Unetice culture
Encyclopedia
Unetice; or more properly Únětice culture (ˈuːɲɛcɪt͡sɛ, Germ. Aunjetitz ); is the name given to an early Bronze Age
culture
, preceded by the Beaker culture
and followed by the Tumulus culture
. It was named after finds at site in Únětice
, northwest of Prague
. It is focused around the Czech Republic
, southern and central Germany
, and western Poland
. It grew out of beaker roots. It is dated from 2300-1600 BC (Bronze A1 and A2 in the chronological schema of Paul Reinecke).
A1: 2300-1950 BC: triangular daggers, flat axes, stone wrist-guards, flint arrowhead
s
A2: 1950-1700 BC: daggers with metal hilt, flanged axe
s, halberd
s, pins with perforated spherical heads, solid bracelets
These dates are mainly derived from the Singen-cemetery (radiocarbon dates
) and the Leubingen
and Helmsdorf burials (dendro-dates
).
According to Marija Gimbutas
a high percent of the gravesites contained Amber
from the Baltic Sea
.
groups were defined in 1918 by K. Schumacher.
s, flat axes, flat triangular daggers, bracelets with spiral-ends, disk- and paddle-headed pins and curl rings
which are distributed over a wide area of Central Europe and beyond.
The ingots are found in hoard
s that can contain over six hundred pieces. Axe-hoards are common as well, the hoard of Dieskau (Saxony) contained 293 flanged axes. Thus, axes might have served as ingots as well. After about 2000 BC, this hoarding tradition dies out and is only resumed in the urnfield period. These hoards have formerly been interpreted as a form storage by itinerant bronze-founders or riches hidden because of enemy action. This is likely as even today weapons are hoarded underground to hide them from the enemy and axes were the primary weapon. Hoards containing mainly jewellery are typical for the Adlerberg-group.
Archaeological evidence suggests that the Únětice metal industry, though active and innovative, was concerned with producing weapons and ornaments mainly as status symbols for leading persons, rather than for widespread domestic use or for equipping large fighting forces - developments which would wait until later periods in European history. But the Adlerberg cemetery of Hofheim/Taunus, (Germany) contained the burial of a male who had died from an arrow-shot, the stone arrow-head still being located in his arm.
The Famous "sky-disk"
of Nebra
has been attributed to the Únětice culture because of copper daggers that were supposedly associated with the find.
Some groups used hollowed out tree-trunks for burial. Stone cairns are also found, mainly in the Western part of the Aunjetitz (Unetice) area (Upper-Rhine-, Singen- and Ries-groups). Males were often buried with copper triangular daggers, flint
arrow
heads, stone wrist-guards and clay cups. Female grave gifts include bone or copper pins, bone arm-rings, bracelets with spiral ends and rings.
The largest cemetery from Germany is the one at Singen
, where 96 graves have been found. The Remseck-Aldingen graveyard of the Neckar-group consists of 34 graves.
Some "princely graves" from this time (14 kurgan
s in Łęki Małe, Leubingen
and Helmsdorf
), dated between 2000 and 1800 BC, point to an already stratified society.
The Leubingen burial was covered by a barrow that was still 8,5 m high. It contained a wooden tent-shaped chamber. The grave contained two burials and golden grave gifts.
. Unetice metalsmiths mainly used pure copper; alloys of copper with arsenic, antimony and tin to produce bronze
became common only in the succeeding periods. The cemetery of Singen
is an exception, it contained some daggers with a high tin-content (up to 9%). They may have been produced in Brittany
, where a few rich graves have been found in this period. Irish tin was widely traded as well, a gold lunula
of Irish design has been found as far south as Butzbach
in Hessen (Germany). Amber
was traded as well, but small fossil deposits may have been used as well as Baltic
amber.
. The wood of the palisade has been dendro-dated to 1767-1759 BC. Houses measured up to 8 by 4 meters. In Southern Germany, two-aisled longhouses of up to 50m length and 5 m width were used (Eching, Poing and Straubing-Öberau in Bavaria).
It is thought that many allied cultures in the region were part of a general Unetice tradition
.
