In the book lying before us the authors discuss the issues that have arisen in connection with the polished stone axes and maces made and used by the groups of the so-called Lengyel culture that lived in the area of Central Europe in the 5th millennium B.C. In the time of the Late Neolithic and Early Copper ages these groups populated the areas of northern and western Hungary, southwestern Slovakia, Lower Austria, Moravia and Bohemia. The archaeological finds presented in this volume were found in cemeteries that were excavated in the Southern Trans-Danubian region of Hungary. At that time the burial customs still could be traced back to the latter part of the Neolithic, but in comparison with those, new customs and phenomena can also be observed. The polished stone axes and maces were the most important tools of the period, which were used for both industry and warfare, and could also be symbols of power.
Over the last one hundred and fifty years the finds from the Southern Trans-Danubian region have already been processed and catalogued. The new analyses were made necessary by the excavation in recent years of the Alsónyék-Bátaszék site, which is the location of the largest currently known cemetery in Europe dated to this period, containing 1,593 graves with skeletons. A total of 115 axes and 15 maces have come from these, thereby doubling the number of similar objects that had previously been known. This book contains an analysis of all known finds, and its associated catalogue presents the finds from Alsónyék through descriptions as well as drawings and photographs.
The objects were placed in a typological system using the so-called "Merkmalanalyse", a detailed analysis of special objects, with the individual types sorted chronologically. "Battle axes", which were first found in large numbers at the Alsónyék cemetery, were given a particularly prominent role. These stone axes, which for the most part were polished from rare and valuable imported materials, copy the forms of axes made from copper coming from the Southeastern European Copper Age.
Anthropological examinations extending to the entire cemetery also made it possible for the researchers to analyze the social context for the use of the stone axes. The sex and age of the members of the community who may have used the axes during their lives was determined, or rather the social rank and role of the individuals in whose graves these objects were placed. On the basis of this, the authors examine in detail the function of the tools.
The book is primarily analytical/methodological in nature, with the methods introduced suitable for the interpretation, categorization and chronological evaluation of other prehistoric types of archaeological finds. At the same time, it is a significant accomplishment, insomuch as it presents in full for the first time the characteristic types of finds from a Neolithic/Chalcolithic cemetery, thereby making them available for further examination.