Sopron-Krautacker

Project management: Prof. Dr. Carola Metzner-Nebelsick
Cooperation partners: Dr. Erzsébet Jerem (Archaeological Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest), Prof. Dr. Thomas Stöllner (University of Bochum), German Mining Museum Bochum, other participants in two interdisciplinary and international research projects ("The Sopron settlement area as an economic and cultural hub of the Eastern Celts" and "Paleoecology and settlement history of the Late Bronze and Iron Ages in Western Hungary").
Funding bodies: DAAD, OTKA (Hungarian Research Fund) (funding between: 2001-2004), LMU-excellent bonus funding for women (funding completed; final publication in preparation)

Description

The Urnfield burial ground in Sopron, in the Krautacker district, lies at the foot of the Sopron Mountains in the Ikva stream valley near the Austrian border in northwestern Hungary. It is part of a multi-phase settlement and burial site that was uncovered during rescue excavations carried out by Dr. Erzsébet Jerem (Arch. Inst. Akad. der Wiss. Budapest) in 1977–79 and 1983.

A total of 156 documented Urnfield burials are known from the Late Bronze Age flat grave field at Sopron-Krautacker, which has already been damaged by modern destruction. The occupation of the burial ground began in the early Urnfield period (HaA1) in the 12th century BC and ended in the late Urnfield period (HaB3) during the 9th century BC. The main period of occupation was between the 10th and 9th centuries BC, before the necropolis was relocated to the nearby hilltop settlement with its adjacent burial ground. With its number of graves and continuous occupation over a period of around 400 years, Sopron-Krautacker is currently one of the largest and most important burial grounds of the Middle Danube Urnfield culture, with a wide variety of burial customs. Sopron-Krautacker is characterized by a wealth of bronze grave goods with status-indicating functions, which were conspicuous in the region from 1100 BC onwards, including the only sword grave with horse harness from around 1000 BC (HaB1) in Central Europe to date. These extensive metal grave goods stand in contrast to the seemingly careless design of numerous grave pits and their furnishings with ceramics, which were due to ritual requirements. Supraregional contacts can be traced, among other things, on the basis of ceramic decorative styles that can be traced back to the Bavarian Danube region as well as to eastern Hungary and Transylvania.

In addition to editing the material from the grave finds, the project focuses on classifying them within the cultural fabric of the late Bronze Age in the Eastern Alps and the Carpathian Basin. A large-scale archaeological investigation of the Sopron micro-region, which is unique to date, also offers the opportunity, in cooperation with researchers working on other periods in this area, to highlight socially and religiously motivated transformation processes using a case study and to examine them in a historical context spanning several centuries.

Publications:

E. Jerem/C. Metzner-Nebelsick, Eine außergewöhnliche Grabausstattung aus dem urnenfelderzeitlichen Gräberfeld von Sopron-Krautacker. Budapest Régiségei 36, 2002, 313–325.
C. Metzner-Nebelsick/E. Jerem, Das älterurnenfelderzeitliche Grab 159 aus Sopron-Krautacker. Ein Beitrag zur Rolle von Gold als Bestandteil der Tracht. Antaeus Communicationes ex Instituto Archaeologico Academiae Scientarium Hungaricae 34, 2016, 11-34.
C. Metzner-Nebelsick, Die Urnenfelderzeit im Raum Sopron. In: E. Jerem/N. Kalicz et al. (Hrsg.), Die Geschichte Soprons

In the run-up to publication:

Prof. Dr. Thomas Stöllner, University of Bochum and German Mining Museum Bochum, and other participants in two interdisciplinary and international research projects from various universities and institutions:

"Der Siedlungsraum Sopron als wirtschaftlicher und kultureller Knotenpunkt der Ostkelten“
"Paläoökologie und Besiedlungsgeschichte der Spätbronze- und Eisenzeit Westungarns“