Baden, Kostolac, Vučedol and Vinkovci

The book uses archaeology and genetics to come up with a novel cultural and historical interpretation of the Carpathian Basin during the Late Eneolithic period. The author traces the linear development of indigenous cultures from the Baden Culture through the Kostolac Culture to the Vučedol Culture, before positing that certain qualitative and quantitative shifts were driven by the entry of foreign populations—the Pit Grave Culture and the Bell Beaker Culture—into the Carpathian Basin.

The book also analyzes the emergence of the Early Bronze Age, establishing an absolute chronology, as well as examining the Vučedol Culture’s influence on geographically distant Bronze Age groups. Two excursus are included that discuss finds outside the Carpathian Basin, but part of its cultural sphere.