1.
Archaeological culture
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An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of artifacts from a specific time and place, which may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between the artifacts is based on understanding and interpretation and does not necessarily relate to real groups of humans in the past. The concept of culture is fundamental to culture-historical archaeology. Different cultural groups have material culture items which differ both functionally and aesthetically due to varying cultural and social practices and this notion is observably true on the broadest scales. For example, the equipment associated with the brewing of tea varies greatly across the world, social relations to material culture often include notions of identity and status. The classic definition of this comes from Gordon Childe, We find certain types of remains - pots, implements, ornaments, burial rites. Such a complex of associated traits we shall call a group or just a culture. We assume that such a complex is the expression of what today we would call a people. The concept of a culture was crucial to linking the typological analysis of archaeological evidence to mechanisms that attempted to explain why they change through time. The key explanations favoured by culture-historians were the diffusion of forms from one group to another or the migration of the peoples themselves. Conversely, if one pottery-type suddenly replaces a great diversity of types in an entire region. Archaeological cultures were generally equated with separate peoples leading in some cases to distinct nationalist archaeologies, most archaeological cultures are named after either the type artifact or type site that defines the culture. For example, cultures may be named after pottery types such as Linear Pottery Culture or Funnelbeaker culture, more frequently, they are named after the site at which the culture was first defined such as the Halstatt culture or Clovis culture. Since the term culture has different meanings, scholars have also coined a more specific term paleo-culture or paleoculture. Works of Kulturgeschichte were produced by a number of German scholars, particularly Gustav Klemm, from 1780 onwards, the first use of culture in an archaeological context was in Christian Thomsens 1836 work Ledetraad til Nordisk Oldkyndighed. It was not until the 20th century and the works of German prehistorian, Kossinna saw the archaeological record as a mosaic of clearly defined cultures that were strongly associated with race. The strongly racist character of Kossinnas work meant it had direct influence outside of Germany at the time. However, the general culture history approach to archaeology that he began did replace social evolutionism as the dominant paradigm for much of the 20th century
2.
Neolithic Europe
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Neolithic Europe is the period when Neolithic technology was present in Europe, roughly between 7000 BCE and c.1700 BCE. The Neolithic overlaps the Mesolithic and Bronze Age periods in Europe as cultural changes moved from the southeast to northwest at about 1 km/year - this is called Neolithic Expansion. Polished stone axes lie at the heart of the culture, enabling forest clearance for agriculture and production of wood for dwellings. Since the 1970s, population genetics has provided independent data on the history of Neolithic Europe, including migration events. Remains of food-producing societies in the Aegean have been carbon-dated to around 6500 BCE at Knossos, Franchthi Cave, Neolithic groups appear soon afterwards in the Balkans and south-central Europe. The Neolithic cultures of southeastern Europe show some continuity with groups in southwest Asia and Anatolia. All Neolithic sites in Europe contain ceramics, and contain the plants and animals domesticated in Southwest Asia, einkorn, emmer, barley, lentils, pigs, goats, sheep, and cattle. Genetic data suggest that no independent domestication of animals took place in Neolithic Europe, the only domesticate not from Southwest Asia was broomcorn millet, domesticated in East Asia. The earliest evidence of cheese-making dates to 5500 BCE in Kujawy, archaeologists seem to agree that the culture of the early Neolithic is relatively homogeneous, compared both to the late Mesolithic and the later Neolithic. The diffusion across Europe, from the Aegean to Britain, took about 2,500 years, the Baltic region was penetrated a bit later, around 3500 BCE, and there was also a delay in settling the Pannonian plain. In general, colonization shows a pattern, as the Neolithic advanced from one patch of fertile alluvial soil to another. With some exceptions, population rose rapidly at the beginning of the Neolithic until they reached the carrying capacity. This was followed by a crash of enormous magnitude after 5000 BCE. Populations began to rise after 3500 BCE, with further dips, a study of twelve European regions found most experienced boom and bust patterns and suggested an endogenous, not climatic cause. Archaeologists agree that the associated with agriculture originated in the Levant/Near East. However, debate exists whether this resulted from an active process from the Near East, or merely due to cultural contact. Currently, three models summarize the pattern of spread, Replacement model, posits that there was a significant migration of farmers from the Fertile Crescent into Europe. Given their technological advantages, they would have displaced or absorbed the less numerous hunter-gathering populace, thus, modern Europeans are primarily descended from these Neolithic farmers
3.
Danube
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The Danube is Europes second-longest river, after the Volga River, and also the longest river in the European Union region. It is located in Central and Eastern Europe, the Danube was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire, and today flows through 10 countries, more than any other river in the world. Its drainage basin extends into nine more countries, the Latin name Dānuvius is one of a number of Old European river names derived from a Proto-Indo-European *dānu. Other river names from the root include the Dunajec, Dzvina/Daugava, Don, Donets, Dnieper, Dniestr. In Rigvedic Sanskrit, dānu means fluid, drop, in Avestan, in the Rigveda, Dānu once appears as the mother of Vrtra. Known to the ancient Greeks as the Istros a borrowing from a Daco-Thracian name meaning strong, in Latin, the Danube was variously known as Danubius, Danuvius or as Ister. The Dacian/Thracian name was Donaris for the upper Danube and Istros for the lower Danube, the Thraco-Phrygian name was Matoas, the bringer of luck. The Latin name is masculine, as are all its Slavic names, the German Donau is feminine, as it has been re-interpreted as containing the suffix -ouwe wetland. Classified as a waterway, it originates in the town of Donaueschingen, in the Black Forest of Germany, at the confluence of the rivers Brigach. The Danube then flows southeast for about 2,800 km, passing through four capital cities before emptying into the Black Sea via the Danube Delta in Romania and its drainage basin extends into nine more. The highest point of the basin is the summit of Piz Bernina at the Italy–Switzerland border. The land drained by the Danube extends into other countries. Many Danubian tributaries are important rivers in their own right, navigable by barges, from its source to its outlet into the Black Sea, its main tributaries are, The Danube flows through many cities, including four national capitals, more than any other river in the world. Danube remains a mountain river until Passau, with average bottom gradient 0. 0012%. Middle Section, From Devín Gate to Iron Gate, at the border of Serbia and Romania, the riverbed widens and the average bottom gradient becomes only 0. 00006%. Lower Section, From Iron Gate to Sulina, with average gradient as little as 0. 00003%, about 60 of its tributaries are also navigable. In 1994 the Danube was declared one of ten Pan-European transport corridors, routes in Central, the amount of goods transported on the Danube increased to about 100 million tons in 1987. In 1999, transport on the river was difficult by the NATO bombing of three bridges in Serbia during the Kosovo War
4.
Central Europe
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Central Europe lies between Eastern Europe and Western Europe. The concept of Central Europe is based on a historical, social and cultural identity. Central Europe is going through a phase of strategic awakening, with such as the CEI, Centrope. While the regions economy shows high disparities with regard to income, elements of unity for Western and Central Europe were Roman Catholicism and Latin. According to Hungarian historian Jenő Szűcs, foundations of Central European history at the first millennium were in connection with Western European development. The keyword of Western social development after millennium was the spread of liberties and autonomies in Western Europe and these phenomena appeared in the middle of the 13th century in Central European countries. There were self-governments of towns, counties and parliaments, in 1335 under the rule of the King Charles I of Hungary, the castle of Visegrád, the seat of the Hungarian monarchs was the scene of the royal summit of the Kings of Poland, Bohemia and Hungary. They agreed to cooperate closely in the field of politics and commerce, in the Middle Ages, countries in Central Europe adopted Magdeburg rights. Before 1870, the industrialization that had developed in Western and Central Europe, even in Eastern Europe, industrialization lagged far behind. Russia, for example, remained rural and agricultural. The concept of Central Europe was already known at the beginning of the 19th century, an example of that-time vision of Central Europe may be seen in J. Partsch’s book of 1903. On 21 January 1904, Mitteleuropäischer Wirtschaftsverein was established in Berlin with economic integration of Germany, another time, the term Central Europe became connected to the German plans of political, economic and cultural domination. The bible of the concept was Friedrich Naumann’s book Mitteleuropa in which he called for a federation to be established after the war. The concept failed after the German defeat in World War I, the revival of the idea may be observed during the Hitler era. According to Emmanuel de Martonne, in 1927 the Central European countries included, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, italy and Yugoslavia are not considered by the author to be Central European because they are located mostly outside Central Europe. The author use both Human and Physical Geographical features to define Central Europe, the interwar period brought new geopolitical system and economic and political problems, and the concept of Central Europe took a different character. The centre of interest was moved to its eastern part – the countries that have appeared on the map of Europe, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, however, the conflict of interests was too big and neither Little Entente nor Intermarium ideas succeeded. The interwar period brought new elements to the concept of Central Europe, after the war, the Eastern part of Central Europe was placed at the centre of the concept
5.
