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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.
The Caucasus the main source of Bronze to the Balkans in the early Bronze Age.
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- Maliq III culture
- Origins - assimilation of new peoples with existing continuity from eneolithic period, continues through to Iron Age when Urnfield elements assimilate
- Area - south Albania, expanding south later
- Pottery - initially more primitive than Maliq II, new styles & including impressed cords, some similar to Kostolac group, continuing to develop to pre-firing red geometric designs
- Technology - specialists in metallurgy, sword manufacture designs similar to Aegean
- Trade - swords and pottery from Aegean
- Burials - tumuli, Urnfield culture did not displace this
- Links - may be Kostolac group
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- Ezero culture
- Origins - strong links with Cernavodă III & Coţofeni, weak links
with eneolithic Thrace, continuity through middle & late Bronze Ages
and stronger influences with Baden cultures
- Area - Thrace
- Pottery - early jugs & cups, askoi vessels burnished black or
dark brown, affinities Cernavodă III & Coţofeni, later have Baden
influences
- Houses - rectangular, later apsidal
- Settlements - Ezero is fortified by a 1.5m wall, houses around a square
- Technology - stone and flint, with metal gradually taking over (typical of Caucasian metallurgy)
- Economy - agriculture: wheat, oats, peas, lentils & cattle breeding
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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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- 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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- 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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- Cernavodă III culture
- Origins - assimilation of Gumelniţa, Vinča, into Cernavoda I
- Area - south Muntenia, later moved west
- Pottery - less than previous
- Farming - sheep breading
- Links - under pressure from Celei, elements moved NE through Transylvania and into Boleraz group of Slovakia
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- Folteşti 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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- Glina-Schneckenberg
- Origins - Gumeliţa, Folteşti & Cernavoda
- Area - Muntenia & Oltenia, absorbing Gumeliţa, Sălcuţa &
Cucuteni elements, expanded north into Transylvania
- Glina near Bucaresti, Schneckenberg now Dealul Melcilor
- Pottery - Corded and open-wart
- Technology - used wagons, no bronze in the EBA
- Economy - stockbreading in Carpahian pastures
- Burials - both cremated and skeleton graves, and in the most
part flat tombs, except the burials from the mounds in Brăduţ,
Moacşa and Ocland
- Links - contemporary with Cotofeni, formation of middle Bronze Age cultures
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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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- 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
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- Globular Amphorae
- Origins - N / NE of Moldavia
- Area - hilly areas of N Moldavia, later than Gorodsk-Usatovo group
- Pottery - fish scale impressed motifs
- Burials - stone cists
