Tárnoki Judit szerk.: Tisicum - A Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Megyei Múzeumok Évkönyve 19. (2009)

Természettudomány és régészet - Sümegi Pál - Ember és környezet kapcsolata a középső-bronzkorban: az őskori gazdasági tér fejlődése egy bronzkori teli geoarcheológiai és környezettörténeti feldolgozása nyomán

Tisicum XIX.. the natural endowments of the area ideal from a defensive point of view. For the construction of such settlement systems located at the interface of landscapes with differing natural endowments there was no need for a planned central will and control. Rather it were the local climatic and environmental factors (geomorphology, the height of the groundwater table), which must have fundamentally determined the possibilities of settlement and defense at an E-W trending interface of landscapes further dissected by the corridor-like valleys of local watercourses, bringing up the need for actual construction (Sümegi et al, 1998). The presently available archeological and environmental historical data do not justify the existence of a hierarchical classification system between the individual Bronze Age tell communities. Although there must have been slightly different production areas around the individual settlements when compared, as the findings of environmental historical investigations imply. Finally, the question of why these settlement types disappeared is also highly interesting. As it was formerly mentioned the tell cultures were restricted to those areas of the Carpathian Basin which were under the influence of the BS climatic zone (Mezőföld and the central and southern parts of the Great Hungarian Plains). These collective Mediterranean and Continental climatic influences are still observable today, and were present in the past as well as shown by paleoecological data within the central parts of the basin. In the lack of any signs referring to fierce destruction mainly economic, social and climatic factors have been blamed for the cessation of this lifestyle so far. Conversely, as shown by the archeological findings this process was highly extended. In our opinion, similarly to its birth, the mutual interaction of numerous factors must have led to the disappearance of this lifestyle. According to the available paleoecological information the climate turned more humid and colder during the second half of the Bronze Age, in the so-called Kosider period. This climatic change must have been the first impetus in the series of events that gradually led to the cessation of this culture, characterized by a versatile economic system and the collective engagement in several modes of production for better survival. As shown by international paleocological data this climatic change resulting in an increase in winter precipitation and a decrease in summer temperatures must have affected not only the area of the Carpathian Basin but the entire continent. As a result of these changes, the melting of the greater snow cover in the Alps and Carpathians must have created higher floodwaters and high water coverage on the floodplains of the Danube and Tisza rivers. As a result of this the extent of the pasturelands, giving one of the backbones of the Bronze Age economy, was significantly reduced putting the population of the tells among critical conditions. Since if the animals were herded into the elevated areas, then it ultimately resulted in a decrease in the area of the arable lands. In other words, the formerly applied production system had to be fully transformed in order adapt to changes in the environment. When these environmental changes are complemented by such economic, social and political factors as the displacement of the major cultural and trade routes, the transformation of the cultural and trade connections between the highly developed areas of the Balkans and those of Northern and Western Europe, the fatigue of the overexploited croplands, then these might have led to a real economic crisis. And these might have forced the population of the tells to give up the former lifestyles and move onto new areas. I 480