The Encrusted Pottery culture was an archaeological culture of the Early to Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000-1400 BC) originating in the Transdanubian region of western Hungary.[1][2] It emerged from the Kisapostag culture, which was preceded by the Somogyvár-Vinkovci culture.[3] The Encrusted Pottery culture expanded eastwards and southwards along the Danube into parts of Croatia, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria in response to migrations from the northwest by the Tumulus culture, resulting in the emergence of groups such as Dubovác–Žuto Brdo in Serbia and Gârla Mare–Cârna in Romania, which are considered to be southern manifestations of the Encrusted Pottery culture.[4][5][6][7] The culture was named after its distinctive pottery decorated with incised designs inlaid with white lime, and southern groups are notable for the production of figurines or idols decorated in the same style. Stylistic similarities have also been noted between Encrusted Pottery artefacts and artefacts from Mycenaean Greece.[8][9]
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Four Y-DNA testings from the Balatonkeresztúr mass grave burial dated to the Encrusted Pottery Culture can be assigned to I2a-M223>>L1229 which is I2a2a1b (group I2a-M223 was
present in Megalithic cultures from the British Isles to today’s Czechia), while two males' Y-DNA could be assigned to the R1b-Z2103 clade, which appears in contemporaneous populations such as in Bell Beaker period samples from Hungary or a Vucedol culture associated individual from Croatia (in whichever case the most ancient samples come from the Pontic steppes). The ancestry composition of the eight individuals buried was ~29% hunter-gatherer, ~46% European farmer, ~25% western steppe herder. Some individuals had up to ~47% Mesolithic hunter-gatherer ancestry, despite this component being thought to be highly diluted by the time of the Early Bronze Age.[10]
Large ceramic bowl, Romania
Pottery, Serbia
Ceramic figurine or idol, Romania
[11]Figurine from Stubarlija, Serbia
Kličevac Idol, Serbia
Gold lock-rings and bracelets from Pécs, Hungary.
[12]Decorated ceramic disc, Serbia
Pottery, Serbia
Chariot model 1 from
Dupljaja, Serbia
[13][9]Chariot model 1, side view
Chariot model 2 from Dupljaja, Serbia
Chariot model 2, reverse view
Kulcsár, Gabriella (2003). "The Early Bronze Age". In Visy, Zsolt (ed.). Hungarian Archaeology at the Turn of the Millennium (PDF). Ministry of National Cultural Heritage. pp. 148–149. ISBN 9638629185. The close of the Early Bronze Age saw the arrival of new, southern population groups to the territory earlier occupied by the Somogyvár–Vinkovci culture. These groups blended with the local population, giving rise to the Kisapostag culture. ... It is difficult to draw a sharp boundary between the Early and Middle Bronze Age since the layer sequence of certain tells indicates a peaceful and continuous development, although ethnic, economic and historic changes can be noted, as a result of which three major cultural and regional units can be distinguished in the Middle Bronze Age (19th–14th centuries B.C.): the Encrusted Pottery culture of Transdanubia, practicing a Central European economy, the tell cultures of the Tisza region and the Vatya culture – distributed partly in Transdanubia and partly in the Danube–Tisza interfluve – the latter two both part of the southern cultural koine.
Kiss, Viktória (2011). "The role of the Danube in the Early and Middle Bronze Age of the Carpathian Basin". In Kovács, Gy.; Kulcsár, G. (eds.). Ten Thousand years along the Danube. Archaeolingua. pp. 226–231. Szentmiklosi, Alexandru (2006). "The Relations of the Cruceni-Belegiš Culture with the Zuto Brdo–Gârla Mare Culture". Analele Banatului. 14. doi:10.55201/XMCT6788. As a consequence of the pressure exercised by the communities of the Tumular Culture (Hügelgräberkultur), warrior populations coming from Central Europe, to which the hiding of the bronze hoards from Koszider horizon are hypothetically related, communities of the northern-Pannonian inlayed ceramics culture (Esztergom group) leave Transdanubia and they withdraw to the south along the valley of the Sió river, occupying the area between the Danube and the Tisza. The movement to the south of the communities of the northern-Pannonian inlayed ceramics stimulated, but at a reduced extent, elements from the southern area of Transdanubia, too. The grafting of the elements of civilization typical of the communities of the northern-Pannonian inlayed ceramics with local ones (Gerjen, Vatina and Verbicioara) determined the appearance of a new ethnical-cultural manifestation known especially as "Szeremle group" ... The short evolution of this cultural group played a very important role in the genesis of some new ethnical-cultural manifestations. One of them was the Žuto Brdo–Gârla Mare culture, which developed from the Szeremle communities, that were coming down to the neighbouring of the western side of the Carpathians.
Molloy, Barry; et al. (2023). "Resilience, innovation and collapse of settlement networks in later Bronze Age Europe: New survey data from the southern Carpathian Basin". PLOS ONE. 18 (11): e0288750. Bibcode:2023PLoSO..1888750M. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0288750. PMC 10637690. PMID 37948415. In the Hungarian Danube region, Transdanubian Encrusted Ware develops during the MBA and the theory remains that migration brought this style into the Serbian Danube area, having developed into the related encrusted Szeremle style and influenced the Dubovac-Žuto Brdo style. The Szeremle style developed along the north-south stretch of the Danube corridor and Dubovac-Žuto Brdo style along the same river after its turn to an easterly flow. There are close similarities to both styles during the LBA with regard to motifs, decorative schema and vessel shapes, but the earliest phases of each style are traced to the MBA when they initially draw on related but distinct local traditions. Sidestepping discussion of minor differences for our purposes here during the LBA phase we consider them as a broad stylistic family under the acronym SDŽB. The consumption of SDŽB was focussed on the Danube but it was consumed commonly in the southern reaches of the lower Pannonian network
Boardman, John; Edwards, I.E.S; Hammond, N.G.L; Sollberger, E., eds. (1982). "1. The Prehistory of Romania, VII. The Bronze Age". The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume 3, Part 1 (Second ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 179. ISBN 978-0521224963. In the formation of the Dubovac—Zuto Brdo group an important role must certainly have been played by the influence of the neighbouring West Pannonian encrusted pottery. The great similarity between the idols of this group and those of Mycenaean art has often been pointed out. Moreover, the link between the Dupljaja cart and the Hyperborean myth of Apollo, as well as the appearance of Greek meanders on pottery and the discovery at the Ceramicus cemetery in Athens of later vessels and figurines with similar ornamentation, suggests connexions with the world of Greece. For the present the question remains open whether one sees here a wider spiritual koine in the Balkan Peninsula or the participation of the bearers of our group in Aegean migrations farther south.
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