Four hoards containing bronze artefacts, which were found illegally by a metal detector at the Lusatian hill-fort near Nemecka in 1994-1996, are professionally presented in the study. The total number of 43 artefacts comes from four independent units marked from I to IV. The hoard I included a head-band with forged geometric ornament. The hoard II consisted of twenty bronze rod neck-rings decorated with bundles of lines that make a feather ornament. The hoard III contained 18 artefacts - bronze cup of the Stillfried-Hostomice type with a bronze phalera inside it, 13 axes with socket, a sickle and two bronze cups. In the hoard IV three axes with socket and a spear were found. Around them a stone ring with diameter of approximately 1 m was formed allegedly. The finds were situated in its lower western half. Both the finder's information and the author's reconnaissance of the site proved that the finds were found out of the hill-fort area, approximately 50 m to the SSW of its shorter southern part. The hoards were situated on a terrace and followed a contour line. The groups of bronze artefacts were around 25 m distant each from the other. Analyses of revealed artefacts have dated all hoards to the Late Bronze Age. As their function is concerned, the all four cases are supposed to be votive donations. In his study the author gives also brief information on the history of the site and research. The hill-fort at the 786,3 m a. s. l. is a southern promontory of the Low Tatras mountain range. The creek Raztocky potok flows around the hill-fort from the west and the river Hron from the south. The site was situated in the N-S direction and even now its fortified line can be observed, which is the most remarkable on the southern side of the fortified area, where its height still comes up to 90 cm. The fortification was used to protect a rectangular area with dimensions of approximately 133 x 33 m. It was a small-sized hill-fort that was built as a refuge. In 1995 an investigation was led here, aimed in specification of the site chronology at first. Excavations proved that the site was settled by bearers of the Lusatian culture in the Late Bronze Age; later then in the La Tene up to the Roman periods and in the Middle Ages (the 15th cent.) as well.
The article presents the problem of occurrence of pottery of foreign provenience at the turn of the Early and Middle Bronze Ages in Slovakia from the point of view of a complex process that led to formation of a new quality - the so-called Tumulus cultures and oldest Urnfield cultures (the Suciu de Sus and Piliny cultures). This transformation process was reflected in lively trade and cultural contacts of the north Carpathian region with cultures of almost the whole Carpathian basin and probably also in movements or shifts of smaller ethnic groups from the south northward and from the east westward, what is evidenced by presence of foreign cultural elements or imports in collections of finds belonging to particular cultures. They are mostly finds of pottery from the north Balkan region of the Vatin-Vrsac-Girla Mare-Cirna cultural circle and from the area of Otomani culture spread at the north-eastern part of the Carpathian basin. Older finds of this kind were recently enriched with pottery of foreign provenience from further sites. Pottery from the both newly excavated sites reflects distinguishable heritage of the Otomani and Vatya cultures. Origin of decoration motifs of the so-called 'Litzen' decoration have to be sought in the north Balkan milieu of the Belegis I or Cruceni- Belegis cultures. As far as their chronology and cultural environment are concerned, these finds are connected with those from the necropolis in Dolny Peter from the sites in Muzla-Cenkov and Sutto and from the necropolis in Menfocsanak and they approximately coincide with younger phase of the Kosziderian horizon bronze hoards. The work also presents a problem in terminology, which is connected with appellation of the time horizon with occurrence of these finds in the south-western Slovak region by various researchers, such as the Old Tumulus stage of the Carpathian Tumulus culture; the Dolny Peter phase of the Madarovce culture; late or post-classic stage of the Madarovce culture. At the same time the time interval is proposed to be named the Madarovce culture - Tumulus culture horizon also in connection with its provable continuity of the local development in following stages of the Middle Bronze Age. Hence, this would be a time period that can be synchronized with the horizon of finds of the Rakospalota group of the Vatya culture, the Streda nad Bodrogom group of the Fuzesabony culture or with the transitional Otomani culture - Piliny culture horizon.
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