A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Studia Archaeologica 9. (Szeged, 2003)

KERTÉSZ Róbert – SÜMEGI Pál: Őskörnyezeti tényezők és a Kárpát-medence neolitizációja: egy új geoarcheológiai modell néhány aspektusa

PALAEOEN VIRONMENTAL FACTORS AND THE NEOLITHIZATION PROCESS OF THE CARPATHIAN BASIN: SOME ASPECTS OF A NEW GEO ARCHAEOLOGICAL MODEL Róbert KER TÉSZ - Pál SÜMEGI The central part of the Carpathian Basin constitutes a very important transitory region between the environments of the Balkan Peninsula and the western part of Europe, which significantly differ from one another even at macro-level. These environmental differences were already present during the Holocene and basically determined the life of the Mesolithic and Neolithic groups. In the above-mentioned area, there was a Central European-Balkanic agroecological barrier in the Early Neolithic, determined the settlement and expansion possibilities of the Early Neolithic Körös-Starcevo culture, which had cultural and economic roots in the Balkan Peninsula (Fig. 1). The same barrier played an essential role in the neolithization process of the Late Mesolithic communities in the northern part of the Carpathian Basin, in the development of the autochthonous Linear Kertész Róbert Damjanich János Múzeum 5001 Szolnok Pf 128 E-mail: kertesz@djm.hu Pottery culture (Alföld LP, Transdanubian/Central European LP) already independent of Balkanic roots. In this area, which was transitory from the aspect of landscape, climate, flora and soil, we not only have to take into consideration an environmental shift due to the increase in elevation above sea level, but also pay attention to the effect of meso- and micro-level mosaicity. The Pleistocene lag surfaces, "loessy islands" and the alluvial plains that are the result of differing geological evolution can be characterized with different individual subsoil and landscape conditions. These differing meso- and microenvironmental conditions altered and modified the settlement strategy of the Körös culture in the Early Neolithic, and led to the establishment of alternative function settlements and to the accommodation to loessic ground surfaces (Fig. 2—4). Translated by the authors Sümegi Pál Szegedi Tudományegyetem Földtani és Őslénytani Tanszék 6701 Szeged Pf. 658 E-mail: sumegi@geo. u-szeged.hu és MTA Régészeti Intézete 1014 Budapest Úri u. 49.