Urbs - Magyar Várostörténeti Évkönyv 10-11. (Budapest, 2017)
Abstracts
458 Abstracts wells and cisterns were maintained. The walls of the canals and trenches were rebuilt. The lakes and the ditches were cleaned. Attention was paid to the guilds, especially to the slaughterhouses. Efforts were made to protect the surrounding serf settlements from the harmful effects of the Fertő’s continuous water level fluctuations: the vast reedy areas and forests around the lake served these purposes. These steps prevented the drought, which had struck the region three times in the Early Modem Period (1504, 1579,1617); the provisional water shortage was reduced to an acceptable level and the conflicts were prevented by strict measures. Sopron’s example shows that in the Middle Ages and in the Early Modem Period the people had an integrated approach. They realized that the natural phenomena, the geographical conditions and the man-made environment constituted a unified ecosystem. ZSOLT PINKE - PATRICIA PÓSA - ZOLTÁN MRAVCSIK - BEATRIX F. ROMHÁNYI - FERENC GYULAI The agroecological conditions of the Hajdúság urban area The Hajdúság urban area is a region of about 7500 km2, situated in the Tiszántúl (Trans- Tisza), north of the rivers Körös. On the basis of the 1720 census and the I. military map (1782-1785), the paper examines the land use system of the Hajdúság in the Modern Period. The analysis shows that the greater part of the arable land surrounded the towns of the Hajdúság and Nagykunság. In the urban area extending up to 40-50 kilometres from Debrecen, there is a unique “accumulation” of landscape resources, including floodplains with outstanding yields of biomass, vast arable land as well as forests and vineyards that are uncommon on the Great Plain. Considering the contemporary yields, the arable land of 1500 km2 in the Hajdúság, west of Debrecen, could feed about 100,000 people. On the basis of written sources (charters) and archaeobotanical material, the medieval history of this phenomenon was examined. In addition to the geographical names, concrete references point to significant arable farming in the outskirts of the towns in the Hajdúság. 47 thousand grains were found on 16 sites in the Hajdúság, demonstrating the developments in cultivation during the Middle Ages. The relatively high number
