The peaceful existence of the Transylvanian miners and traders cam e to an abrupt end at the close of the Late Bronze Age. Asian equestrian groups swarmed into the Carpathian Basin and the Danube region and caused con
siderable upheaval in the quiet life of the agrarian communities. The new com ers — a mixture of various population groups who also often warred among themselves — resettled entire villages and turned extensive areas into wasteland. After the subsidence of these successive waves of people, various communities, often quite small, with mixed ethnic com ponents ap
pear along the Danube. Population changes can be noted in the areas
set-tied by the Gava culture and related groups, with most of the Late Bronze Age population of Transylvania probably migrating to the trans-Carpathian region. Their abandoned villages were occupied by the newcomers and other groups from the Low er Danube and, to a lesser extent, from southern Transdanubia.
Finds of the Basarabi culture make their first appearance in the Middle Maros region, whence this population spread out to occupy the w hole of the Transylvanian Basin. Their settlements, in contrast to those in W allachia, are often fortified and inhabited for longer periods of time. Light surface buildings were scattered among their wattle and daub houses. Their economy was predominantly based on animal husbandry. Most of the Basarabi popu
lation appears to have earned a living by metallurgy. It is striking that a num ber of assemblages unearthed on the fringes of their settlement terri
tory contained artifacts that were unknown or very rare in Transylvania, but which were made up of bronze objects used among their neighbours.
This period witnessed a flourishing iron metallurgy. Not only are weap
ons, tools and implements as well as parts of horse harness manufactured from iron, but also personal jewellery and costume ornaments, in ever- increasing proportions. The new com ers gradually discarded their old bronze goods and, for example, began to cast cheekpieces of iron instead of bronze which, at the same time, resemble the old ones down to the tiniest details. Their weapons — swords and akinakes — often resemble the Late Bronze Age swords with open-ringed hilts. Single-edged curved daggers w ith T-shaped hilts, similar in form to the weapons wielded by the neigh
bouring Balta Verde group have also come to light.
Little is known about their gold metallurgy but there is evidence sug
gesting that a number of gold items from the Carpathian region were fash
ioned in this area: the early finds from Mih^lyfalva, for example, include armrings and winged beads with analogies to be found in the Dalj (Croatia) and Michalkowo (Poland) hoards. Gold items occur but sporadically in later periods, again suggesting that these craftsmen traded their products.
A uniform burial rite can be observed over all Transylvania at this time.
The dead were interred in a supine position with the head oriented west or east. In addition to their personal ornaments, their weapons and everyday tools were also laid in the grave. The vessels deposited in the graves con
tained beef whilst most of the cups probably held some sort of drink. The fact that only three vessel types — urns, one-handled cups and bowls with inverted rims — were placed in the grave pit reflects a rather strict burial rite. Even though evidence for horse burials with a mound erected over the grave is known from the early phase immediately succeeding the Late Bronze Age, the vessels deposited in these graves foreshadowed the practice of later times. At the time when wheel-turned pottery became widespread in the Lower Danube region and in the Great Hungarian Plain, only vessels reflecting an earlier style were laid in the Transylvanian graves.
This Early Iron Age population with its strict rites was undoubtedly re
lated to the Scythians of eastern Europe. Herodotus, who wrote his Histo
ries in the late fifth century B.C. and who drew exhaustively from Hecataeus' late sixth century works, states that the Maros spilled into the Danube "from
the country of the Agathyrsi".1 In another passage, however, he mentions that the Agathyrsi were neighbours of the Neuri,2 who dwelt in the Bug region near the source of the Tyras (Dniester) River.3 Obviously, these scat
tered bits of information can be related not only to Transylvania, but to the entire eastern half of the Carpathian Basin or to the Carpathian Basin in general.
At the close of the sixth century B.C., Darius conducted his European campaign against the Scythians with the Agathyrsi also turning against them.
This can be interpreted as some sort of potential Persian-Agathyrsian alli
ance. Set against this background, the recovery of one of Darius' inscrip
tions from Transylvania, namely from Szamosujvar, is indeed noteworthy.
