A Békés Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 16. - A millecentenárium évében (Békéscsaba, 1996)

Jankovich B. Dénes: Adatok a Körösvidék középkori vízrajzához és a vizek hasznosításához

Jankovich В. Dénes TÉRKÉPEK Térképmellékleteinken a forrásokból ismert malomhelyeket, illetve hidakat és réveket ábrázoltuk. Csak azok a helységek kerültek térképre, melyeknek legalább a hozzávetőleges helyére utaltak a források. Azonosítási nehézségek elsősorban a zarándi területeken vannak, de a volt Bihar megye déli részén is előfordulnak. A bizonytalan lokalizálású helységnevek után kérdőjelet tettünk. Medieval data on the hydrography and the exploitation of the Körös River - Dénes Jankovich B. Résumé The three branches (Fehér-, Fekete-, Sebes), together with their affluents, and the united reach of the Körös River have been subject to the research in this paper. The Berettyó, with its affluents, because of their extended area, were taken out of investigation, but in the marshland, called Sárrét, where the valleys of the two rivers cannot be distinguished, many data of them were also cited. This region includes the hilly part of Transilvania, now Roumania, and, in majority, the Hungarian Great Plain. The rivercourses become slow on the plain, meandering, formatting a great marshland with hundreds of curves, islands, mortlakes. This area has been inhabitated since the Neolithic Period. The human activity, changing the environmental situation makes its influence felt in the last 500 years. The medieval written sources, collected in this paper give an significant information about the gradual extending of this activity. In the beginning these rivercourses were used only for fishing, pasture, later the delivery of water was increased by human intervention: dams and water-mills were erected. The data of written documents are supplemented with the result of the project called Archaeological Topography of Hungary, making the possibility of more precise localisation of medieval place-names. In the first part the author gives an rewiew of data in connection with the hydrography. The name of the Körös River has been mentioned first by the ancient Greek author, Jordanes as Grisia. The Byzantine Emperor, Konstantinos Porphyrogennetos mentioned as Krisios in the 10th century. Different variables of Latin names (Crys, Crisius) were used by the Hungarian written sources during the 11-14th centuries. The southest branch called Fehér (White) Körös has had its specific name since 1009. The Fekete (Black) Körös, which is the central one, was mentioned first on this specific name in 1316. The northern branch has got this recent name Sebes (Rapid) Körös in the latest, in 1520. The Hungarian variations (Keres, Körös) can be read in the sources since 1299. The recent Roumanian denominations (Cris, Crisul) has not known before 1526. All the streams, rills, marshes, islands, meadows, forests, with their descriptions 346