EARLY AND MIDDLE BRONZE AGE CHRONOLOGY OF THE CARPATHIAN BASIN REVISITED: QUESTIONS ANSWERED OR PERSISTENT CHALLENGES?

ABSTRACT The Early and Middle Bronze Age in the Carpathian Basin is often viewed as a long period of transition from dispersed form land occupation to one increasing aggregation, ultimately resulting formation tell settlements large cemeteries. This developmental trajectory remains legacy early 20th century archaeology, where similarity material culture recovered cemeteries was used develop multi-linear scheme progression regional chronologies tied specific archaeological cultures. While typologically conclusive, recent increase availability radiocarbon determinations suggests that these sequences represent priori interpretation social development rather than empirically verified observations. In order do so, it necessary re-evaluate existing dataset determine whether tells chronologically contemporary chronological are supported by independent dating.