Cultures of the Unetice complex include Adlerberg, Straubing, Singen, the Neckar- Ries and Upper-Rhine-group in Germany, Unterwölbling in Austria, Hatvan and Nagyrév in Hungary, Nitra and Kost'any in Slovakia and Trzciniec
in Poland. In adjacent areas of Northern Germany, the Netherlands and Poland, late Neolithic traditions (giant beakers) were still dominant, in Scandinavia, late corded ware was still produced.
The distribution of the Unetice-groups in Germany consists of several isolated areas. But the finds indicate that they are interconnected, with a gradual change from the west, with influences of the older part of the French Rhône-culture to the east, where the finds are very similar to the Austrian Unterwölbling-group.
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
culture
Archaeological culture
An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of artifacts from a specific time and place, which are thought to constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between the artifacts is based on archaeologists' understanding and interpretation and...
, preceded by the Beaker culture
Beaker culture
The Bell-Beaker culture , ca. 2400 – 1800 BC, is the term for a widely scattered cultural phenomenon of prehistoric western Europe starting in the late Neolithic or Chalcolithic running into the early Bronze Age...
and followed by the Tumulus culture
Tumulus culture
The Tumulus culture dominated Central Europe during the Middle Bronze Age .It was the descendant of the Unetice culture. Its heartland the area previously occupied by the Unetice culture besides Bavaria and Württemberg...
. It was named after finds at site in Únětice
Únětice (Prague-West District)
Únětice is a village and municipality in Prague-West District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. -References:*This article was initially translated from the Czech Wikipedia....
, northwest of Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
. It is focused around the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, southern and central Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and western Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. It grew out of beaker roots. It is dated from 2300-1600 BC (Bronze A1 and A2 in the chronological schema of Paul Reinecke).
A1: 2300-1950 BC: triangular daggers, flat axes, stone wrist-guards, flint arrowhead
Arrowhead
An arrowhead is a tip, usually sharpened, added to an arrow to make it more deadly or to fulfill some special purpose. Historically arrowheads were made of stone and of organic materials; as human civilization progressed other materials were used...
s
A2: 1950-1700 BC: daggers with metal hilt, flanged axe
Axe
The axe, or ax, is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood; to harvest timber; as a weapon; and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol...
s, halberd
Halberd
A halberd is a two-handed pole weapon that came to prominent use during the 14th and 15th centuries. Possibly the word halberd comes from the German words Halm , and Barte - in modern-day German, the weapon is called Hellebarde. The halberd consists of an axe blade topped with a spike mounted on...
s, pins with perforated spherical heads, solid bracelets
These dates are mainly derived from the Singen-cemetery (radiocarbon dates
Radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to estimate the age of carbon-bearing materials up to about 58,000 to 62,000 years. Raw, i.e. uncalibrated, radiocarbon ages are usually reported in radiocarbon years "Before Present" ,...
) and the Leubingen
Leubingen
A burial chamber on the site, near the hills of Kyffhäuser in the Leubingen district in the eastern German state of Thuringia, was first unearthed in 1877 by art professor, archaeologist Friedrich Klopfleisch . it was recognized to be part of a temple or residence...
and Helmsdorf burials (dendro-dates
Dendrochronology
Dendrochronology or tree-ring dating is the scientific method of dating based on the analysis of patterns of tree-rings. Dendrochronology can date the time at which tree rings were formed, in many types of wood, to the exact calendar year...
).
According to Marija Gimbutas
Marija Gimbutas
Marija Gimbutas , was a Lithuanian-American archeologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of "Old Europe", a term she introduced. Her works published between 1946 and 1971 introduced new views by combining traditional spadework with linguistics and mythological...
a high percent of the gravesites contained Amber
Amber
Amber is fossilized tree resin , which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Amber is used as an ingredient in perfumes, as a healing agent in folk medicine, and as jewelry. There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents...
from the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
.
History of research
The site at Únětice was excavated in 1870s by Čeněk Rýzner. The German Adlerberg and StraubingStraubing
Straubing is an independent city in Lower Bavaria, southern Germany. It is seat of the district of Straubing-Bogen. Annually in August the Gäubodenvolksfest, the second largest fair in Bavaria, is held....
groups were defined in 1918 by K. Schumacher.