Lengyel
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Lengyel is the highest inhabited village in Tolna County, Hungary. It is located between Bonyhád and Dombóvár, Lengyel culture is named after the village. Annabál Pollen Youth Rock Festival Apponyi manor house surrounded by 22 hectares of park with botanical rarities, kindergarten museum Svájceráj Apponyi basement The post office and kindergarten building Anna Bath - With 100 hectares of forested park, a school, a lake, and a small zoo. Sánci Peak with a panorama of the Kapos Valley. Street map Aerial Photography of Lengyel Pollen Rock Festivals Webpage Tolna Countys ethnic German history and a few mentions of Lengyel Castle
6.
Tolna County
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Tolna, is an administrative county in present Hungary and in the former Kingdom of Hungary. It lies in central Hungary, on the west bank of the river Danube and it shares borders with the Hungarian counties Somogy, Fejér, Bács-Kiskun, and Baranya. The capital of Tolna county is Szekszárd, Tolna was also the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory, which was about the same as that of present Tolna county, is now in central Hungary, the capital of the county was Szekszárd. In 2015, it had a population of 225,936, besides the Hungarian majority, the main minorities are the Germans and Roma. Total population,230,361 Ethnic groups, Identified themselves,214953 persons, Hungarians,194685 Germans,10195 Gypsies,8768 Others,32,000 persons in Tolna County did not declare their ethnic group at the 2011 census. Religious adherence in the county according to 2011 census, Catholic –47. 2% Reformed –8. 0%, Evangelical –3. 0%, Other religions –1. 1%, Non-religious –15. 5%, Atheism –1. 0%, Undeclared –24. 1%. Official site in Hungarian and German Tolnai Népújság - The county portal
7.
Linear Pottery culture
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The Linear Pottery culture is a major archaeological horizon of the European Neolithic, flourishing circa 5500–4500 BC. It is abbreviated as LBK, and is known as the Linear Band Ware, Linear Ware, Linear Ceramics or Incised Ware culture. The densest evidence for the culture is on the middle Danube, the upper and middle Elbe, and it represents a major event in the initial spread of agriculture in Europe. The pottery after which it was named consists of simple cups, bowls, vases, and jugs, without handles, but in a phase with lugs or pierced lugs, bases. The Eastern Linear Pottery Culture flourished in eastern Hungary, Middle and late phases are also defined. In the middle phase, the Early Linear Pottery culture intruded upon the Bug-Dniester culture, in the late phase, the Stroked Pottery culture moved down the Vistula and Elbe. A number of cultures ultimately replaced the Linear Pottery culture over its range, the culture map, instead, is complex. Some of the cultures are the Hinkelstein, Großgartach, Rössen, Lengyel, Cucuteni-Trypillian. The term Linear Band Ware derives from the potterys decorative technique, the Band Ware or Bandkeramik part of it began as an innovation of the German archaeologist, Friedrich Klopfleisch. The earliest generally accepted name in English was the Danubian of V. Gordon Childe, most names in English are attempts to translate Linearbandkeramik. Since Starčevo-Körös pottery was earlier than the LBK and was located in a contiguous food-producing region, much of the Starčevo-Körös pottery features decorative patterns composed of convolute bands of paint, spirals, converging bands, vertical bands, and so on. The LBK appears to imitate and often improve these convolutions with incised lines, hence the term, linear, the LBK did not begin with this range and only reached it toward the end of its time. It began in regions of densest occupation on the middle Danube, the rate of expansion was therefore about 4 km per year, which can hardly be called an invasion or a wave by the standard of current events, but over archaeological time seems especially rapid. The LBK was concentrated somewhat inland from the areas, i. e. it is not evidenced in Denmark or the northern coastal strips of Germany and Poland. The northern coastal regions remained occupied by Mesolithic cultures exploiting the then fabulously rich Atlantic salmon runs, evidently, the Neolithics and Mesolithics were not excluding each other. The LBK at maximum extent ranged from about the line of the Seine–Oise eastward to the line of the Dnieper, and southward to the line of the upper Danube down to the big bend. An extension ran through the Southern Bug valley, leaped to the valley of the Dniester, a good many C-14 dates have been acquired on the LBK, making possible statistical analyses, which have been performed on different sample groups. The 95. 4% confidence interval is 5600–4750 BC, data continue to be acquired and therefore any one analysis should be taken as a rough guideline only
8.
Corded Ware culture
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Corded Ware culture encompassed a vast area, from the Rhine on the west to the Volga in the east, occupying parts of Northern Europe, Central Europe and Eastern Europe. The Corded Ware was genetically related to the Yamnaya culture. The Corded Ware culture may have disseminated the Proto-Germanic and Proto-Balto-Slavic Indo-European languages, the Corded Ware Culture also shows genetic affinity with the later Sintashta culture, where the proto-Indo-Iranian language originated. The term Corded Ware culture was first introduced by the German archaeologist Friedrich Klopfleisch in 1883 and he named it after cord-like impressions or ornamentation characteristic of its pottery. The term Single Grave culture comes from its burial custom, which consisted of inhumation under tumuli in a position with various artifacts. Battle Axe culture, or Boat Axe culture, is named from its characteristic grave offering to males, at the same time, they had several shared elements that are characteristic of all Corded Ware groups, such as their burial practices, pottery with cord decoration and unique stone-axes. The contemporary Beaker culture overlapped with the extremity of this culture, west of the Elbe. The origins and dispersal of Corded Ware culture was for a time one of the pivotal unresolved issues of the Indo-European Urheimat problem. Its wide area of distribution indicates rapid expansion at the time of the dispersal of Indo-European languages. Some archaeologists believed it sprang from central Europe while others saw an influence from nomadic societies of the steppes. In favour of the first view was the fact that Corded Ware coincides considerably with the earlier north-central European Funnelbeaker culture, according to Gimbutas, the Corded Ware culture was preceded by the Globular Amphora culture, which she regarded to be an Indo-European culture. The Globular Amphora culture stretched from central Europe to the Baltic sea, however, in other regions Corded Ware appears to herald a new culture and physical type. The degree to which cultural change generally represents immigration were matter of debate, according to controversial radiocarbon dates, Corded Ware ceramic forms in single graves develop earlier in the area that is now Poland than in western and southern Central Europe. The earliest radiocarbon dates for Corded Ware indeed come from Kujawy and Lesser Poland in central and southern Poland, whereas in the area of the present Baltic states and East Prussia, it is seen as an intrusive successor to the southwestern portion of the Narva culture. However, today Corded Ware is now seen as intrusive, though not necessarily aggressively so. A Genetic study conducted by Haak et al, about 75% of the DNA of late Neolithic Corded Ware skeletons found in Germany was a precise match to DNA from individuals of the Yamnaya culture. Haak et al. also note that their results suggest that haplogroups R1b and R1a spread into Europe from the East after 3,000 BCE.5 In terms of phenotypes, Wilde et al. and Haak et al. Autosomal DNA tests also indicate that the Yamnaya migration from the steppes introduced a component of ancestry referred to as Ancient North Eurasian admixture into Europe
9.
Funnelbeaker culture
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The Funnelbeaker culture, in short TRB or TBK was an archaeological culture in north-central Europe. Especially in the southern and eastern groups, local sequences of variants emerged, the younger TRB in these areas was superseded by the Single Grave culture at about 2800 BC. The north-central European megaliths were built primarily during the TRB era, the Funnelbeaker culture is named for its characteristic ceramics, beakers and amphorae with funnel-shaped tops, which were found in dolmen burials. The TRB ranges from the Elbe catchment in Germany and Bohemia with an extension into the Netherlands, to southern Scandinavia in the north. With the exception of some settlements such as Alvastra pile-dwelling. It was characterised by single-family daubed houses c.12 m x 6 m and it was dominated by animal husbandry of sheep, cattle, pigs and goats, but there was also hunting and fishing. One find assigned to the Funnelbeaker culture is the Bronocice pot from Poland, primitive wheat and barley was grown on small patches that were fast depleted, due to which the population frequently moved small distances. There was also mining and collection of flintstone, which was traded into regions lacking the stone, the culture imported copper from Central Europe, especially daggers and axes. The houses were centered on a grave, a symbol of social cohesion. Burial practices were varied, depending on region and changed over time, inhumation seems to have been the rule. The oldest graves consisted of wooden chambered cairns inside long barrows, originally, the structures were probably covered with a heap of dirt and the entrance was blocked by a stone. The Funnelbeaker culture marks the appearance of megalithic tombs at the coasts of the Baltic and of the North sea, the megalithic structures of Ireland, France and Portugal are somewhat older and have been connected to earlier archeological cultures of those areas. At graves, the people sacrificed ceramic vessels that contained food along with amber jewelry, flint-axes and vessels were also deposed in streams and lakes near the farmlands, and virtually all Swedens 10,000 flint axes that have been found from this culture were probably sacrificed in water. They also constructed large cult centres surrounded by pales, earthworks, the largest one is found at Sarup on Fyn. It comprises 85,000 m2 and is estimated to have taken 8000 workdays, another cult centre at Stävie near Lund comprises 30,000 m2. Marija Gimbutas postulated that the relationship between the aboriginal and intrusive cultures resulted in quick and smooth cultural morphosis into the Corded Ware culture. By contrast a number of archaeologists in the past have proposed that the Corded Ware culture was a purely local development from Funnel Beaker. Thus the question of continuity versus migration at the cusp of the change was of interest to geneticists specialising in ancient DNA
10.
