A cemetery of the Gáta–Wieselburg culture at Nagycenk (Western Hungary)

Abstract

The 29 individuals found in 27 graves at Nagycenk were buried there in the time period between 2000–1700 BC, according to radiocarbon dates – i.e. at the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age in Hungary. The cemetery is of unique importance, both because of the richness of burial assemblages (altogether 30 bronze objects, 5 gold jewelries) and the scarcity of known Gáta–Wieselburg cemeteries. 15 percent of the ca. 180 burials in total, which relate to this culture in Hungary, are in this cemetery, and because of the few published burial sites, the cemetery at Nagycenk represents about one fourth of the materials published so far in the whole distribution area of the culture. Pottery style, typology and raw material of metal artefacts, as well as the radiocarbon dates (with the earliest among the published radiocarbon dates in context of this culture) support the dating of the cemetery section to the early phase of the Gáta–Wieselburg culture. The oval arrangement of burials around grave 55 and grave 1 suggest that each of these correspond to a household of high status men representing a few generations of the population living in the settlement excavated in the vicinity of Nagycenk.