ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the material evidence for violence in Early and Middle Bronze Age Hungary. This evidence can be categorised into a number of classes, such as weapons, fortifications, skeletal evidence for physical trauma and 'mass graves'. The chapter discusses the weapons in terms of type, context and function. The context of weapons can provide invaluable data for the study of Bronze Age violence, the function of weapons and possibly the organisation of warfare. Some of the highest-quality weapons of Bronze Age Europe were buried in the so-called Hajdusamson and Koszider type hoards during the Middle Bronze Age. The chapter reviews the emergence of fortifications during the Early and Middle Bronze Age and issues with regard to their defensive functionality. It focuses on human remains, first those that show signs of physical trauma possibly connected to warfare, and then to those that appear in settlements in unusual contexts, sometimes also showing signs of violence.