Hungary
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Hungary is a unitary parliamentary republic in Central Europe. With about 10 million inhabitants, Hungary is a member state of the European Union. The official language is Hungarian, which is the most widely spoken language in Europe. Hungarys capital and largest metropolis is Budapest, a significant economic hub, major urban areas include Debrecen, Szeged, Miskolc, Pécs and Győr. His great-grandson Stephen I ascended to the throne in 1000, converting the country to a Christian kingdom, by the 12th century, Hungary became a middle power within the Western world, reaching a golden age by the 15th century. Hungarys current borders were established in 1920 by the Treaty of Trianon after World War I, when the country lost 71% of its territory, 58% of its population, following the interwar period, Hungary joined the Axis Powers in World War II, suffering significant damage and casualties. Hungary became a state of the Soviet Union, which contributed to the establishment of a four-decade-long communist dictatorship. On 23 October 1989, Hungary became again a democratic parliamentary republic, in the 21st century, Hungary is a middle power and has the worlds 57th largest economy by nominal GDP, as well as the 58th largest by PPP, out of 188 countries measured by the IMF. As a substantial actor in several industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds 36th largest exporter and importer of goods, Hungary is a high-income economy with a very high standard of living. It keeps up a security and universal health care system. Hungary joined the European Union in 2004 and part of the Schengen Area since 2007, Hungary is a member of the United Nations, NATO, WTO, World Bank, the AIIB, the Council of Europe and Visegrád Group. Well known for its cultural history, Hungary has been contributed significantly to arts, music, literature, sports and science. Hungary is the 11th most popular country as a tourist destination in Europe and it is home to the largest thermal water cave system, the second largest thermal lake in the world, the largest lake in Central Europe, and the largest natural grasslands in Europe. The H in the name of Hungary is most likely due to historical associations with the Huns. The rest of the word comes from the Latinized form of Medieval Greek Oungroi, according to an explanation the Greek name was borrowed from Proto-Slavic Ǫgǔri, in turn borrowed from Oghur-Turkic Onogur. Onogur was the name for the tribes who later joined the Bulgar tribal confederacy that ruled the eastern parts of Hungary after the Avars. The Hungarians likely belonged to the Onogur tribal alliance and it is possible they became its ethnic majority. The Hungarian endonym is Magyarország, composed of magyar and ország, the word magyar is taken from the name of one of the seven major semi-nomadic Hungarian tribes, magyeri
11.
Czech Republic
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The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, is a nation state in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west, Austria to the south, Slovakia to the east and Poland to the northeast. The Czech Republic covers an area of 78,866 square kilometres with mostly temperate continental climate and it is a unitary parliamentary republic, has 10.5 million inhabitants and the capital and largest city is Prague, with over 1.2 million residents. The Czech Republic includes the territories of Bohemia, Moravia. The Czech state was formed in the late 9th century as the Duchy of Bohemia under the Great Moravian Empire, after the fall of the Empire in 907, the centre of power transferred from Moravia to Bohemia under the Přemyslid dynasty. In 1002, the duchy was formally recognized as part of the Holy Roman Empire, becoming the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1198 and reaching its greatest territorial extent in the 14th century. Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the whole Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy alongside the Archduchy of Austria, the Protestant Bohemian Revolt against the Catholic Habsburgs led to the Thirty Years War. After the Battle of the White Mountain, the Habsburgs consolidated their rule, reimposed Roman Catholicism, the Czech part of Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany in World War II, and was liberated in 1945 by the armies of the Soviet Union and the United States. The Czech country lost the majority of its German-speaking inhabitants after they were expelled following the war, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won the 1946 elections. Following the 1948 coup détat, Czechoslovakia became a one-party communist state under Soviet influence, in 1968, increasing dissatisfaction with the regime culminated in a reform movement known as the Prague Spring, which ended in a Soviet-led invasion. Czechoslovakia remained occupied until the 1989 Velvet Revolution, when the communist regime collapsed, on 6 March 1990, the Czech Socialistic Republic was renamed to the Czech Republic. On 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved, with its constituent states becoming the independent states of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004, it is a member of the United Nations, the OECD, the OSCE, and it is a developed country with an advanced, high income economy and high living standards. The UNDP ranks the country 14th in inequality-adjusted human development, the Czech Republic also ranks as the 6th most peaceful country, while achieving strong performance in democratic governance. It has the lowest unemployment rate in the European Union, the traditional English name Bohemia derives from Latin Boiohaemum, which means home of the Boii. The current name comes from the endonym Čech, spelled Cžech until the reform in 1842. The name comes from the Slavic tribe and, according to legend, their leader Čech, the etymology of the word Čech can be traced back to the Proto-Slavic root *čel-, meaning member of the people, kinsman, thus making it cognate to the Czech word člověk. The country has traditionally divided into three lands, namely Bohemia in the west, Moravia in the southeast, and Czech Silesia in the northeast. Following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia at the end of 1992, the Czech part of the former nation found itself without a common single-word geographical name in English, the name Czechia /ˈtʃɛkiə/ was recommended by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs
12.
Slovakia
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Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Slovakias territory spans about 49,000 square kilometres and is mostly mountainous. The population is over 5 million and comprises mostly ethnic Slovaks, the capital and largest city is Bratislava. The Slavs arrived in the territory of present-day Slovakia in the 5th and 6th centuries, in the 7th century, they played a significant role in the creation of Samos Empire and in the 9th century established the Principality of Nitra. In the 10th century, the territory was integrated into the Kingdom of Hungary, which became part of the Habsburg Empire. After World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a separate Slovak Republic existed in World War II as a client state of Nazi Germany. In 1945, Czechoslovakia was reëstablished under Communist rule as a Soviet satellite, in 1989 the Velvet Revolution ended authoritarian Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Slovakia became an independent state on 1 January 1993 after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The country maintains a combination of economy with universal health care. The country joined the European Union in 2004 and the Eurozone on 1 January 2009, Slovakia is also a member of the Schengen Area, NATO, the United Nations, the OECD, the WTO, CERN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Visegrád Group. The Slovak economy is one of the fastest growing economies in Europe and its legal tender, the Euro, is the worlds 2nd most traded currency. Although regional income inequality is high, 90% of citizens own their homes, in 2016, Slovak citizens had visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 165 countries and territories, ranking the Slovak passport 11th in the world. Slovakia is the world’s biggest per-capita car producer with a total of 1,040,000 cars manufactured in the country in 2016 alone, the car industry represents 43 percent of Slovakia’s industrial output, and a quarter of its exports. Radiocarbon datingputs the oldest surviving archaeological artefacts from Slovakia – found near Nové Mesto nad Váhom – at 270,000 BC and these ancient tools, made by the Clactonian technique, bear witness to the ancient habitation of Slovakia. Other stone tools from the Middle Paleolithic era come from the Prévôt cave near Bojnice, the most important discovery from that era is a Neanderthal cranium, discovered near Gánovce, a village in northern Slovakia. The most well-known finds include the oldest female statue made of mammoth-bone, the statue was found in the 1940s in Moravany nad Váhom near Piešťany. Numerous necklaces made of shells from Cypraca thermophile gastropods of the Tertiary period have come from the sites of Zákovská, Podkovice, Hubina and these findings provide the most ancient evidence of commercial exchanges carried out between the Mediterranean and Central Europe. The Bronze Age in the territory of modern-day Slovakia went through three stages of development, stretching from 2000 to 800 BC
13.
