Folia Historico-Naturalia Musei Matraensis - A Mátra Múzeum Természetrajzi Közleményei 13. (1988)

SZATHMÁRY, L.: The Boreal (Mesolithic) peopling in the Carpathian Basin: the role of the peripheries

Fol. Hist.-nat. Mus. Matr., 13: 47-60, 1988 The Boreal (Mesolithic) peopling in the Carpathian Basin: the role of the peripheries SZATHMÁRY László Nyíregyháza, Jósa András Múzeum ABSTRACT: The author examines the importance of the peripheries of the Hungarian Great Plain in the peopling of the Boreal. After surveying the archaeological evidences he points out that human populations of Mesolithic civilization may have settled down only in the peripheries for a considerable period. The hiatus demonstrated in the central plain can be well explained by palaeoecological arguments. 1) INTRODUCTION The ecological conditions of the Boreal exerted primary influence on the economics, the dynamism of the populations of Mesolithic. civilization in the Carpathian Basin. In the estimations of pollenanalytics, which, however, called forth the greatest part of the conventional chronological dating, the Boreal continued from 7600 B.C. to 5300 B.C. in the Carpathian Basin (ZÓLYOMI 1952, 1953, 1964, JÁRAI-K0MLÓDI 1966, 1968, 1971, 1982). As this period was marked by warming up (FIBRAS 1949, NILLS0N 1983, BERGLUND 1986) population movements and genetic impulses directing from the south to the north may have befallen the Carpathian Basin through the Balkans. The archaeological evidences, nevertheless, have given proof of a hiatus in the settlement of the central plain of trie Basin just in the Boreal (GABORI 1964, 1969, 1981, 1984, VÉRTES 1965, DOBOSI 1972, 1975). Moreover, this phenomenon presented itself in the very period in which a rapid increase of the population of Europe were reconstructed by palaeodemographical analyses (WARD and WEISS 1976, DURAND 1977, BIRA3EN 1979). The Boreal deficiency of findings in the plain has raised special difficulties in the examination of the settlement of the early Neolithic civilizations (Koros-Cris and Alföld Linear Pottery), as the evidences for the existence of a local basic population are missing (KALICZ and MAKK

AY 1972, 1976, 1977, TROGMAYER 1972, MAKKAY 19B2, KACZAN0WSKA and KOZtOWSKI 1937). Thus, the summarizing of the archaeological evidences of the central plain in the first chapter is followed by a survey of the archaeological information concerning the northeastern, the northern, the northwestern and the western peripheries (Fig. 1 and 2). Whereas, we are not in the possession of competent findings from the southern periphery. In the latter territory it is only the remains of the local development of Romanello-Azilien and Epitardigravettien character in the Iron Gate region of the Nprth-Balkans that can present important proof (NIC0LÄESCU PL0PS0R and PAÏJNESCU 1961, J0VAN0VIC 1968, B0R0NEANT 1970, 1973, 1980, NIC0LAESQJ-PL0PS0R 1970, 1930, 1934, SREJOVld 1972, SREJOVIÍ and LETICA 1973, KOZtOWSKI 3.K. and KOZtOWSKI S.K. 1979, 1982). Thereupon the analysis of the palaeoecological evidences ensues. Before coming to the essentials, however, it is well worth looking over a chronological table concerning the northern peripheries at the start of a period from the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene (Table 1). Table 1. The absolute chronology in the Pleistocene-Holocene transitional period (B.C.) at the northern regions Region (Author) Dryas III Preboreal Boreal Atlantic Dnester-region (CHERNISH 1973) 9000820075006200Slovakia (BÁRTA 1980) 8800820068005500The northern periphery of the Carpathian Basin (KRETZ0I 1957, KORDOS 1977a, 1977b) B800810070005500The east of the Creat Plain (B0RSY 1985) 8800820070006000-