Kakucs-Balla-domb. A case study in the absolute and relative chronology of the Vatya culture

Authors:

• Mateusz Jaeger,
• G. Kulcsár

Abstract

The present study hopes to contribute to Middle Bronze Age studies in two specific areas: first, by publishing a new series of radiocarbon dates for a period from which there are few absolute dates, and second, by describing a less known area in the Vatya culture distribution based on the investigations at Kakucs.The Kakucs area was increasingly intensively settled during the course of the Bronze Age. In this context, the area along the left Danube bank down to the Kakucs area, lying in close proximity to the eponymous site at Újhartyán-Vatya, is very instructive. Following a scanty occupation marked by a few smaller sites at the onset of the Early Bronze Age, the number of sites and associated cemeteries grew dynamically from the late Nagyrév/early Vatya period onward. Despite the uncertainties in the relative chronology of the known Middle Bronze Age sites, the increase in the number of sites is in itself a reflection of a population growth and an increasing landscape exploitation. The left bank of the Danube became one of the period's most intensively settled regions during the Middle Bronze Age 1-3.