Lower Austria
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Lower Austria is the northeasternmost state of the nine states in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria since 1986 is Sankt Pölten, the most recently designated capital town in Austria, the capital of Lower Austria had formerly been Vienna, even though Vienna has not officially been part of Lower Austria since 1921. With a land area of 19,186 km2 and a population of 1.612 million people, it is the largest state in Austria, and in terms of population second only to the federal state of Vienna. Situated east of Upper Austria, Lower Austria derives its name from its location on the Danube River. Lower Austria has a border,414 km long, with the Czech Republic. The state has the second longest external border of all Austrian states and it also borders the other Austrian states of Upper Austria, Styria and Burgenland as well as surrounding Vienna. Lower Austria is divided into four regions, known as Viertel, Weinviertel or Tertiary Lowland Waldviertel or Bohemian Plateau Mostviertel Industrieviertel and these regions have different geographical structures. Whilst the Mostviertel is dominated by the foothills of the Limestone Alps with mountains up to 2,000 m high, semmering Wechsel The state border with Styria runs over both passes. Almost all of Lower Austria is drained by the Danube, the only river that flows into the North Sea is the Lainsitz in northern Waldviertel. The most important rivers north of the Danube are the Ysper, Kamp, Krems, Lainsitz, March, south of the Danube are the Enns, Ybbs, Erlauf, Melk, Pielach, Traisen, Schwechat, Fischa, Schwarza, Triesting, Pitten and the Leitha. Ottenstein Reservoir Lunzer See Erlaufsee Erlauf Reservoir Wienerwaldsee Lower Austria is rich in natural caves, most of the caves have formed in limestone and dolomite rocks and are therefore called karst caves. Cavities also form in the marble of the Central Alps and the Bohemian Massif, the history of Lower Austria is very similar to the history of Austria. Many castles are located in Lower Austria, klosterneuburg Abbey, located here, is one of the oldest abbeys in Austria. Before World War II, Lower Austria had the largest number of Jews in Austria, Lower Austria is divided into four regions, Waldviertel, Mostviertel, Industrieviertel, and Weinviertel. The Wachau valley, situated between Melk and Krems in the Mostviertel region, is famous for its landscape, culture, administratively, the state is divided into 20 districts, and four independent towns. In total, there are 573 municipalities within Lower Austria
14.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
15.
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
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Covering an area of 255,804 km², the SFRY was bordered with Italy to the west, Hungary to the north, Bulgaria and Romania to the east and Albania and Greece to the south. In addition, it included two autonomous provinces within Serbia, Kosovo and Vojvodina, the SFRY traces back to 29 June 1943 when the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia was formed during World War II. On 29 November 1945, the Federal Peoples Republic of Yugoslavia was proclaimed after the deposal of King Peter II thus ending the monarchy. Following the death of Tito on 4 May 1980, rising ethnic nationalism in the late 1980s led to dissidence among the multiple ethnicities within the constituent republics. This led to the federation collapsing along the borders, followed by the final downfall and breakup of the federation on 27 April 1992. The term former Yugoslavia is now commonly used retrospectively, the name Yugoslavia, an Anglicised transcription of Jugoslavija, is a composite word made-up of jug and slavija. The Serbo-Croatian, Slovene and Macedonian word jug means south, while slavija denotes a land of the Slavs, thus, a translation of Jugoslavija would be South-Slavia or Land of the South Slavs. The term is intended to denote the lands occupied by the six South Slavic nations, Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks, Montenegrins, Slovenes, the full official name of the federation varied significantly between 1945 and 1992. Yugoslavia was formed in 1918 under the name Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, the name deliberately left the republic-or-kingdom question open. In 1963, amid pervasive liberal constitutional reforms, the name Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was introduced, the state is most commonly referred to by the latter name, which it held for the longest period of all. The most common abbreviation is SFRY, though SFR Yugoslavia was also used in an official capacity, particularly by the media. On 6 April 1941, Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis powers led by Nazi Germany, by 17 April 1941, Yugoslav resistance was soon established in two forms, the Royal Yugoslav Army and the Yugoslav Partisans. The Partisan supreme commander was Josip Broz Tito, and under his command the movement soon began establishing liberated territories which attracted the attentions of the occupying forces. The coalition of parties, factions, and prominent individuals behind the movement was the Peoples Liberation Front. The Front formed a political body, the Anti-Fascist Council for the Peoples Liberation of Yugoslavia. The AVNOJ, which met for the first time in Partisan-liberated Bihać on 26 November 1942, during 1943, the Yugoslav Partisans began attracting serious attention from the Germans. In two major operations of Fall Weiss and Fall Schwartz, the Axis attempted to stamp-out the Yugoslav resistance once, on both occasions, despite heavy casualties, the Group succeeded in evading the trap and retreating to safety. The Partisans emerged stronger than before and now occupied a significant portion of Yugoslavia
16.
Longhouse
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A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building built by peoples in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe, and North America. Many were built from timber and often represent the earliest form of permanent structure in many cultures, the Neolithic long house type was introduced with the first farmers of central and western Europe around 5000 BCE—7000 years ago. These were farming settlements built in groups of six to twelve and were home to large extended families. The longhouse is a way of shelter. Located along a slope, a single passage gives access to human and animal shelter under a single roof. The old Frisian Langhuis that developed into the Frisian farmhouse which probably influenced the development of the Gulf house, with these house types the wooden posts originally rammed into the ground were replaced by posts supported on a base. The large and well-supported attic enabled large quantities of hay or grain to be stored in dry conditions and this development may have been driven because the weather became wetter over time. Good examples of houses have been preserved, some dating back to the 16th century. The longhouse was 50 to 60 feet long, the longhouse had a 3 metres -wide central aisle and 2 metres -wide compartments, about 6 to 7 metres long, down each side. The end compartments were used for storage. Hearths were spaced about 6 to 7 metres apart down the aisle and it is possible to infer the population of an Iroquois town from the size and number of longhouses it contained. In South America, the Tucano people of Colombia and northwest Brazil traditionally combine a household in a long house. The Xingu peoples of central Brazil build a series of longhouses in circular formations forming round villages, the ancient Tupi people of Brazilian Coast used to do this as well. The Yanomami people of Brazil and Venezuela build a hut with a thatched roof that has a hole in the middle, called shabono. In Daepyeong, a site of the Mumun pottery period in Korea. Their layout seems to be similar to those of the Iroquois, in these, several fireplaces were arranged along the longitudinal axis of the building. Later, the ancient Koreans started raising their buildings on stilts, so that the inner partitions, the size of the buildings and their placement within the settlements may point to buildings for the nobles of their society or some sort of community or religious buildings. In Igeum-dong, a site in South Korea, the large longhouses,29 and 26 meters long, are situated between the megalithic cemetery and the rest of the settlement
17.
Burial
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Burial or interment is the ritual act of placing a dead person or animal, sometimes with objects, into the ground. This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objects in it, humans have been burying their dead for at least 100,000 years. Burial is often seen as indicating respect for the dead, sometimes objects or grave goods are buried with the body, which may be dressed in fancy or ceremonial garb. Depending on the culture, the way the body is positioned may have great significance, the location of the burial may be determined taking into account concerns surrounding health and sanitation, religious concerns, and cultural practices. Some cultures keep the close to provide guidance to the living. Some religions consecrate special ground to bury the dead, and some families build private family cemeteries, most modern cultures document the location of graves with headstones, which may be inscribed with information and tributes to the deceased. However, some people are buried in anonymous or secret graves for various reasons, sometimes multiple bodies are buried in a single grave either by choice, due to space concerns, or in the case of mass graves as a way to deal with many bodies at once. Alternatives to burial may include cremation, burial at sea, promession, cryopreservation, some human cultures may bury the remains of beloved animals. Humans are not the species which bury their dead, the practice has been observed in chimpanzees, elephants. Evidence suggests that the Neanderthals were the first human species to practice burial behavior and intentionally bury their dead, doing so in shallow graves along with stone tools, exemplary sites include Shanidar in Iraq, Kebara Cave in Israel and Krapina in Croatia. Some scholars, however, argue that these bodies may have been disposed of for secular reasons, the earliest undisputed human burial dates back 100,000 years. Human skeletal remains stained with red ochre were discovered in the Skhul cave at Qafzeh, a variety of grave goods were present at the site, including the mandible of a wild boar in the arms of one of the skeletons. Prehistoric cemeteries are referred to by the neutral term grave field. After death, a body will decay, Burial is not necessarily a public health requirement. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the WHO advises that only corpses carrying an infectious disease strictly require burial, human burial practices are the manifestation of the human desire to demonstrate respect for the dead. Cultures vary in their mode of respect, some reasons follow, Respect for the physical remains. If left lying on top of the ground, scavengers may eat the corpse, in Tibet, Sky burials return the remains to the cycle of life and acknowledge the body as food, a core tenet of some Buddhist practices. Burial can be seen as an attempt to bring closure to the deceaseds family, psychologists in some Western Judeo-Christian quarters, as well as the US funeral industry, claim that by interring a body away from plain view the pain of losing a loved one can be lessened
18.
