A new Early Bronze Age wagon model from the Carpathian Basin

Two Bronze Age Miniature Wagon and Wheel Burials in Encs (North‐eastern Hungary)

“…2015, 25). Moreover, two specimens are known from central Hungary: one is from the Nagyrév culture, dated around 2000 BC (Bondár 2012a, 58, table 1), and the second is a fragment of a wagon box belonging to the Vatya culture, dated around 1750–1650 cal BC (Jaeger 2019). Wagon models are not known from Transdanubia, and to date only one possible miniature solid wheel has been discovered from the first half of the second millennium BC in this region (Kiss 2009, 161, fig.…”

“…Aside from the Carpathian Basin, wagon models are also known from Mesopotamia, Greece, Italy, the Pontic steppe, India and China, where prehistoric civilizations thrived. The wagon models had a specific role and meaning in each culture's life and belief system (Bondár and Székely 2011, 546). Wagon and wheel models in funerary contexts could carry several meanings, including but not limited to the transportation of the dead to the netherworld, simple toys, symbol of the sun, prestige items symbolizing wealth, votive sacrifices and status rank markers (Boroffka 2004; Burmeister 2004; Pare 2004; Bondár 2012a, 98–100).…”

“…Miniature solid clay wheels and wagon boxes were first known around the middle of the fourth millennium BC in the Baden culture of the Carpathian Basin, as a symbolic version of actual life‐sized wagons (Bondár 2012a, 26–7, 29). Earlier, scholars thought there might have been a hiatus in the production of miniature wagons and solid wheels between 2500–2000 BC, but new discoveries in the last decades have disproved this idea (Bondár 1990; Bondár and Székely 2011; Bondár 2016, 39). (However, it is important to note that their occurrence decreased during this period.)…”

The interaction of distant technologies: bridging Central Europe using a techno-typological comparison of spindle whorls

“…Zooarchaeological analysis of the Arbon-Bleiche 3 faunal assemblage supports this interpretation, as both the demography and age-at-death profiles of the sheep suggest the exploitation of wool (Deschler-Erb & Marti-Grädel 2004: 179). Indeed, the idea that the early Baden Culture was responsible for the introduction and spread of wool-bearing sheep across Europe has been previously proposed (Bondár 2012; Struhár et al . 2014).…”

Gaining traction on cattle exploitation: zooarchaeological evidence from the Neolithic Western Balkans

“…Bartosiewicz 2006; Pétrequin et al . 2006; Bondár & Székely 2011). Fundamentally, however, traction is the use of animals as engines to pull loads.…”