4 - The Bronze Age in the Central Balkan Area

Summary

While the turbulent Eneolithic period experienced a series of cultural, social and to a certain degree ethnic innovations, the Bronze Age was a period of consolidation. The great Eneolithic migration from the Pontic and steppe regions, which brought the Indo-European element westwards, was the last of that magnitude. The Aegean migration which signalled the end of the Bronze Age and the transition to the Iron Age was, so far as south-eastern Europe was concerned, mainly a movement of Balkano-Lower Danubian elements towards the Aegean region and the Near East.

As in the Eneolithic period, it is possible to trace various cultural complexes within the diversity of regional groups in the Bronze Age. Trade links and commercial exchanges between one region and another developed on a much larger scale. This was revealed primarily in the spread of metal objects of various kinds. Thus in the eastern parts of the Balkans the most significant shapes were connected with metallurgical regions by the Caspian Sea : in particular axes with an elongated shaft-hole, which have numerous variants. Such shapes were known also farther west. On the other hand the great majority of the metal objects in the West Balkans belonged to the Central European area of metal production. Finally, the influence of the Mycenaean world, especially in the eastern Balkans and the Carpathian region, was not negligible. It was reflected in particular in imports or copies of Mycenaean swords, certain decorative patterns, and jewellery.

As in the Eneolithic period, the characteristic culture of the new period made its appearance first in the eastern Balkans, this region being nearer to the major centres of the Aegean culture and to the Near East. Its origin was a factor in determining the date of its arrival in individual areas.