Metal objects
The culture is distinguished by its characteristic metal objects including ingot torcTorc
A torc, also spelled torq or torque, is a large, usually rigid, neck ring typically made from strands of metal twisted together. The great majority are open-ended at the front, although many seem designed for near-permanent wear and would have been difficult to remove. Smaller torcs worn around...
s, flat axes, flat triangular daggers, bracelets with spiral-ends, disk- and paddle-headed pins and curl rings
Lock ring
A lock ring is the name given by archaeologists to a type of jewellery from Bronze Age Europe.They are made from gold or bronze and are penannular, providing a slot that is thought to have been used for attaching them as earrings or as hair ornaments...
which are distributed over a wide area of Central Europe and beyond.
The ingots are found in hoard
Hoard
In archaeology, a hoard is a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground. This would usually be with the intention of later recovery by the hoarder; hoarders sometimes died before retrieving the hoard, and these surviving hoards may be uncovered by...
s that can contain over six hundred pieces. Axe-hoards are common as well, the hoard of Dieskau (Saxony) contained 293 flanged axes. Thus, axes might have served as ingots as well. After about 2000 BC, this hoarding tradition dies out and is only resumed in the urnfield period. These hoards have formerly been interpreted as a form storage by itinerant bronze-founders or riches hidden because of enemy action. This is likely as even today weapons are hoarded underground to hide them from the enemy and axes were the primary weapon. Hoards containing mainly jewellery are typical for the Adlerberg-group.
Archaeological evidence suggests that the Únětice metal industry, though active and innovative, was concerned with producing weapons and ornaments mainly as status symbols for leading persons, rather than for widespread domestic use or for equipping large fighting forces - developments which would wait until later periods in European history. But the Adlerberg cemetery of Hofheim/Taunus, (Germany) contained the burial of a male who had died from an arrow-shot, the stone arrow-head still being located in his arm.
The Famous "sky-disk"
Nebra skydisk
The Nebra Sky Disk is a bronze disk of around 30 cm diameter, with a blue-green patina and inlaid with gold symbols. These are interpreted generally as a sun or full moon, a lunar crescent, and stars . Two golden arcs along the sides, marking the angle between the solstices, were added later...
of Nebra
Nebra
Nebra is a town in the district of Burgenlandkreis of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the river Unstrut....
has been attributed to the Únětice culture because of copper daggers that were supposedly associated with the find.
Burials
Burials are normally inhumations in flat graves with bent legs and arms, lying on the side, oriented South-North or Northeast-southwest. Males are normally buried on the left, women on the right side.Some groups used hollowed out tree-trunks for burial. Stone cairns are also found, mainly in the Western part of the Aunjetitz (Unetice) area (Upper-Rhine-, Singen- and Ries-groups). Males were often buried with copper triangular daggers, flint
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
arrow
Arrow
An arrow is a shafted projectile that is shot with a bow. It predates recorded history and is common to most cultures.An arrow usually consists of a shaft with an arrowhead attached to the front end, with fletchings and a nock at the other.- History:...
heads, stone wrist-guards and clay cups. Female grave gifts include bone or copper pins, bone arm-rings, bracelets with spiral ends and rings.
The largest cemetery from Germany is the one at Singen
Singen
Singen is an industrial city in the very south of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany and just north of the German-Swiss border.-Location:...
, where 96 graves have been found. The Remseck-Aldingen graveyard of the Neckar-group consists of 34 graves.
Some "princely graves" from this time (14 kurgan
Kurgan
Kurgan is the Turkic term for a tumulus; mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves, originating with its use in Soviet archaeology, now widely used for tumuli in the context of Eastern European and Central Asian archaeology....
s in Łęki Małe, Leubingen
Leubingen
A burial chamber on the site, near the hills of Kyffhäuser in the Leubingen district in the eastern German state of Thuringia, was first unearthed in 1877 by art professor, archaeologist Friedrich Klopfleisch . it was recognized to be part of a temple or residence...
and Helmsdorf
Helmsdorf
Helmsdorf may refer to the following places in Germany:*Helmsdorf, Thuringia, in the Eichsfeld district, Thuringia*A locality in Heiligenthal, in Mansfeld-Südharz district, Sachsen-Anhalt*A locality in Stolpen, in the Sächsische Schweiz district, Saxony...
), dated between 2000 and 1800 BC, point to an already stratified society.
