Glass Beads from the Hallstatt Period in Eastern Slovakia

Elena Miroššayová – Ladislav Olexa:

Glass Beads from the Hallstatt Period in Eastern Slovakia (Summary)

Finds of glass beads from Eastern Slovakia are recorded on several sites and number of their finds has grown in the last few years (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Sites with finds of glass beads in East Slovakia.

1 - Cejkov; 2 - Háj; 3 - Michalovce; 4 - Rad; 5 - Veľký Šariš; 6 - Vojnatina; 7 - Zemplín; 8 - Ždaňa.

An undecorated red-brown bead from the burial ground in Vojnatina, distr. of Sobrance, from the end of the Bronze age or beginning of the Hallstatt period belongs to the oldest find. Other specimens belong to the later or even late Hallstatt Culture period.

Fig. F35. Finds of glass beads. 1 - Veľký Šariš; 2 - Háj; 3, 4 - Ždaňa (3 - finds from urn, grave 23/06; 4 - burnt beads from grave 25/06).

The largest collection of glass beads of various types comes from the burial ground in Ždaňa, distr. of Košice-Okolie (Fig. F35: 3, 4; F36: 3-10, 12-15). On the basis of existing finds, this burial ground has been provisionally dated back to the HD stage (not published). Among the glass beads from Eastern Slovakia, types chronologically comparable to finds in the Vekerzug Culture within the Carpathian Basin prevail considerably.

In a wider cultural context, these glass beads can be compared to the finds from the East Hallstatt sphere. The specimens from the late Hallstatt settlement in Rad (Fig. F35; F36) rang among rare types with some analogies in the cultures North and East of the Carpathians.

Fig. F36. Types of glass beads from East Slovakia. 1, 2 - Rad; 3-10, 12-15 - Ždaňa; 11 - Háj.

The question of the Eastern Slovakia beads origin in relation to the producing workshops’ location remains open for now.

With the Author's permission.(A Szerzőnő engedélyével)