Copper
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Copper is a chemical element with symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of copper has a reddish-orange color. Copper is one of the few metals that occur in nature in directly usable metallic form as opposed to needing extraction from an ore and this led to very early human use, from c.8000 BC. Copper used in buildings, usually for roofing, oxidizes to form a green verdigris, Copper is sometimes used in decorative art, both in its elemental metal form and in compounds as pigments. Copper compounds are used as agents, fungicides, and wood preservatives. Copper is essential to all living organisms as a trace dietary mineral because it is a key constituent of the enzyme complex cytochrome c oxidase. In molluscs and crustaceans, copper is a constituent of the blood pigment hemocyanin, replaced by the hemoglobin in fish. In humans, copper is found mainly in the liver, muscle, the adult body contains between 1.4 and 2.1 mg of copper per kilogram of body weight. The filled d-shells in these elements contribute little to interatomic interactions, unlike metals with incomplete d-shells, metallic bonds in copper are lacking a covalent character and are relatively weak. This observation explains the low hardness and high ductility of single crystals of copper, at the macroscopic scale, introduction of extended defects to the crystal lattice, such as grain boundaries, hinders flow of the material under applied stress, thereby increasing its hardness. For this reason, copper is supplied in a fine-grained polycrystalline form. The softness of copper partly explains its high conductivity and high thermal conductivity. The maximum permissible current density of copper in open air is approximately 3. 1×106 A/m2 of cross-sectional area, Copper is one of a few metallic elements with a natural color other than gray or silver. Pure copper is orange-red and acquires a reddish tarnish when exposed to air, as with other metals, if copper is put in contact with another metal, galvanic corrosion will occur. A green layer of verdigris can often be seen on old structures, such as the roofing of many older buildings. Copper tarnishes when exposed to sulfur compounds, with which it reacts to form various copper sulfides. There are 29 isotopes of copper, 63Cu and 65Cu are stable, with 63Cu comprising approximately 69% of naturally occurring copper, both have a spin of 3⁄2
19.
Chalcolithic Europe
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Chalcolithic Europe, the Chalcolithic period of Prehistoric Europe, lasted roughly from 3500 to 1700 BC. It was a period of Megalithic culture, the appearance of the first significant economic stratification, mining of metal and stone was particularly developed in some areas, along with the processing of those materials into valuable goods. From c.3500 to 3000 BC, copper started being used in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, however, perhaps more influential on the period than copper itself was the domestication of horses and the resulting increased mobility of cultures. This may be correlated with the fact of the spread of Indo-European languages. Near the end of the period, another branch would leave traces in the lower Danube area. Meanwhile, the Danubian Lengyel culture absorbed its northern neighbours of the Czech Republic and Poland over a number of centuries, in Bulgaria and Wallachia, the Boian-Marica culture evolved into a monarchy with a clearly royal cemetery near the coast of the Black Sea. This model seems to have been copied later in the Tiszan region with the culture of Bodrogkeresztur, labour specialization, economic stratification and possibly the risk of invasion may have been the reasons behind this development. The influx of early Troy is clear in both the expansion of metallurgy and social organization, in the western Danubian region the culture of Michelsberg displaced its predecessor, Rössen. Meanwhile, in the Mediterranean basin, several converged into a functional union. Despite this unity, the signs of conflicts are clear, as many skeletons show violent injuries and this was the time and area where Ötzi, the famous man found in the Alps, lived. This period extends along the first half of the 3rd millennium BC, most significant is the reorganization of the Danubians into the powerful Baden culture, which extended more or less to what would be the Austro-Hungarian Empire in recent times. The new Ezero culture, in Bulgaria, shows the first traits of pseudo-bronze, so does the first significant Aegean group, the Cycladic culture after 2800 BC. In the North, for some time the supposedly Indo-European groups seemed to recede temporarily, in the East, the peoples of beyond the Volga, surely eastern Indo-Europeans, ancestors of Iranians took over southern Russia and Ukraine. In the West the only sign of unity comes from the Megalithic super-culture, but the Mediterranean and Danubian groupings of the previous period appear fragmented into many smaller pieces, some of them apparently backward in technological matters. From c.2800 BC, the Danubian Seine-Oise-Marne culture pushed directly or indirectly southwards, despite the many differences the two civilizations seemed to be in friendly contact and to have productive exchanges. In the area of Dordogne, a new unexpected culture of bowmen appeared, the culture of Artenac, in Poland and nearby regions, the putative Indo-Europeans reorganized and consolidated again with the culture of the Globular Amphoras. Nevertheless, the influence of many centuries in direct contact with the still-powerful Danubian peoples had greatly modified their culture and this period extended from c.2500 BC to c.1800 or 1700 BC. The dates are general for the whole of Europe, and the Aegean area was fully in the Bronze Age
20.
Marija Gimbutas
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After the 1917 Russian Revolution, Gimbutas parents founded the first Lithuanian hospital in the capital. When I was four or five years old, I would sit in Basanavičiuss easy chair, and later, throughout my entire life, Basanavičiuss collected folklore remained extraordinarily important for me. In 1931, Gimbutas settled with her parents in Kaunas, the capital of Lithuania. After her parents separated that year, she lived with her mother and brother, Vytautas, five years later, her father died suddenly. At her fathers deathbed, Gimbutas pledged that she would study to become a scholar, All of a sudden I had to think what I shall be, I had been so reckless in sports—swimming for miles, skating, bicycle riding. I changed completely and began to read, in 1941, she married architect Jurgis Gimbutas. During the Second World War, Gimbutas lived under both Soviet and German occupations from 1940 to 1941 and 1941 to 1943, respectively. In her reflection of this turbulent period, Gimbutas remarked, Life just twisted me like a little plant, while holding a postdoctoral fellowship at Tübingen the following year, Gimbutas gave birth to her second daughter, Živilė. She did postgraduate work at the University of Heidelberg and the University of Munich in 1947 to 1949, the Gimbutas family left Germany and relocated to the United States in 1949. Her third daughter, Rasa Julija, was born August 1954 in Boston She died in Los Angeles, soon afterwards, she was interred in Kaunass Petrašiūnai Cemetery. From 1936, she participated in expeditions to record traditional folklore and studied Lithuanian beliefs. She graduated with honors from Aušra Gymnasium in Kaunas in 1938 and enrolled in the Vytautas Magnus University the same year and she then attended the University of Vilnius to pursue graduate studies in archaeology, linguistics, ethnology, folklore and literature. In 1942 she completed her masters thesis, Modes of Burial in Lithuania in the Iron Age and she received her Master of Arts degree from the University of Vilnius, Lithuania, in 1942. After arriving in the United States, Gimbutas immediately went to work at Harvard University translating Eastern European archaeological texts and she then became a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology. In 1955 she was made a Fellow of Harvards Peabody Museum and this hypothesis, and the act of bridging the disciplines, has had a significant impact on Indo-European studies. It was the Slavs who did the colonizing, according to her interpretations, gynocentric societies were peaceful, honored women, and espoused economic equality. The androcratic, or male-dominated, Kurgan peoples, on the hand, invaded Europe. The library includes Gimbutas extensive collection on the topics of archaeology, mythology, folklore, art, the Gimbutas Archives house over 12,000 images personally taken by Gimbutas of sacred figures, as well as research files on Neolithic cultures of Old Europe
21.
Proto-Indo-Europeans
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The Proto-Indo-Europeans were the prehistoric people of Eurasia who spoke Proto-Indo-European, the ancestor of the Indo-European languages according to linguistic reconstruction. Knowledge of them comes chiefly from that reconstruction, along with evidence from archaeology. The Proto-Indo-Europeans likely lived during the late Neolithic, or roughly the 4th millennium BCE, mainstream scholarship places them in the forest-steppe zone immediately to the north of the western end of the Pontic-Caspian steppe in Eastern Europe. Some archaeologists would extend the depth of PIE to the middle Neolithic or even the early Neolithic. They had domesticated horses – *eḱwos, the cow played a central role, in religion and mythology as well as in daily life. A mans wealth would have been measured by the number of his animals, as for technology, reconstruction indicates a culture of the late Neolithic bordering on the early Bronze Age, with tools and weapons very likely composed of natural bronze. Silver and gold were known, but not silver smelting, thus suggesting that silver was imported, sheep were kept for wool, and textiles were woven. The wheel was known, certainly for ox-drawn wagons and they practiced a polytheistic religion centered on sacrificial rites, probably administered by a priestly caste. Important leaders would have been buried with their belongings in kurgans, many Indo-European societies know a threefold division of priests, a warrior class, and a class of peasants or husbandmen. Georges Dumézil has suggested such a division for Proto-Indo-European society, if there was a separate class of warriors, it probably consisted of single young men. They would have followed a separate warrior code unacceptable in the society outside their peer-group, traces of initiation rites in several Indo-European societies suggest that this group identified itself with wolves or dogs. Researchers have made attempts to identify particular prehistoric cultures with the Proto-Indo-European-speaking peoples. The scholars of the 19th century who first tackled the question of the Indo-Europeans original homeland, had essentially only linguistic evidence and they attempted a rough localization by reconstructing the names of plants and animals as well as the culture and technology. In the early 20th century, the question became associated with the expansion of a supposed Aryan race, a fallacy promoted during the expansion of European empires, the question remains contentious within some flavours of ethnic nationalism. A series of major advances occurred in the 1970s due to the convergence of several factors, first, the radiocarbon dating method had become sufficiently inexpensive to be applied on a mass scale. Through dendrochronology, pre-historians could calibrate radiocarbon dates to a higher degree of accuracy. The Kurgan hypothesis, as of 2017 the most widely held theory, depends on linguistic and archaeological evidence and it suggests PIE origin in the Pontic-Caspian steppe during the Chalcolithic. A minority of scholars prefer the Anatolian hypothesis, suggesting an origin in Anatolia during the Neolithic, other theories have only marginal scholarly support
22.
