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The Bronze Age population is generally thought to have emerged from the
fusion of Enelolithic peoples and the influx from the Pontic Steppe during
the transitional period. There was often a drastic break from the past with old settlement sites
not being continued. Pottery retained few Eneolithic features and
was generally cruder in quality. There were also important changes in social culture, from the Eneolithic period. Gold and copper deposits
in Transylvania were extensively exploited until the Hallstatt period.
The peoples in the east Balkans may be considered to be proto-Thracians from whom the
Iron Age Dacians, Getae, and Thracians emerged. The first Greeks, known as the Achaens, reached Greece around 2,200 BC
and founded the Mycenae civilisation, trading with the
non-Indo-Europeans in Crete (Minoans), Troy and Egypt. These non-Indo-European peoples, called Pelasgians by the Greeks, remained in
some towns and on some islands until at least the 4th century BC. The Minoan's script was adopted by the Achaeans, and many Greek words still have
non-Indo-European roots. Recent genetics suggests that modern Cretians and Macedonians still have their pre-Greek ancestry.
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- Herculane - Sălcuţa IV - Cheile Turzii complex
- Origins - unification of Sălcuţa, Tiszpolgár, Bodrogkeresztúr, Petreşti and Ariuşd
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- Cernavoda I culture
- Origins - Pontic Steppe
- Area - Dobrogea, south Muntenia, later moving west to Oltenia
- Pottery - cord impressed, similar to the later Cucuteni C
- Links - synchronous with Cucuteni B, Folteşti-Usaovo (=Gogodsk-Usatovo) group
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- Maliq II culture>
- Origins - continuity with Maliq I-Kamnik
- Area - south Albania
- Pottery - fine grey or grey-black, decoration includes painted, incised, encrusted, recessed
- Economy - agriculture
- Technology - metal tools
- Links - earlier culture in Albania, with objects from Balkan eneolithic groups and others from the Aegean
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- Gumeliţa culture
- Origin - Gumeliţa and Marica cultures
- Area - southern Romania, N Bulgaria, Thrace, known as Kodža Dermen group in NE Bulgaria
- Characterised by flat, stylized idols of bone or gold
- Links - trading with Carpathian and Pannonian zones, use of ochre in burials and large flint knives could be from contacts with Pontic-Steppe
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- Salcuta-krivodol-Bubanj group
- Origins - Gumelelniţa with Vinča, probably in Oltenia, migrating south due to pressures from the Pontic-Steppe
- Area - Sălcuţa - Oltenia, Krivoodol - NW Bulgaria, Bubanj-Hum - Morava down to Pelagonia, Maliq II in Albania
- Settlements - on natural defendable positions
- Houses - small rectangular
- Pottery - bowls with inverted rim, amphorae, ribbled and impression decoration
- Technology - poorer than east Balkans, metal is scarce
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- Baden-Kostolac varient
- Origins - southern Pannonia
- Area - southern Pannonia, north Balkans down into Serbia
- Pottery - Baden type, decoration stab and drag
- Links - mixing with Bubanj and Coţofeni in places
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- Bodrogkeresztur
- Origins - continuation of Tiszpolgar, may be from Transylvania
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- Ariusd-Cucuteni-Tripolye
- Origins - developed from Cucuteni with some other influences
- Area - Moldavia, S Ukraine, SE Transylvania
- Pottery - spiral-meander patterns
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- Baden-Pecel culture
- Origins - southern Hungary and spread northwards to Poland and Germany
- Area - Pannonian and Alpine regions, penetrating into central Serbia
- Settlements - similar to Neolithic, catacomb like burial pits
- Houses - pit dwellings
- Farming - stock breeding: sheep, goats, cattle
- Technologies - dagger moulding, 4 wheel oxen carts, & horse suggest links with Steppe peoples
- Links - Vučedol group, Kostolac varient, Lasinja group
- Burials – interment in contracted position, W Hungary urnfields
- People – Pecel mix of round and long heads
- Settlements - Lengyel flat not tel
- Houses - stronger built than linear
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- Lasinja group
- Origins - Lengyel group with Baden influences
- Area - SW Pannonia & Alpine regions, part of Croatia & N Bosnia
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- Pontic tribes
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- Ochre-grave tribes
- Origin - beyond the Volga
- Settlements - mostly nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoralists
- Technology - less metal used than with previous peoples
- Symbols – solar and horned animals
- Burials - Tumuli and crouched inhumations, Ochre
- Pottery - Corded ware
- People – tall, broad face
- Pit-grave and catacomb culture
- Area – southern Russia, valleys of Donetz, Don & Manyc, migrated west, during a period of climatic change, intermingling with existing populations
- Burials - catacomb and tumuli types, starting with long mounds and later round barrows.
- Yamno culture
- Origin - beyond the Volga
- Area - migrated west, during a period of climatic change, intermingling with existing populations
- Technology - two wheeled oxen carts
- Economy - sheep cow, goat and probably horse breeding, millet cultivation
- Burials - ochre strewn in rectangular timber lined pit, under a round mound often encircled with stones – similar to later Mycenae shaft graves
