By the time around 3000 BC in Eastern and Central Europe certain events took place and marked history. A steppe population appeared in the area between the southern Urals and the Volga, as a result of which the burial rite changed fundamentally. During this period, graves with stone cysts were spread in which the deceased were buried in a crouched position, over which tumuli with a diameter of several meters were raised. These constructions, most likely, belonged to the prominent characters of some communities.

The exhibit of the month consists of two pieces and its discovery is also an interesting story. In 1998, the owner of an inner-villa in Sânmartin village had construction works in the yard and discovered a grave in a stone box. The news of a crime quickly spread in the village, and the police were also notified. After the authorities found that it actually was an archaeological discovery, the collaborators of the Szekler Museum of Ciuc took the necessary steps to document and save the tomb.

The presented artifact was found inside the stone, in the waist area of the skeleton. The deceased male was about 20 years old, at the time of burial he was probably wearing a leather belt, with two bone buckles at the ends. The elaborately decorated buckles can be dated between 2900-2600 BC. Such pieces appeared especially in the north of Moldavia and in Podolia, under similar conditions to this one.

We’ll probably never find out what was the spoken language of the young man buried in Sânmartin, but the artifact he left behind it’s a tale about a world in which clothing and special accessories had an important role, being objects of prestige. Contrary to his young age, the character of the burial suggests that the young man was a prominent figure in the community. We cannot exclude the existence of a mound above the grave, which, however, has completely flattened over the millennia.

The bone buckles can be consulted in a dedicated area at the ticket office, from Tuesday to Sunday, daily between 9.00 and 17.00.