Globular Amphora culture
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The Globular Amphora Culture, German Kugelamphoren-Kultur, ca. 3400–2800 BC, is a culture, thought to be of Indo-European origin. Somewhat to the south and west, it was bordered by the Baden culture, to the northeast was the Narva culture. It occupied much of the area as the earlier Funnelbeaker culture. The name was coined by Gustaf Kossinna because of the characteristic pottery and it was located in the area defined by the Elbe catchment on the west and that of the Vistula on the east, extending southwards to the middle Dniester and eastwards to reach the Dnieper. West of the Elbe, some globular amphorae are found in megalithic graves, the GAC finds in the Steppe area are normally attributed to a rather late expansion between 2950-2350 cal. BC from a centre in Wolhynia and Podolia, the economy was based on raising a variety of livestock, pigs particularly in its earlier phase, in distinction to the Funnelbeaker cultures preference for cattle. Settlements are sparse, and these normally just contain small clusters pits, no convincing house-plans have yet been excavated. It is suggested some of these settlements were not year-round. The GAC is primarily known from its burials, inhumation was in a pit or cist. A variety of offerings were left, including animal parts or even whole animals. Grave gifts include the typical globular amphorae and stone axes, there are also cattle-burials, often in pairs, accompanied by grave gifts. There are also burials in Megalithic graves. The inclusion of animals in the grave is seen as a cultural element by Marija Gimbutas. The practice of suttee, hypothesized by Gimbutas is also seen as an intrusive cultural element. The supporters of the Kurgan hypothesis point to these distinctive burial practices, in this context and given its area of occupation, this culture has been claimed as the underlying culture of a Germanic-Baltic-Slavic continuum. J. P. Mallory, Globular Amphora Culture, Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, eastern exodus of the globular amphora people, 2950-2350 BC. Poznań, Adam Mickiewicz University, Institute of Prehistory 1996, Baltic-Pontic studies 4
23.
Neolithic circular enclosures in Central Europe
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Approximately 120–150 Neolithic earthworks enclosures are known in Central Europe. They are called Kreisgrabenanlagen in German, or alternatively as roundels and they date to the first half of the 5th millennium BC, they are associated with the late Linear Pottery culture and its local successors, the Stroke-ornamented ware and Lengyel cultures. The best known and oldest of these Circular Enclosures is the Goseck circle, only a few examples approximate a circular form, the majority are only very approximately circular or elliptic. One example at Meisternthal is an ellipse with identifiable focal points. The distribution of these seems to suggest a spread from the middle Danube towards the west along the Danube. They precede the comparable circular earthwork or timber enclosures known from Great Britain and Ireland, but, by contrast to the long lifetime of the Megalithic culture, the time window during which the neolithic Roundels were in use is surprisingly narrow, lasting only for about 200–300 years. Three types have been distinguished, two semicircular ditches forming a circle and separated by causeways at opposing entrances, multiple circuits of ditches interrupted with entrances at cardinal or astronomically-oriented points and also having an internal single or double timber palisade. The structures are interpreted as having served a cultic purpose. This is the case with the gates or openings of the roundels of Quenstedt, Goseck, the observational determination of the time of solstice would not have served a practical purpose, but could have been used to maintain a lunisolar calendar. Known Circular Enclosures, in Slovakia, about 50 candidate sites from aerial surveys, there are 15 known neolithic sites. The largest of these are, Svodín 2, Demandice, Bajtava, Horné Otrokovce, Podhorany-Mechenice, Cífer 127 m, Golianovo, Žitavce, Hosťovce, Prašník. Běhařovice, Borkovany, Bulhary, Krpy, Křepice, Mašovice, Němčičky, upper Austria, Ölkam. in Poland, Biskupin, Bodzów, Rąpice in Germany Saxony Anhalt, Quenstedt, Goseck, Kötschlitz, Quedlinburg, outer diameters between 72 and 110 m. -9. Gillian Varndell, Peter Topping, Enclosures in Neolithic Europe, Oxbow,2002, Peter F. Biel, Measuring time in the European Neolithic. Thomas Plath, Zur Problematik der Nutzungsinterpretation mittelneolithischer Kreisgrabenanlagen, diss, falko Daim, Wolfgang Neubauer, Zeitreise Heldenberg – Geheimnisvolle Kreisgräben. André Spatzier, Systematische Untersuchungen der Kreisgrabenanlage von Pömmelte-Zackmünde, Salzlandkreis, zum Abschluss der Grabungen an mitteldeutschen Rondellen im Rahmen der Forschergruppe FOR,550. In, H. Meller, Zusammengegraben - Kooperationsprojekte in Sachsen-Anhalt, mai 2009 im Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle
24.
Yamna culture
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The Yamna culture, was a late Copper Age to early Bronze Age culture of the region between the Southern Bug, Dniester and Ural rivers, dating to 3500–2300 BC. The Yamna culture is identified with the late Proto-Indo-Europeans, and is the strongest candidate for the Urheimat of the Proto-Indo-European language, Yamna and Yamnaya are borrowed from Ukrainian, Ямна культура and Russian, Ямная культура respectively, and both mean pit-grave. The root in both cases is яма meaning pit, in these groups, there are present several aspects of the Yamna culture. Studies have also established that these populations derived large parts of their ancestry from the steppes, the Yamna culture originated in the Don-Volga area, and is dated 3300–2500 BC. It was preceded by the middle Volga-based Khvalynsk culture and the Don-based Repin culture, the early Yamnaya horizon spread quickly across the Pontic-Caspian steppes between ca.3400 and 3200 BC. According to Anthony, the spread of the Yamnaya horizon was the expression of the spread of late Proto-Indo-European across the Pontic-Caspian steppes. In its western range, it was succeeded by the Catacomb culture, in the east and these two cultures were followed by the Srubna culture. According to Jones et al. and Haak et al, each of those two populations contributed about half the Yamnaya DNA. Remains of the Eastern European hunter-gatherers have been found in Mesolithic or early Neolithic sites in Karelia and Samara Oblast, Russia, three such hunter-gathering individuals of the male sex have had their DNA results published. Each was found to belong to a different Y-DNA haplogroup, R1a, R1b, the Near East population were most likely hunter-gatherers from the Caucasus c. q. Iran Chalcolithic related people with a CHG-component, who descended from the early neolithic Zagros Farmers. Jones et al. analyzed genomes from males from western Georgia, in the Caucasus, from the Late Upper Palaeolithic and these two males carried Y-DNA haplogroup, J* and J2a. Their genomes showed that a mixture of the Caucasians with Middle Eastern took place up to 25,000 years ago. A population related to the people of the Iran Chalcolithic contributed ~43% of the ancestry of early Bronze Age populations of the steppe. According to Lazaridis et al. these Iranian Chalcolithic people were a mixture of the Neolithic people of western Iran, the Levant, the Yamna culture is identified with the late Proto-Indo-Europeans in the Kurgan hypothesis of Marija Gimbutas. Significantly, animal grave offerings were made, an associated with Proto-Indo-Europeans. The culture was nomadic, with some agriculture practiced near rivers. Characteristic for the culture are the inhumations in pit graves under kurgans, the dead bodies were placed in a supine position with bent knees and covered in ochre
25.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
26.
