The present paper analyzes the formation processes of the four large Bronze Age hoards Aiud, Guşteriţa II, Şpălnaca II and Uioara de Sus. While several studies have shown that hoards are constituted due to regionally and chronologically differing rules about the categories and conditions of objects included and thus the hoarding phenomenon constitutes a social praxis rooted in religious beliefs, finds with a large number of fragments and raw material have traditionally been interpreted as accumulations of scrap metal for re‑melting. Here, the focus is on two aspects of the large hoards that speak against that interpretation. The four hoards can be identified as long‑term collections, including objects that date between the Middle Bronze Age and the “jüngere Typengesellschaft” after v. Brunn. Although roughly contemporary and located in a relatively small area, they have different catchment areas. Socketed axes with chevron decoration and marks on sickles are used as case studies to look at possible formation processes. Certain decoration variants are characteristic to regions within Transdanubia and the Sava‑Drava‑region. In Transylvania, they are known nearly exclusively from Aiud, Guşteriţa II, Şpălnaca II and Uioara de Sus, which are located in an area rich in natural resources, particularly salt with the Mureş as westwards connection. Drawing on Marcel Mauss’ theory on gift exchange as basis for trade networks, the peculiar distribution of these bronzes is evidence for intense and long‑term west‑east contacts possibly based on salt as a commodity. Several possibilities for the role of “foreign” bronzes within this network are discussed: (1) as gifts between people to secure personal relations for trade; (2) as a payment for salt; (3) as votives of “foreign” people visiting the region for trade. Hoarding these objects may have been a means of demonstrating the importance of the dedicants within supra‑regional networks.

Keywords: Bronze Age, bronze hoards, “Scrap” hoards, formation processes