Some Balaton-Lasinja Graves from Veszprém-Jutasi Út and an Outline Chronology for the Earlier Copper Age in Western Hungary

Abstract

A handful of new radiocarbon dates from three Balaton-Lasinja culture graves at the site of Veszprém-Jutasi út in western Hungary form the starting point for formal models for late Lengyel and post-Lengyel chronology in that region. The graves date to the later fifth millennium cal BC. They provide the opportunity to put the earlier Copper Age Balaton-Lasinja culture of Transdanubia into its regional and wider context, and to highlight both gradually improving understanding of its character and remaining problems of chronology and classification. The Balaton-Lasinja culture was part of a whole series of regional shifts in settlement and society connected to the end of the Neolithic and the demise of major settlement aggregations which had dominated lifestyles in previous centuries. This study indicates how much further detailed research continues to be needed to get fully to grips with this set of important changes, which run on into the Copper Age. Contrasts are drawn between western and eastern Hungary, and the uncertainties surrounding the chronology of the fourth millennium cal BC, including for the Furchenstich pottery style, are emphasised.