Chalcolithic
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The Copper Age was originally defined as a transition between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. The archaeological site of Belovode on the Rudnik mountain in Serbia contains the worlds oldest securely dated evidence of copper smelting from 5000 BCE, the multiple names result from multiple recognitions of the period. Originally, the term Bronze Age meant that either copper or bronze was being used as the hard substance for the manufacture of tools. In 1881, John Evans, recognizing that the use of copper often preceded the use of bronze and he did not include the transitional period in the tripartite system of Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age but placed it at the beginning outside of it. He did not, however, present it as a fourth age, in 1884, Gaetano Chierici, perhaps following the lead of Evans, renamed it in Italian as the Eneo-litica, or Bronze-stone transition. The phrase was never intended to mean that the period was the one in which both bronze and stone were used. The Copper Age features the use of copper, excluding bronze, moreover, litica simply names the Stone Age as the point from which the transition began and is not another -lithic age. Subsequently, British scholars used either Evanss Copper Age or the term Eneolithic, around 1900, many writers began to substitute Chalcolithic for Eneolithic, to avoid the false segmentation. It was then that the misunderstanding began among those who did not know Italian, the -lithic was seen as a new -lithic age, a part of the Stone Age in which copper was used, which may appear paradoxical. Today Copper Age, Eneolithic and Chalcolithic are used synonymously to mean Evanss original definition of Copper Age, there was an independent invention of copper and bronze smelting first by Andean civilizations in South America extended later by sea commerce to the Mesoamerican civilization in West Mexico. The literature of European archaeology, in general, avoids the use of Chalcolithic, the Copper Age in the Middle East and the Caucasus began in the late 5th millennium BCE and lasted for about a millennium before it gave rise to the Early Bronze Age. The transition from the European Copper Age to Bronze Age Europe occurs about the same time, an archaeological site in Serbia contains the oldest securely dated evidence of coppermaking from 7,500 years ago. In Serbia, an axe was found at Prokuplje, which indicates that humans were using metals in Europe by 7,500 years ago. Knowledge of the use of copper was far more widespread than the metal itself, the European Battle Axe culture used stone axes modeled on copper axes, even with imitation mold marks carved in the stone. Ötzi the Iceman, who was found in the Ötztal Alps in 1991, examples of Chalcolithic cultures in Europe include Vila Nova de São Pedro and Los Millares on the Iberian Peninsula. Pottery of the Beaker people has found at both sites, dating to several centuries after copper-working began there. The Beaker culture appears to have copper and bronze technologies in Europe. The term Chalcolithic is not generally used by British prehistorians, who disagree whether it applies in the British context, in Bhirrana, the earliest Indus civilization site, copper bangles and arrowheads were found
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Mesolithic
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In archaeology, the Mesolithic is the culture between Paleolithic and Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used for areas outside northern Europe, Mesolithic has different time spans in different parts of Eurasia. It was originally post-Pleistocene, pre-agricultural material in northwest Europe about 10,000 to 5000 BC, in the archaeology of Northern Europe, for example for archaeological sites in Great Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, Ukraine, and Russia, the term Mesolithic is almost always used. In the archaeology of other areas, the term Epipaleolithic may be preferred by most authors, in the New World, neither term is used. Other authors use the term Mesolithic for a variety of Late Paleolithic cultures subsequent to the end of the last glacial period whether they are transitional towards agriculture or not, conversely, those that are in course of transition toward artificial food production are assigned to the Mesolithic. Therefore, care must be taken in translating Mesolithic as Middle Stone Age, subdivisions of earlier and later were added to the Stone Age by Thomsen and especially his junior colleague and employee Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae. John Lubbock kept these divisions in his work Pre-historic Times in 1865 and he saw no need for an intermediate category. When Hodder Westropp introduced the Mesolithic in 1866, as an intermediate between Paleolithic and Neolithic, a storm of controversy immediately arose around it. A British school led by John Evans denied any need for an intermediate, the ages blended together like the colors of a rainbow, he said. A European school led by Louis Laurent Gabriel de Mortillet asserted that there was a gap between the earlier and later, edouard Piette claimed to have filled the gap with his discovery of the Azilian Culture. Knut Stjerna offered an alternative in the Epipaleolithic, a continuation of the use of Paleolithic technology, the start and end dates of the Mesolithic vary by geographical region. Childes view prevails that the term covers the period between the end of the Pleistocene and the start of the Neolithic. If the Mesolithic is more similar to the Paleolithic it is called the Epipaleolithic, the Paleolithic was an age of purely hunting and gathering while in the Neolithic domestication of plants and animals had occurred. Some Mesolithic peoples continued with intensive hunting, others were practising the initial stages of domestication. The type of remains the diagnostic factor, The Mesolithic featured composite devices manufactured with Mode V chipped stone tools. The Paleolithic had utilized Modes I–IV and the Neolithic mainly abandoned the chipped microliths in favor of polished, not chipped, the first period, known as Mesolithic 1, followed the Aurignacian or Levantine Upper Paleolithic periods throughout the Levant. By the end of the Aurignacian, gradual changes took place in stone industries, small stone tools called microliths and retouched bladelets can be found for the first time. The microliths of this period differ greatly from the Aurignacian artifacts
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Cardium pottery
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These forms of pottery are in turn used to define the Neolithic culture which produced and spread them, mostly commonly called the Cardial culture. The alternative name impressed ware is given by archaeologists to define this culture, because impressions can be with sharp objects other than cockle shell. Impressed pottery is more widespread than the Cardial. Impressed ware is found in the zone covering Italy to the Ligurian coast as distinct from the more western Cardial extending from Provence to western Portugal. The sequence in prehistoric Europe has traditionally been supposed to start with widespread Cardial ware, however the widespread Cardial and Impressed pattern types overlap and are now considered more likely to be contemporary. The earliest impressed ware sites, dating to 6400-6200 BC, are in Epirus, settlements then appear in Albania and Dalmatia on the eastern Adriatic coast dating to between 6100 and 5900 BC. The earliest date in Italy comes from Coppa Nevigata on the Adriatic coast of southern Italy, also during Su Carroppu culture in Sardinia, already in its early stages early examples of cardial pottery appear. This suggests an expansion by planting colonies along the coast. Older Neolithic cultures existed already at time in eastern Greece and Crete, apparently having arrived from the Levant. Early Neolithic impressed pottery is found in the Levant, and certain parts of Anatolia, including Mezraa-Teleilat, so the first Cardial settlers in the Adriatic may have come directly from the Levant. Of course it might well have come directly from North Africa. Along the East Mediterranean coast impressed ware has found in North Syria, Palestine. Prehistoric Italy Prehistory of Corsica Prehistoric Iberia Byblos Stone Age
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Baden culture
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The Baden culture, ca 3600 BC-ca 2800 BC, is an eneolithic culture found in Central and Southeast Europe. It is known from Moravia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, northern Serbia, western Romania, imports of Baden pottery have also been found in Germany and Switzerland, where it could be dated by dendrochronology. The Baden culture was named after Baden near Vienna by the Austrian prehistorian Oswald Menghin and it is also known as the Ossarn group or Pecel culture. The first monographic treatment was produced by J. Banner in 1956, other important scholars are E. Neustupny, Ida Bognar-Kutzian and Vera Nemejcova-Pavukova. Baden has been interpreted as part of a larger archaeological complex encompassing cultures at the mouth of the Danube. In 1963, Nándor Kalicz had proposed a connection between the Baden culture and Troy, based on the urns from Ózd-Centre. This interpretation cannot be maintained in the face of radiocarbon dates, the author himself has called this interpretation a cul-de-sac, based on a misguided historical methodology. Baden developed out of the late Lengyel culture in the western Carpathian Basin, němejcová-Pavuková proposes a polygenetic origin, including southeastern elements transmitted by the Ezero culture of the early Bronze Age and Cernavoda III/Coțofeni. Ecsedy parallelises Baden with Early Helladic II in Thessaly, Parzinger with Sitagroi IV, Baden was approximately contemporaneous with the late Funnelbeaker culture, the Globular Amphora culture and the early Corded Ware culture. The following phases are known, Balaton-Lasinya, Baden-Boleráz, Post-Boleráz, the settlements were often located on hilltops and were normally undefended. Both inhumations and cremations are known, in Slovakia and Hungary, the burned remains were often placed in anthropomorphic urns. In Nitriansky Hrádok, a grave was uncovered. There are also burials of cattle, up to now, the only cemetery known from the early Boleráz-phase is Pilismárot, which also contained a few examples of stroke-ornamented pottery. In Serbia, anthropomorphic urns were found in the towns of Dobanovci, Gomolava, Perlez, full-scale agriculture was present, along with the keeping of domestic stock—pigs, goats, etc. The Baden culture has some of the earliest attestation of wheeled vehicles in central Europe, finds of actual waggons have not been made, but there are burials of pairs of cattle that have been interpreted as draught animals. In the Kurgan hypothesis espoused by Marija Gimbutas, the Baden culture is seen as being Indo-Europeanized, for proponents of the older theory that seeks the Indo-European homeland in central Europe in the area occupied by the preceding Funnelbeaker culture, it is similarly considered Indo-European. Coțofeni culture Prehistory of Transylvania J. Banner, Die Peceler Kultur, K problematike trvania a konca boleazkej skupiny na Slovensku. J. P. Mallory, Baden Culture, Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture,1997
