Bronze Age

The Bronze Age (2500–1150 B.C.) is the best represented period of the archaeological collection of the County Museum of Satu Mare. Great number of finds was discovered due to the special attention given to the research of this period during the last half of this century, and to the richness in artifacts of settlements and bronze hoards. In small proportion, the finds were discovered in graveyards, too.
    The first discovery of the Bronze Age from Satu Mare is represented by the golden bracelet found on the shore of Crasna river, in Acâş (1855). During the second half of the 20th century, great number of hoards containing weapons, tools and bronze ornaments was discovered at Domăneşti (I), Cehăluţ (I), Prilog, Stâna, Livada etc. These metal-made finds and the fine pottery provoked fascination, and caused the first archaeological surveys at the turn of the 20th century: Ioan Mihaly of Apşa at Boinesti and Aladár Vende at Carei–Bobald. Beginning with the second half of the 20th century, the research of the Bronze Age in Satu Mare County became constant, a lot of archaeological sites being investigated. Great excavations were made at: Culciu Mare, Carei–Bobald, Lazuri, each research lasting for more than a decade. New research was started at the crossing point of the Romanian–Hungarian border at Petea–Csengersima, where a surface of 2,5 hectares, the largest for a prehistoric site, was excavated on the both part of the border.
    The richness of Bronze Age archaeological finds from north-western Romania is the result of many favorable conditions. First, there is the general progress brought by the new age. The progress is not only the consequence of using efficient bronze tools, but also of the switch in the subsistence strategies of the human communities: the husbandry shifts the focus from processing raw products (meat, leather and bones) to the wielding of secondary animal products (dairy products, wool, animal drive). This change started in the Late Eneolithic and lasted in the Early Bronze period. This type of economy is based on a special attention given to breeding animals, having the advantage of the favorable geographic conditions in Satu Mare area: the grazing of the animals and especially their wintering was encouraged by the rich vegetation in the large swampy areas: Ecedea and Ier Swamps, and the flood plains of Someş, Tur, Crasna, and Homorod rivers. This is why the contact areas between the fertile plains and the surrounding hills are the most inhabited. Two or three ecosystems provided varied resources that brought people higher possibilities of survival when facing atmospheric disturbances that could damage the ecosystems: drought, pest, epidemics in the animal livestock etc. The distribution of subsistence resources offered to communities greater autonomy that would find them less vulnerable in the case of any conflicts between tribes.
    The lifestyle that focuses on animal breeding is visible during Baden and Coţofeni cultures. The two archaeological cultures spreading on vast territories in central European region and in the region between the Carpathians and the Balkans have a meeting point in the Northwestern part of Romania. Although the Baden and Coţofeni cultures have clear contacts and mutual influences, the spread of the settlements show that Ecedea and Ier Swamps played the role of a natural borderline between the two areas of the cultures. Unlike the former Eneolithic cultures, these cultures practiced the incineration, a frequent funeral rite during the Bronze Age. In Satu Mare region, incineration graves of the Coţofeni culture were researched in Medieşu Aurit.
    From the early Bronze Age the Makó culture and Sanislău group are better known, though they are not well represented in the collection of the museum. The period of Sanislău group is marked by the intense habitation in Carei and Nir Plains. The collection holds only few vessels from Berea, beautifully decorated with scratching and limed incrusted gouges.
    A real progress regarding the intensification of inhabitance in all the county marked the middle Bronze Age. This process is reflected in the collection of the museum, too. This period is characterized by the flourishing of Otomani culture, showing a period of stability, with a well structured society, creating a number of tell-type (multi-stratified) settlements. They were placed along the border of the Ecedea and Ier Swamps: Carei–Bobald, Tiream–Kenderhalom/Dealul Cânepii, Dindesti–Cetate, Pir–Vár/Cetate. In these powerful centers, and in other less populated settlements, too, the practice of bronze metallurgy is well attested. An evidence of this is the pouring nozzle from Dindeşti, and by the axe moulds from Berea. The metallurgy of bronze in Satu Mare region was stimulated by the presence of non-ferrous ored from the Oaş–Gutâi Mountains. The use of these resources was an important element that influenced the development of the human communities during this period. The Otomani type pottery was used for serving food, and it was finely decorated especially by incision and channeling, with predominant motifs like spirals and decorative strips that mix straight lines with angular ones. Deliberate deposition/burial of objects, found in settlements of the middle Bronze Age, contain a number of metallic objects, which prove the existence of the elite in these societies. The members of the elite show their social status by wearing golden ornaments (the buckle ring from Medieşu Aurit, or fine bronze weapons (the bronze sword from Livada,).
    During the late Bronze Age, the number of bronze objects knew a spectacular increase. They are found in the settlements, and in the hoards containing weapons, ornaments, tools and harness pieces from Domăneşti, Petea, Tarsolt, Cauas, Tiream These objects belong to the Cehăluţ–Pişcolt (Hajdubagos) and Suciu de Sus cultures, being divided by the Ecedea swamp, covering the southern respectively the northeastern area of Satu Mare county.
    The Cehăluţ–Pişcolt (Hajdubagos) cultural group has as specific feature the decorated pottery with channeling and incisions, while the Suciu de Sus culture is characterized by the incised pottery in an early phase, and after a period of transition (represented by the pottery from Culciu Mic, Boinesti and Dorolt,) it is preferred the gouged surface decoration (excision,).
    The spiritual life and the religious beliefs of the inhabitants of Satu Mare region during the Bronze Age, are revealed through the decorations depicting symbols from the specific Uranian cult of the time. A great number of wheel-finds derived from clay carts (and representations of water/migratory birds imply the same Uranian beliefs, the moving of the sun in the sky and the succession of the seasons. Clay representations of bull heads, found in the settlements from Culciu Mare  and Lazuri, are symbolic representations of Gods. Like in the case of other similar finds from the European prehistoric civilizations, they make reference to the supreme deity of the Pantheon with his features resembling those illustrated in the mythology of the oldest European poems: the Iliad and the Odyssey. As the archaeological finds show, the communities of Satu Mare region appear to be engaged in a mutual and complex exchange of goods and ideas, covering long distances and comprising already the whole European continent.