DIE BRONZEMETALLURGIE IN DEN OTOMANI-GEMEINSCHAFTEN VON DER CAREI-EBENE UND DEM ERIUL-TAL
BRONZE METALLURGY OF THE OTOMANI COMMUNITIES OF THE CAREI PLAIN AND THE VALLEY OF THE ERIUL RIVER

Summary/Abstract: Bronze metallurgy of the Otomani communities of the Carei Plain and the valley of the Eriul River. From the cultural point of view, the Carpathian Basin resembled a mosaic during the circa 500 years of the Middle Bronze Age. Despite the fact that every community developed a specific material culture we still may speak about a so-called “tell society” in this period based on social and economical macro features. This is specific type of habitat in the region under study and the major part of the great Hungarian Plain, where a “cultural complex” characterized by the homogeneity of pottery and bronze metallurgy developed during the Middle Bronze Age. In the last decades, the problematic of the metallurgy of the Otomani communities became the subject of several archaeological studies written by Romanian scholars like Ivan Ordentlich, Nicolae Chidioşan, Tiberius Bader, Alexandru Vulpe etc. and colleagues from other countries too. Despite the undertaken research and the fact that the study of metallurgy was popular among Bronze Age scholars, a proper typological and chronological analysis of the discovered artefacts according to the latest archaeological data was still needed to be done. In our opinion, the key of understanding the Otomani culture’s problematic is represented by the proper knowledge of the archaeological material which provides a firm foundation for the study of the social complexity of the Bronze Age policy. The aim of the present paper is to sketch a picture about the Otomani culture’s metalworking and debate some typological and chronological issues linked with the bronze artefacts discovered in the Carei Plain and the valley of the Eriul River. Fifty-nine bronze items were discovered during our investigations in the Carei Plain and the valley of the Eriul River, which could be dated from the 2nd and 3rd phases of the Otomani culture. 44% of the finds are weapons, 25% are tools, 28% are pieces of jewellery and 3% are specimens linked with metallurgical processes (casting moulds, bronze ingot etc.). Through the reinterpretation of the archaeological evidences, we have sketched a more accurate picture of the bronze working and metallurgical activity of the Otomani communities.

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