Baden culture, ca 3600 BC-ca 2800 BC, an eneolithic culture

Archaeological culture

An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of artifacts from a specific time and place, which are thought to constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between the artifacts is based on archaeologists' understanding and interpretation and...

 found in central Europe. It is known from Moravia

Moravia

Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...

, Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

, Slovakia

Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

 and Eastern Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

. Imports of Baden-Pottery have also been found in Germany and Switzerland (Arbon-Bleiche III), where it could be dated by dendrochronology

Dendrochronology

Dendrochronology or tree-ring dating is the scientific method of dating based on the analysis of patterns of tree-rings. Dendrochronology can date the time at which tree rings were formed, in many types of wood, to the exact calendar year...

.

History of research

The Baden culture was named after Baden near Vienna

Baden bei Wien

-Points of interest:The town offers several parks and a picturesque surrounding, of which the most frequented is the Helenental valley. Not far from Baden, the valley is crossed by a widespread aqueduct of the Vienna waterworks...

 by the Austrian prehistorian Oswald Menghin

Oswald Menghin

Oswald Menghin was an Austrian Prehistorian and University professor. He established an international reputation before the War, while he was professor at the University of Vienna. His work on race and culture was serviceable to the German nationalist movement of the 1930s...

. It is also known as the Ossarn group or Pecel culture. The first monographic treatment was produced by J. Banner in 1956. Other important scholars are E. Neustupny, Ida Bognar-Kutzian and Vera Nemejcova-Pavukova.

Baden has been interpreted as part of a much larger archaeological complex encompassing cultures at the mouth of the Danube

Danube

The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....

 (Ezero

Ezero culture

The Ezero culture, 3300—2700 BC, was a Bronze Age archaeological culture occupying most of present-day Bulgaria. It takes its name from the Tell-settlement of Ezero....

-Cernavoda III) and the Troad. In 1963, Nándor Kalicz had proposed a connection between the Baden culture and Troy

Troy

Troy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...

, based on the anthropomorphic urns from Ózd-Centre (Hungary). This interpretation cannot be maintained in the face of radiocarbon dates

Carbon-14

Carbon-14, 14C, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with a nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and colleagues , to date archaeological, geological, and hydrogeological...

. The author himself (2004) has called this interpretation a "cul-de-sac", based on a misguided historical methodology.

Chronology

Baden developed out of the late Lengyel culture

Lengyel culture

The Lengyel culture, is an archaeological culture of the European Neolithic, centered on the Middle Danube in Central Europe. It flourished during ca...

 in the western Carpathian Basin. Němejcová-Pavuková proposes a polygenetic origin, including southeastern elements transmitted by the Ezero culture

Ezero culture

The Ezero culture, 3300—2700 BC, was a Bronze Age archaeological culture occupying most of present-day Bulgaria. It takes its name from the Tell-settlement of Ezero....

 of the early Bronze Age (Ezero, layers XIII-VII) and Cernavoda III/Coțofeni

Coțofeni culture

The Coţofeni culture is a Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age culture that existed for over 700 years in the south-eastern part of Central Europe....

. Ecsedy parallelises Baden with EH II in Thessaly, Parzinger with Sitagroi

Sitagroi

Sitagroi is a village and a former municipality in the Drama peripheral unit, East Macedonia and Thrace, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Prosotsani, of which it is a municipal unit. Population 5,266 . The seat of the municipality was in Fotolivos...

 IV. Baden was approximately contemporaneous with the late Funnelbeaker culture

Funnelbeaker culture

The Funnelbeaker culture, short TRB from Trichterbecherkultur is the principal north central European megalithic culture of late Neolithic Europe.- Predecessor and successor cultures :...

