The Aunjetitzer/Únětice culture is named after a discovery by Czech surgeon and amateur archaeologist Čeněk Rýzner (1845–1923), who in 1879 found a cemetery in Bohemia of over 50 inhumations on Holý Vrch, the hill overlooking the village of Únětice.

In subsequent years, a main cluster of Úněticean sites in Central Germany were identified at Baalberge, Helmsdorf, Nienstedt, Körner, Leubingen, Halberstadt, Klein Quenstedt, Wernigerode, Blankenburg, and Quedlinburg.

In Greater Poland, the first excavations at royal Úněticean necropolis of Łęki Małe were undertaken by Józef Kostrzewski in 1931, but major archaeological discoveries at this site were made only years later in 1953 and 1955.

[7] This chronological system consisting of six sub-phases was considered valid for the Bohemian groups of the Únětice culture, and later was adapted in Poland[8] and in Germany.

[11] As such, it is candidate for a community connecting a continuum of already scattered, late Indo-European languages, ancestral to the Italo-Celtic, Germanic, and perhaps Balto–Slavic groups, between which words were frequently exchanged, and a common lexicon, as well as regional isoglosses were shared.

[29] Burials of the Únětice culture are orientated according to stars and the relative position of the sun on the horizon during the year, which may indicate quite advanced prehistoric astronomical observations.

[30][31]To date, over fifty Úněticean barrows have been found in Central Europe; the majority of the monuments have been published in archaeological literature, but only about 60% of that number have been excavated according to modern standards.

[36] The mound was originally covered with white limestone (chalk) – a very unusual practice in central Europe but common in contemporary Bronze Age Britain.

A gold axe and jewellery dating from c. 1800 BC were discovered at Dieskau in Germany and are thought to be associated with the ruler buried in the Bornhöck mound.

In the classic phase (approximately 1850–1750 BC), the Úněticean burial rite displays strong uniformity, regardless of the gender or age of the deceased.

The grave goods consisted of ceramic vessels (usually 1–5), bronze items (jewellery and private belongings, rings, hair clips, pins etc.

[49] A body deposited within a grave might have been protected with mats made from plant materials or a coffin, but in the majority of cases there was no additional coverage of the corpse.

A well-known example of wicker-made coffin inhumation derives from Bruszczewo fortified settlement, nearby Poznań in Greater Poland.

They were located beneath the houses, and were deep and spacious, with a cylindrical or slightly conical neck, arched walls, and a relatively flat bottom.

[72] These larger villages played a role as local political centres, possibly also market places, facilitating the flow of goods and supplies.

[56] Experimental reconstructions of Bronze Age longhouses indicate that the builders must have had "a complex system of numbers and data for linear measurements" to manage such house building challenges.

Analyses of Early Bronze Age rings, ribs and axe blades from across central Europe have found that they had approximately standardised weights and probably served as a form of commodity money.

This weighing system may have emerged independently in central Europe through the serial production of bronze artefacts with perceptibly similar weights.

[93][94] Numerous 'enigmatic tablets' [it; de] (Brotlaibidole) made from clay (and occasionally stone) have been found across central Europe and northern Italy, dating from the Early and Middle Bronze Age, including in Únětice Culture sites.

The artefacts have been analysed and categorised using a three-dimensional scanning and measuring technique that allows for a precise morphological comparison to be made between tablets.

[98] Archeological evidence from 2000 BC onwards points to the emergence of a more complex and ranked society in central Europe and the appearance of a new aristocratic leadership on top of the traditional clan-based organisation of farmsteads and hamlets.

Based on the funerary record, metal hoards and architectural evidence it has been suggested that by the 20th-19th centuries BC this society had developed into a type of state, ruled by a dominant leader supported by armed troops.

[100][56] The main entrances of the Pömmelte circular enclosure were oriented towards sunrise and sunset midway between the solstices and equinoxes, indicating that it served as a monument for "ceremonies linked to calendrical rites and seasonal feasting".

[101][102] The diameter and ground plan of the Pömmelte enclosure are almost identical to those of Stonehenge in Britain (built around 2500 BC), which was aligned with the solstices and has been interpreted as serving a calendar function.

[79] It has been suggested that the close similarity between Pömmelte and earlier earth-and-timber circular enclosures, such as the Goseck Circle in Germany (c. 4900 BC) and henges in Britain, may indicate a continuation of traditions dating back to the early Neolithic.

[118] According to the archaeologist Harald Meller the Nebra disc allowed for "an extremely accurate positing of time, including even the capacity for predicting lunar eclipses."

From this location, when the disc is aligned to the north, the upper terminus of the western gold arc points towards the Brocken mountain, where the sun is seen to set on the summer solstice (June 21st).

[123][124] According to Marija Gimbutas these cultures were, in a broad sense, "one unit", with the same burial rites, economy, habitation patterns, and pottery, which she groups together as 'early Únětice'.

[131] Allentoft et al. 2015 examined the remains of 7 individuals of the Únětice culture buried in modern-day Poland and Czech Republic from c. 2300–1800 BC.

[136] Papac et al. (2021) tested some more individuals from the Únětice burial sites: their the Y-chromosome results (not including two by low coverage samples) were: 1 G2a2b2a, 1 I2a1, 8 I2a2, 7 R1a-Z645, and 8 R1b-P312.