN TRANSYLVANIA: AN OVERVIEW

Summary/Abstract: The study offers the present state of research regarding the Bronze Age in Transylvania, with some corrections towards the previous chronological systems proposed by other Romanian specialists. The beginning of the Early Bronze Age before 3000 BC, as proposed by the Bucharest school, is rejected, while the Late Bronze Age is seen as a longer period, covering both the Tumulus and Urnfield periods, according to Central European chronology. A few new considerations on the Yamnaya arrival in Transylvania are also made, introducing the preliminary results of the excavations performed in the kurgan at Hăpria.The theory of a strong Mycenaean influence in the Transylvanian Middle Bronze Age, which is still supported by a few scholars, is not supported by evidence, and has to be rather seen as a Late Bronze phenomenon in the Balkans. The diffusion of a weighing system in the same period, as clearly demonstrated in the fragmentation of the gold rings from the Cugir hoard and other similar depots in Transylvania, is a much better proof for trade contacts with the Aegean in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC.The intensive exploitation of salt resources with a new type of technology, specifically developed in the Eastern Carpathians, as well as the huge size of the bronze depots, probably based on both the salt and copper/gold mining, accompany the rise of a powerful ‘aristocracy of salt’. After the earlier mega-forts from the Banat region, new hillforts were built in Transylvania in the 12th century BC.The author uses some of the results of new excavation made in the Telec hillfort in the frame of a LOEWE project to support the idea of a pre-Scythian military expedition of a Meszócsát group from the Tisza plain towards central Transylvania. The destruction and burning of the Teleac rampart and house in trench radiocarbon dated in the second half of the 10th century BC might be a direct consequence of this military incursion. The date of the Meszócsát-type burial at Vlaha fits quite well with the one from the post-destruction layer at Teleac. The arrival of the Basarabi groups along the Mureş valley by the end of the 9th century BC marks the end of the Transylvanian Late Bronze Age, the local Gáva-type communities being part of an acculturation process. The period represents the beginning of the Early Iron civilization and is accompanied by the last horizon (DFS VI) of the bimetallic depot, like the ones from Vinţu de Jos and Tărtăria.

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