According to Herodotus (or rather Hecataeus), the Agathyrsi "live in luxury and wear gold on their persons. They have their women in com m on."4 This latter remark can perhaps be taken to suggest group marriage or, what is more likely, polyandry. In any case, the evidence from the cem eteries dated to the later, Csombord period can hardly be reconciled with H ecataeus' description, and thus his data probably reflect earlier condi
tions.
Around 500 B.C., the Agathyrsi of Transylvania occupied further terri
tories and their characteristic artifacts reached the eastern areas of the Great Hungarian Plain. When at the beginning of the fifth century B.C. this area was occupied by groups from Wallachia and the central Balkans, they aban
doned their plains settlements but continued their peaceful existence unin
terrupted in Transylvania. The metalwork distributed in and beyond the Carpathians — mirrors, akinakes, and quivers with applied metal crosses — clearly imply that it was they who supplied the neighbouring and, often, more faraway regions with popular "Scythian" items.
They soon disappeared from the horizons of the Greek world. Herodotus mentions one of their kings, a certain Spargapithes, who lived in the m id
fifth century,5 and the last reference to the Agathyrsi is to be found in a work written by Alexander's teacher, Aristotle, according to whom they were a law -abiding people who chant their laws.6 In the mid-fourth century B.C., they still lived in Transylvania, but not much later — according to the testi
mony of the archaeological material — the Agathyrsian cemeteries abruptly ceased to be used. They abandoned their dead and moved to other areas without a trace. The reason for their sudden departure was the arrival of the Celts who appeared in the eastern Balkans at the close of the fourth century B.C. In 335, they sent a peace delegation to Alexander the Great.
Their attack against the Balkans was repelled by Cassander.
Transylvania abandoned as it were by its former inhabitants, came into the possession of homeless Celtic tribes. Archaeological traces of settlement
1. Herod otus, IV , 4 8 .
on a larger scale only date from the beginning of the third century B.C.
Prior to that, only a few isolated graves of warriors who had participated in the raids on the Balkans are known. The early Celtic-style finds which, in contrast to the majority of the Transylvanian finds labelled "L a T£ne", can undoubtedly be considered an inheritance from the Celts have been un
earthed in the Erchegys6g region and the Saj6 and Nagy-Szamos valleys. O f the Transylvanian inhabitants of what was later to become Dacia, only a single population group can be singled out as being of Celtic stock: the Cotini- Cotensi.7 In his description of another group of this population inhabiting the westerly parts of the Northern Mountain Range, Tacitus writes that — to their own shame — they mine iron.8 These scattered bits of information would suggest that the Cotini of Dacia were the descendants of the third century B.C. Celtic settlers. They formed a small, but important minority of the Transylvanian population in Celtic times.
The majority of the population groups who now settled Transylvania w ere Dacians from the Tisza region of the Great Hungarian Plain. They preserved various elements of their traditional culture in the face of the all- pervading Celtic "fashion" which also crop up among the uniform com modities of long-distance trade and include large pots, one-handled cups and small curved knives. The Late Iron Age cem eteries of Transylvania contained burials of this population. The burial rite is as varied as it is on the Great Hungarian Plain, ranging from inhumation burials to scattered cremation burials and urn graves.
The spread of wheel-turned pottery and a flourishing iron metallurgy specializing in the manufacture of agricultural implements and the tools used in homecrafts suggest the emergence of a separate class of craftsmen.
In some cases these craftsmen can be linked to a distinct ethnic group, such as the Cotini. Finds of weapons, horse harness and war chariots as well as the presence of unarmed agrarian communities on the opposite end of the scale reflect a ruling warrior class. This social structure suggests a consider
able surplus which in turn led to the necessity of introducing a means of measuring value instead of the traditional barter trade in Transylvania and in the neighbouring territories.
The so-called "eastern Celtic" and "D acian" coins were modelled on the tetradrachms issued by Philip II and Alexander the Great. At first, the Mac
edonian kings circulated the originals together with their imitations. The story of minting follows the events of political history: with the appearance of Burebista on the scene the imitations of Macedonian coins were no longer minted. However, the links between Transylvania and the "C eltic koine"
had been severed much earlier, for beginning in 150 B.C., the coins minted in Transylvania did not serve (or only very rarely served) as a measure of value beyond the Carpathians, for instance, on the Great Hungarian Plain.
7. Ptolemy, III, 8. 3; ILS 8965.
8. Tac itu s, Germania 43.