The Leubingen burial was covered by a barrow that was still 8,5 m high. It contained a wooden tent-shaped chamber. The grave contained two burials and golden grave gifts.
Trade
The Únětice culture had trade links with the British Wessex cultureWessex culture
The Wessex culture is the predominant prehistoric culture of central and southern Britain during the early Bronze Age, originally defined by the British archaeologist Stuart Piggott in 1938...
. Unetice metalsmiths mainly used pure copper; alloys of copper with arsenic, antimony and tin to produce bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
became common only in the succeeding periods. The cemetery of Singen
Singen
Singen is an industrial city in the very south of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany and just north of the German-Swiss border.-Location:...
is an exception, it contained some daggers with a high tin-content (up to 9%). They may have been produced in Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
, where a few rich graves have been found in this period. Irish tin was widely traded as well, a gold lunula
Gold lunula
Gold lunula is the term used to describe a distinctive type of late Neolithic or early Bronze Age necklace or collar shaped like a crescent moon. They are normally flat and thin, with roundish spatulate terminals that are often twisted to 45 to 90 degrees from the plane of the body...
of Irish design has been found as far south as Butzbach
Butzbach
Butzbach is a town in the Wetteraukreis district in Hesse, Germany. It is located approx. 16 km south of Gießen and 35 km north of Frankfurt am Main....
in Hessen (Germany). Amber
Amber
Amber is fossilized tree resin , which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Amber is used as an ingredient in perfumes, as a healing agent in folk medicine, and as jewelry. There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents...
was traded as well, but small fossil deposits may have been used as well as Baltic
Baltic region
The terms Baltic region, Baltic Rim countries, and Baltic Rim refer to slightly different combinations of countries in the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea.- Etymology :...
amber.
Settlements
Settlements include so called "pile dwellings", for example the Siedlung Forschner in the FederseeFedersee
Federsee is a lake located just north of Bad Buchau in the region of Upper Swabia in Southern Germany. It is surrounded by moorland, partially overgrown with reeds. With a size of 33 km² , the area is one of the largest, groundwater fed, connected moorlands in Southern Germany. At its deepest...
. The wood of the palisade has been dendro-dated to 1767-1759 BC. Houses measured up to 8 by 4 meters. In Southern Germany, two-aisled longhouses of up to 50m length and 5 m width were used (Eching, Poing and Straubing-Öberau in Bavaria).
Únětice tradition
The clay cups found in burials, especially of the Adlerberg-group, are typical for Unetice as well. They indicate beaker connections, as do the bone-buttons with a v-shaped perforation, the stone wrist guards and the arrowheads.It is thought that many allied cultures in the region were part of a general Unetice tradition
Tradition
A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...
.
Cultures of the Unetice complex include Adlerberg, Straubing, Singen, the Neckar- Ries and Upper-Rhine-group in Germany, Unterwölbling in Austria, Hatvan and Nagyrév in Hungary, Nitra and Kost'any in Slovakia and Trzciniec
Trzciniec
Trzciniec may refer to the following places:*Trzciniec, Gmina Białe Błota in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship *Trzciniec, Gmina Sicienko in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship...
in Poland. In adjacent areas of Northern Germany, the Netherlands and Poland, late Neolithic traditions (giant beakers) were still dominant, in Scandinavia, late corded ware was still produced.
The distribution of the Unetice-groups in Germany consists of several isolated areas. But the finds indicate that they are interconnected, with a gradual change from the west, with influences of the older part of the French Rhône-culture to the east, where the finds are very similar to the Austrian Unterwölbling-group.
Sources
- J. M. Coles/A. F. Harding, The Bronze Age in Europe (London 1979).
- G. Weber, Händler, Krieger, Bronzegießer (Kassel 1992).
- R. Krause, Die endneolithischen und frühbronzezeitlichen Grabfunde auf der Nordterrasse von Singen am Hohentwiel (Stuttgart 1988).
- B. Cunliffe (ed.), The Oxford illustrated prehistory of Europe (Oxford, Oxford University Press 1994).
External links
- http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~ufg/reihe/files/lobufa13.pdf (B. Lißner on the German groups, in German)
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/janamo/collections/72157623982947819/ (Photos of artefacts from únetice settlement area in Brno -Tuřany (Czech Republic)