Wietenberg culture : Gallery, Notes Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wietenberg culture

Middle Bronze Age archeological culture in Transylvania

Wietenberg culture
Geographical range	Romania (Transylvania)
Period	Bronze Age
Dates	c. 2200 BC – 1500 BC
Preceded by	Coțofeni culture, Usatove culture
Followed by	Noua-Sabatinovka culture

The Wietenberg culture was a Middle Bronze Age archeological culture in central Romania (Transylvania) that roughly dates to 2200–1600/1500 BCE. Representing a local variant of Usatove culture, it was contemporary with the Ottomány culture and Unetice culture and was replaced by the Noua culture. Its name was coined after the eponymic Wietenberg Hill near Sighișoara.

People of this culture traded with the Mycenaeans. Burial sites contain bronze battle axes and maces with stone heads. Pottery consists of amphorae with spiral and meandric ornament.

By 1964, about 200 settlements of this culture were discovered.

Gallery

Axes
Gold bracelet
Gold bracelet from Biia, Romania, c. 1600 BC.^[1]
Gold bracelet
Gold armring
Apa type swords, 17th century BC.^[2]
Pottery, bone and bronze artefacts.
Gold treasure from Șmig, Romania, 17th-16th c. BC.^[3]^[4]
Fragments of wall decorations from Geoagiu de Sus, Romania
Mycenaean sword and Wietenberg axes

Notes

^ Tarbay, J.G. (2020). "The Essence of Power: A Middle Bronze Age Gold Armlet from Tápióbicske (Central Hungary)". Communicationes Archaeologicae Hungariae. 2020: 19–55. doi:10.54640/CAH.2020.19. S2CID 247432298.
^ "Apa hoard". Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. 21 September 2022.
^ Gimbutas, Marija (1965). Bronze Age Cultures in Central and Eastern Europe. De Gruyter. p. 56. ISBN 9783111668147. That Transylvania was in the center of trade in gold and that its sources played the most important role over all eastern central Europe and in the western Pontic area is indicated by large gold treasures like those from Șmig in eastern Romania ... The Tufalau and Șmig hoards are presumed to belong to the Wietenberg cultural group of eastern Transylvania.
^ "Romania - Bronze Age. Gold plates. Bucharest, Muzeul National De Istorie Al Romaniei".

References

Wietenberg ohne Mykene. Gedanken zu Herkunft und Bedeutung der Keramikverzierung der Wietenberg-Kultur von Laura Dietrich und Oliver Dietrich, Berlin (2011)