Metalurgija bakra eneolitskog perioda na Centralnom i Zapadnom Balkanu
Copper Metallurgy and Eneolithic Period of the Central and West Balkan

Summary/Abstract: The traditional Late Neolithic cultures (Vinca, Butmir, Sopot) have been dated to the Early Eneolithic on the base of new finds of copper artifacts and parallel appearance of the primary copper mining. Some discussions dealing with the meaning of the notion of the Eneolithic / Copper Age - more precisely of its contents – have also been established. Putting aside other treatises of archaeometallurgical character, we would like here to examine the term often used for the separation of the Late Neolithic from the Early Eneolithic, namely: ”A disintegration of the Late Neolithic cultures”. Determination of the Late Vinca or the Lengyel culture in the Early Eneolithic, equalize them with the cultures already defined as the Early Eneolithic: Tiszapolgâr and Bodrogkeresztur. Therefore; the term ”disintegration” refers more to the changes in tribal organization caused by the introducing of copper mining and metallurgy. If one compares those changes during the Early Eneolithic with the parallel development, of the copper and gold metallurgy, noticeable is an influence of the latter on the social organization of the archaeological cultures belonging to the period in question. The end of the long duration of the agricultural Late Neolithic, characterized by the first violent migrations, demands for and usurpation of rich ore deposits, construction of the first hill-forts gave quite a dear picture of the arising of the new tribal and social order. In the meanwhile agriculture did not diminish or weaken: it only lost the leading role in the social and religious system of the Late Neolithic.

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