An Archaeological Overview of the Maros Group

Abstract

The Maros Group is a deceptively easy archaeological culture to know, with a record of excavations going back more than 100 years and a rich archaeological literature. Under its various appellations, it has been the subject of major archaeological syntheses in all three of the countries where it is known: Hungary (Banner 1931; Bóna 1965, 1975), Yugoslavia S.R. (Garašanin 1983; Girić 1984, 1987), and Romania (Sandor-Chicideanu and Chicideanu 1989; Soroceanu 1984). These syntheses compile a wealth of data concerning what is known archaeologically of the Maros group and present varying models to account for its distinctive character and origins. The intent of this chapter is not to duplicate these syntheses, but rather to present sufficient summary data on the Maros villages to allow the detailed analysis of the cemetery remains to be placed into a context, both as elements in the larger culture of the Maros peoples and as one of several ethnic cultures occupying the eastern Carpathian Basin during the Early Bronze Age.

When I’m dead and laid out on the counter, A voice you will hear from below Saying “send down a hogshead of whisky To drink with old Rosin the Beau.”

—“Rosin the Beau” Traditional Irish ballad