BRONZE AGE HOARD VARY II (TRANSCARPATHIA): CHRONOLOGICAL ASPECT

Abstract

The territory of present-day Zakarpattya is rich in Bronze Age finds of hoards. One of the latest discoveries is a complex near the village Vary of Beregovo district of Zakarpattya region. It is added to the long list (above 200 items) of similar complexes known on the region's territory. This hoard was discovered in 2014 and transferred to permanent storage to the Professor E. Balaghuri Archaeological Museum at the Faculty of History and International Relations of a public higher-education institution UzhNU. It contained bronze objects (above 70 examples) that were put in a clay, ornamented vessel at a depth between 0,4–0,6 meters from a modern surface. It must be noted that part of Transcarpathian complexes signalizes some problems in suggested chronological schemes. New hoard also pointed out on it. It consists of different groups of metal objects: armaments, tools, adornments, household utensils, and remains of bronze cast production. Part of represented types has a wide area of spreading and a time frame of existing. This fact, together with a significant fragmentation of discovered objects, make it difficult to determine the exact dating of the complex. The authors of the given article describe in detail artifacts that were discovered and identify their typology, chronology, and cultural background of all complexes. Typological and chronological analysis has shown that they have different periods of existing – from BzB1 to BzD and weigh upon to the timeline BzB1–BzC. Clay vessel based on the clay ornamentation points out to more late age, instead (BzB2–BzD). Therefore, «inconsistencies» in the dating of objects from this hoard indicate a need for correction and reviewing of the existing schemes of the hoards' chronology of the Bronze Age of the Upper Tisza region and their relationship to the phases of the Stanovo culture (Suchu de Sus) development.