Glass Beads of the Urnfield Period in Slovakia. State of the Research

The paper deals with the oldest glass products in the Slovak territory, which are glass beads. On this occasion there is pointed out their occurrence in the individual cultural complexes of the Urnfields, the status of research as well as the possibilities of research in the given issue. The first finds of glass beads in Urnfields in Slovakia occur in the Middle Bronze age. They occur in all cultural complexes of Urnfields in the Young Bronze age. Just in this period we record their largest distribution. The appearance of glass beads markedly decreased in the Late Bronze Age. The glass beads are known mainly from cemeteries. They are almost homogeneous from the typological view. They are unserviceable for the dating of archaeological features. In the present status of research the question of the glass beads provenance remains still opened.