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At this period the Bronze age had already begun in Anatolia, however the Carpathian
region was still in the eneolithic period and undergoing changes associated
with an influx of new peoples from the Pontic Steppe.
Some believe this to have been an assimilation into the existing eneolithic peoples, other suggest a more substantial change in population.
During this time there was a destruction of the eneolithic settlements in the lower Danube
regions. The new settlements were seldom fortified and the dwellings ranged
from simple pit-dwellings and small huts to two-roomed rectangular houses.
The platform floors found in the Neolithic period are not used.
Many believe the incoming peoples
introduced Indo-European languages and through the 3rd millennium BC these developed
into the basic language groups we know today. However others believe the Indo-European
languages formed in Anatolia and were spread with the neolithic age.
Interestingly the two oldest Indo-European languages of Armenian and Albanian
date to before the Indo and European split.
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- Vučedol-Zok-Nir
- Origins - between Sava and Drava rivers, derived from Kostolac
- Area - expanded to Alpine regions, Adriatic coast
- Varient in Dalmatia & Bosnia known as Ljubljansko Barje culture
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- Coţofeni
- Origin - assimilation of influences from eastern Yamnaya, & western Baden
- Area - most Oltenia and Translyvania, animal economy in high hills
- Pottery - geometic motifs, cord-impressed, later amphorae
- Settlements - initially basic huts and semi-dugouts, later phases fortified locations with a ditch
- Technology - stone, bone, flint, some copper
- Burials - varied including Yamnaya types
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- Folteşti II - Cernavodă II culture
- Origin - Folteşti I group movement into Dobrogea
- Area - E Muntenia & Dobrogea
- Pottery - clay mixed with sand, cord impressed
- Technology - Folteşti II is the oldest Bronze Age culture of Moldavia
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- Salcuta-krivodol-Bubanj group
- Origins - Gumelniţa 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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- 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 - Gumelniţa 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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- Horodiştea
- Origins - Gorodsk-Usatovo and Cucuteni
- Area - Moldavia
- Pottery - corded ware
- Burials - ochre-graves, barrow graves
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- Gorodsk-Usatovo group
- Origins - Tripolye of S Ukraine and Yamnaya influenced peoples from lower Dnieper areas
- Area - Usatovo (near Odessa) was a 500ha settlement, moved to Moldavia bringing the Cucuteni C pottery types and further south Horodiştea-Folteşti cultures
- Pottery - corded ware
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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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- Folteşti I culture
- Origins - fusion of Gorodsk-Usatovo & Gumeliţa
- Area - S Moldavia & NE Muntenia, later spread into E Muntenia and Dobrogea to become Cernavodă II
- Pottery - corded ware
- Burials - ochre-graves, barrow graves
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- Pontic tribes
- 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