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Beaker culture
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The term was coined by John Abercromby, based on the cultures distinctive pottery drinking beakers. The Bell Beaker period marks a period of contact in Atlantic and Western Europe on a scale not seen previously. It has been suggested that the beakers were designed for the consumption of alcohol, beer and mead content have been identified from certain examples. However, not all Beakers were drinking cups, some were used as reduction pots to smelt copper ores, others have some organic residues associated with food, and still others were employed as funerary urns. They were used as status display amongst disparate elites, there have been numerous proposals by archaeologists as to the origins of the Bell Beaker culture, and debates continued on for decades. Several regions of origin have been postulated, notably the Iberian peninsula, similarly, scholars have postulated various mechanisms of spread, including migrations of populations, smaller warrior groups, individuals, or a diffusion of ideas and object exchange. Recent analyses have made significant inroads to understanding the Beaker phenomenon and they have concluded that the Bell Beaker phenomenon was a synthesis of elements, representing “an idea and style uniting different regions with different cultural traditions and background. An overview of all sources from southern Germany concluded that Bell Beaker was a new and independent culture in that area. The inspiration for the Maritime Bell Beaker is argued to have been the small and earlier Copoz beakers that have impressed decoration and which are found widely around the Tagus estuary in Portugal. Turek sees late Neolithic precursors in northern Africa, arguing the Maritime style emerged as a result of contacts between Iberia and Morocco in the first half of the third millennium BC. AOO and AOC Beakers appear to have evolved continually from a period in the lower Rhine and North Sea regions, at least for Northern. Furthermore, the ritual which typified Bell Beaker sites was intrusive into Western Europe. Such an arrangement is rather derivative of Corded Ware traditions although, instead of battle-axes, the initial moves from the Tagus estuary were maritime. A northern move incorporated the southern coast of Armorica, the enclave established in southern Brittany was linked closely to the riverine and landward route, via the Loire, and across the Gâtinais valley to the Seine valley, and thence to the lower Rhine. This was a long-established route reflected in early stone axe distributions, another pulse had brought Bell Beaker to Csepel Island in Hungary by about 2500 BC. But in contrast to the early Bell Beaker preference for the dagger and bow, here Bell Beaker people assimilated local pottery forms such as the polypod cup. These common ware types of pottery then spread in association with the bell beaker. From the Carpathian Basin Bell Beaker spread down the Rhine and eastwards into what is now Germany, by this time the Rhine was on the western edge of the vast Corded Ware zone
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Boian culture
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The Boian culture, also known as the Giuleşti-Mariţa culture or Mariţa culture, is a Neolithic archaeological culture of Southeast Europe. It is primarily found along the course of the Danube in what is now Romania and Bulgaria. The Boian culture originated on the Wallachian Plain north of the Danube River in southeastern Romania, the type site of the Boian culture is located on an island on Lake Boian in the region of Muntenia, on the Wallachian Plain north of the Danube River. The Boian culture is divided traditionally into four phases, each of which is given a name of one of the sites that are associated with it, Phase I - Bolintineanu Phase. Phase II - Giuleşti Phase, 4200-4100 BC, Phase III - Vidra Phase, 4100-4000 BC. Phase IV - Spanţov Phase, 4000-3500 BC, the Boian culture ended through a smooth transition into the Gumelniţa culture, which also borrowed from the Vădastra culture. As a result, there are frequent references to this by scholars, sometimes, though, this term is mis-used by some to include both the entire Boian culture and Gumelniţa culture periods, not just the transitional period overlapping the two cultures. Since each culture is distinct from the other during its main phases, they should each be considered and named separately, Boian archaeological sites have tended to be found next to rivers and lakes that had rich floodplains that provided fertile soil for agriculture. There were three different types of structures found in Boian sites, during Boian phases I and II the dwellings of this culture were thrown-together, oval-shaped lean-to or dugout pit-house shelters built into river banks and ledges. In Boian phases III and IV the dwellings became more sophisticated, the third type of houses were larger, rectangular wattle and daub structures with wooden platform floors covered in clay, and roughly-thatched roofs, built at ground level. During phases III and IV the first settlements began to appear and these settlements were typically built on high, steep terraces or headlands above the floodplain of the rivers or lakes that were always nearby. Later settlements also sometimes showed signs of fortification in the form of deep. In Phase IV surface houses became dominant over subterranean, and the settlements grew to include up to 150 people and their economy was characterized by the practice of agriculture, animal husbandry, hunting, gathering and fishing. The proximity of their settlements to deciduous forests and steppe vegetation provided a supply of wild game for their diet and fuel for their fires, tools. In addition, their nearness to rivers, lakes, and marshes provided a source of game fowl and fish. In addition to the black/grey and white pottery, a few localized examples of red-inlaid clay decoration were found, beginning in Phase III, they began to use graphite paint to decorate their pottery, a method probably borrowed from the south Balkan Marica culture. The Boian culture continued to improve its ceramic technology until it reached its height during Phase III, after which it began to decline in quality and workmanship. The use of lithic technology occurred throughout this cultures existence, attested to by the presence of debitage found next to various types of shaped flint and polished stone tools
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Cortaillod culture
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The Cortaillod culture is one of several archaeologically defined cultures belonging to the Neolithic period of Switzerland. The Cortaillod Culture in the west of the region is contemporary with the Pfyn Culture in the east, the Classic Cortaillod Culture of the western Alpine foreland and the Early Cortaillod Culture of central Switzerland pre-date this at 4300-3900 BC. The economy and environment of the 4th and 3rd millennia BC in the northern Alpine foreland based on studies of animal bones
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Prehistory of Transylvania
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The Prehistory of Transylvania describes what can be learned about the region known as Transylvania through archaeology, anthropology, comparative linguistics and other allied sciences. Transylvania proper is a plateau or tableland in northwest central Romania and it is bounded and defined by the Carpathian Mountains to the east and south, and the Apuseni Mountains to the west. As a diverse and relatively protected region, the area has always been rich in wildlife, the mountains contain a large number of caves, which attracted both human and animal residents. The Peştera Urşilor, the Cave of Bears, was home to a number of cave bears whose remains were discovered when the cave was found by humans in 1975. Other caves in the area sheltered early humans, Prehistory is the longest period in the history of mankind, developing from times when the writing was still unknown. Chronologically it stretches from the Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age to the Iron Age, the chronological frame of the Paleolithic coincides with that of the Pleistocene, and is marked by four great glaciations, as established in the Alps. Likewise, in the Ciurul Mare Cave in the Pǎdurea Craiului Mountains speleologists have discovered some distinctively male, female, an anthropological analysis has identified Cro-Magnon and even Neanderthal characteristics in these footprints. The economy of the Paleolithic communities consisted mainly of exploiting natural resources, gathering, fishing, as early as the Lower Paleolithic, human groups either hunted or trapped game. We can assume that in Transylvania, alongside mammoths or deer, horses were an important food source. The Lower Paleolithic in Transylvania, because data are scarce, is largely a mystery, if the discovery of an Acheulean lithic item at Căpuşu Mic and of several Pre-Mousterian lithic items at Tălmaciu are a certain fact, their precise stratigraphic position remains to be established. The Middle Paleolithic – Mousterian – covers a period much shorter than that of the prior epoch. The Mousterian period is closest to the alpine Paleolithic, both periods were characterized by the presence of numerous quartzite slivers and chips, with the bones of hunted game outnumbering the tools. Consequently, specialists consider this Mousterian to be an Eastern Charentian”, the process of regional diversification among cultures was accelerated in the Upper Paleolithic through the middle to upper Würm. The onset of the Aurignacian culture seems to have paralleled the late Mousterian facies in the Carpathian caves, northwestern Transylvania is the site where layers of the Middle Aurignacian culture have been identified, as signaled by the presence of blade scrapers, refitted core, burins. In Banat, the settlements of Tincova, Coşova and Româneşti-Dumbrăviţa, have produced flint tools demonstrating that the Aurignacian in this area evolved closely with that in Central Europe. The Eastern Gravettian had a long evolution, featuring several stages of development as documented especially by the settlements in Moldova, the populations evolving at the onset of the Bölling oscillation and which have continued to the end of the Preboreal have been generally attributed to the Epipaleolithic. Consequently, this period could be associated with the interval between 13,000 and about 9, 500-9,000 BP. These communities continued the lifestyles of the Upper Paleolithic, the area of Porţile de Fier is settled by a population attributed to the Late Epigravettian or Mediterranean Tardigravettian
