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The Urnfield culture (c. 1300 BC - 750 BC) is late bronze-age culture of central Europe. The name comes from the custom of cremating the dead and placing their ashes in urns which were then buried in fields. more...

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The Urnfield culture followed the Tumulus culture and was succeeded by the Hallstatt culture.

Chronology

In some areas like south-western Germany, the date is taken as 1200 BC (beginning of Ha A), but the Bronze D Riegsee-phase already contains cremations. As the change between the middle bronze age and the Urnfield culture was gradual, this is a matter of definition. The Urnfield culture covers the phases Hallstatt A and B (Ha A and B) in Paul Reinecke's chronological system, not to be confused with the Hallstatt culture (Ha C and D) of the following Iron Age. This corresponds to the Phases Montelius III-IV in the North. Whether Reinecke's Bronze D is included varies according to author and region. The Urnfield culture is divided into the following sub-phases (based on Müller-Karpe sen.):

The existence of the Ha B3-phase is contested, as the material consists of female burials only. As can be seen by the arbitrary 100-year ranges, the dating of the phases is highly schematic. The phases are based on typological changes, which means that they do not have to be strictly contemporaneous across the whole distribution. All in all, more radiocarbon- and dendro-dates would be highly desirable.

Origin

The Urnfield culture grew from the preceding tumulus culture. Change is gradual, in the pottery as well as the burial rites. In some parts of Germany, cremation and inhumation existed contemporaneously (facies Wölfersheim). Some graves contain a combination of tumulus-culture pottery and Urnfield swords (Kressborn, Bodenseekreis) or tumulus culture incised pottery together with early Urnfield types (Mengen). In the North, the Urnfield culture was only adopted in the HaA2 period. 16 pins deposited in a swamp in Ellmoosen (Kr. Bad Aibling, Germany) cover the whole chronological range from Bronze B to the early Urnfield period (Ha A). This demonstrates a considerable ritual continuity. In the Loire, Seine and Rhône, certain fords contain deposits from the late Neolithic onwards up to the Urnfield period.

The origin of the cremation rite is commonly seen on the Balkans, where it was popular in the eastern part of the tumulus-culture. Some cremations are found in the Proto-Lusatian and Trzciniec-culture already.

Distribution and local groups

The Urnfield culture is found from western Hungary to eastern France, from the Alps almost to the coast of the North Sea. Local groups, mainly differentiated by pottery, include:

Knovíz-culture in western and Northern Bohemia, southern Thuringia and North-eastern Bavaria; Milavce-culture in southeastern Bohemia; Velatice-Baierdorf in Moravia and Austria; Čaka in western Slovakia; Northeast-Bavarian Group, divided into a lower Bavarian and an upper Palatinate group; Unstrut group in Thuringia, a mixture between Knovíz-culture and the South-German Urnfield culture.;

Read more at Wikipedia.org