Ditches in focus : geomagnetic research on a Vučedol site of Szilvás in southeast Transdanubia (Hungary)

Furholt, Kata (author), Furholt, Martin (author), Majdán, Mira (author), Bertók, Gábor (author), Wilkes, Fynn (author), Schultrich, Sebastian (author), Riese, Erik (author)

This paper presents and discusses the results of geophysical and archaeological prospections at the site of Szilvás in southeast Transdanubia (Baranya County, Hungary). The multiperiodic site was used from the Late Copper Age to the Migration Period, but the vast majority of the pottery sherds relate to the Vučedol pottery style. The find of a possible wheel model highlights the role of technological innovations. We identify a complex enclosure system with five ditches and a large number of pits, suggesting that we deal with a densely built, fortified settlement connected to the Vučedol complex. This complex is to be seen in the context of important social and economic transformations in southeast and Central Europe in the early 3rd millennium BCE, during the Late Copper and Early Bronze Ages. However, only a few Vučedol settlements have so far been excavated and published. Thus, the site of Szilvás opens up the possibility of gaining a better understanding about the domestic activities, subsistence economy, the layout and structure of the settlement, and its complex spatial organization.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Carpathian Basin, southeast Transdanubia, Late Copper Age-Early Bronze Age, Vučedol pottery style, ditch system, geomagnetic survey, wheel fragment
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 336-354
• Numbering: Vol. 52
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-180580
• ISSN on article: 1854-2492
• DOI: 10.4312/dp.52.12

Copyright

Podatek o licenci CC BY-SA 4.0 je naveden na pristajalni strani članka (glej zgoraj izvorni URL). (Datum opombe: 11. 3. 2026)

• Publication date in RUL: 11.03.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Documenta Praehistorica
• Shortened title: Doc. Praehistor.
• Publisher: Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 1854-2492
• COBISS.SI-ID: 220673792

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Osredotočeni na jarke : geofizikalne raziskave na najdišču vučedolske kulture Szilvás v jugovzhodni Transdanubiji (Madžarska)

Abstract

V članku predstavljamo in analiziramo nove geofizikalne in arheološke raziskave na najdišču Szilvás v jugovzhodni Transdanubiji (okrožje Baranya, Madžarska). Večperiodino najdišče sodi v čas od mlajše bakrene dobe do obdobja preseljevanja ljudstev, vendar velika večina lončenine pripada vučedolski kulturi. Najdba domnevnega modela kolesa poudarja vlogo tehnoloških inovacij. Identificirali smo zapleten sistem ograd s petimi jarki in velikim številom jam, ki nakazujejo gosto pozidano, utrjeno naselbino vučedolskega kulturnega kompleksa. Kompleks je umeščen v kontekst pomembnih družbenih in gospodarskih premen v jugovzhodni in srednji Evropi v zgodnjem 3. tisočletju pred našim štetjem; v času pozne bakrene in zgodnje bronaste dobe. Doslej je bilo izkopanih in objavljenih le nekaj vučedolskih naselbin. Najdišče Szilvás tako odpira možnost boljšega razumevanja domačih dejavnosti, samooskrbnega gospodarstva, postavitve in strukture naselja ter njegove kompleksne prostorske organizacije.

• Keywords: Karpatski bazen, jugovzhodna Transdanubija, pozna bakrena–zgodnja bronasta doba, vučedolski lončarski slog, sistem jarkov, geofizikalna raziskava, fragment kolesa

Projects

• Funder: DFG - Deutsche For schungsgemeinschaft
• Funding programme: Excellence Strategy – EXC 2150
• Project number: 390870439

• Funder: EC - European Commission
• Funding programme: H2020
• Project number: 951631
• Name: Material Minds: Exploring the Interactions between Predictive Brains, Cultural Artifacts, and Embodied Visual Search
• Acronym: XSCAPE