Session No. 246, entitled ‘The meaning and practice of bronze metallurgy in Prehistory – Dedicated to Hephaestus, the divine smith’, featured nine presentations and four posters. Our research group’s poster presented the archaeological and archaeometric analysis of a uniquely shaped copper knife from the Budapest-Óbuda, Városkapu site. The shape of the copper knife found in a scattered cremation grave of the Early Bronze Age Nagyrév culture, excavated in 2009, resembles the so-called Krummesser knives made of stone – identified as reaping knives – which are characteristic of both the late Early Bronze Age and the Middle Bronze Age in the wider area of the Carpathian Basin. In previous research, various opinions have been put forward as to whether the metal examples are later variants of the stone Krummesser knives. According to the findings presented in this poster, stone and metal reaping knives may have been used simultaneously. A planned BAR volume will provide a platform for the publication of the papers presented in this session. Kiss, V., Kisjuhász, V., Mateovics-László, O., Maróti, B., Szabó, N., Szilas, G., Czifra, Sz., Kulcsár, G.: Krummesser – from stone to metal or vice versa?

Members of our research team also presented a study of the Bronze Age mass grave at Tiszafüred in Session 207, entitled Reconstruction prehistoric lifeways: Multidisciplinary approaches to studying mobility, subsistence, population structure, and settlemen patterns. Furtwängler. A., Gémes, A., P. Fischl, K., Fülöp, K., Dani, J., Mester, E., Major, I., Mittnik, A., Hajdu, T., Krause, J. et al.: Ancient DNA and New Radiocarbon Dates Reframe Multiple Burials at Bronze Age Tiszafüred–Majoroshalom.

Further information about the presentation can be found in the news published on the website of the Institute of Archaeology, ELTE RCH.