, the Globular Amphora culture

Globular Amphora culture

The Globular Amphora Culture , German Kugelamphoren-Kultur , ca. 3400-2800 BC, is an archaeological culture preceding the central area occupied by the Corded Ware culture. Somewhat to the south and west, it was bordered by the Baden culture. To the northeast was the Narva culture. It occupied much...

 and the early Corded Ware culture

Corded Ware culture

The Corded Ware culture , alternatively characterized as the Battle Axe culture or Single Grave culture, is an enormous European archaeological horizon that begins in the late Neolithic , flourishes through the Copper Age and culminates in the early Bronze Age.Corded Ware culture is associated with...

.
The following phases are known: Balaton-Lasinya, Baden-Boleráz, Post-Boleráz (divided into early, Fonyod/Tekovský Hrádok and late, Červený Hrádok/Szeghalom-Dioér by Vera Němejcová-Pavuková) and classical Baden.

Phase	Subgroups	Date	sites
Balaton-Lasinya	-	3700 BC cal	-
Boleráz	-	3500 BC	Pilismarot
Ia	Štúrovo	-	Letkès
Ib	Nitriansky Hrádok	-	Lánycsok, Vysoki breh
Ic	Zlkovce	-	Balatonboglár
Post-Boleraz		-
early	Fonyod/Tekovský Hrádok	-	-
late	Červený Hrádok/Szeghalom-Dioér	-	-
Classical Baden		3400 BC	-
II, III	older	-	Nevidzany, Viss
IV	younger	-	Uny, Chlaba, Ózd

Burial

Both inhumations and cremations are known. In Slovakia and Hungary, the burned remains were often placed in anthropomorphic urns (Slána, Ózd-Center). In Nitriansky Hrádok

Nitriansky Hrádok

Nitriansky Hrádok is a district of a town of Šurany, Slovakia. This settlement was annexed to Šurany in 1976.-Archaeological site:A significant amount of archaeological material have been found at the tell Zámeček , settlement layers of which trace estimated 5,000 years back...

, a mass-grave was uncovered. There are also burials of cattle. Up to now, the only cemetery known from the early Boleráz-phase is Pilismárot (Hungary). It also contained a few examples of stroke-ornamented pottery.

In Serbia, anthropomorphic urns were found in the towns of Dobanovci, Gomolava, Perlez and Zemun.

Economy

The economy was mixed. Full-scale agriculture was present, along with the keeping of domestic stock -- pigs, goats, etc. The Baden-culture has some of the earliest attestation of wheeled vehicles in central Europe (so-called waggon-models in pottery). Finds of actual waggons have not been made, but there are burials of pairs of cattle that have been interpreted as draught animals.

Interpretation

Within the Kurgan hypothesis

Kurgan hypothesis

The Kurgan hypothesis is one of the proposals about early Indo-European origins, which postulates that the people of an archaeological "Kurgan culture" in the Pontic steppe were the most likely speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language...

 espoused by Marija Gimbutas

Marija Gimbutas

Marija Gimbutas , was a Lithuanian-American archeologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of "Old Europe", a term she introduced. Her works published between 1946 and 1971 introduced new views by combining traditional spadework with linguistics and mythological...

, the Baden culture is seen as being Indo-Europeanized. For proponents of the older theory that seeks the Indo-European homeland in central Europe in the area occupied by the preceding Funnelbeaker culture

Funnelbeaker culture

The Funnelbeaker culture, short TRB from Trichterbecherkultur is the principal north central European megalithic culture of late Neolithic Europe.- Predecessor and successor cultures :...

, it is similarly considered Indo-Europeanized.

The ethnic and linguistic identity of the people associated with this culture is impossible to ascertain. It may be tempting to put the Italic and Celt

Celt

The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....

ic stocks together here at some point, at least in that great European mixing bowl, the plains of Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

, but this is a speculation lacking any archaeological foundation.

Sources

• J. Banner, Die Peceler Kultur. Arch. Hungarica 35, 1956.
• Vera Němejcová-Pavuková 1984. K problematike trvania a konca boleazkej skupiny na Slovensku. Slovenska Arch. 34, 1986, 133-176.
• J. P. Mallory, "Baden Culture", Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.