Achaeometrical Research in Hungary II., 1988

ENVIRONMENT - Zsófia MEDZIHRADSZKY: The role and the potentiability of palynology in archaeometry

What is the objective of pollen analytical investigation of an archaeological site? „From a tree a tomtit twittered: 'The Osmos barley will certainly not come up, the kaleva oats not grow unless the land is tamed, clearing cut down, and burned over by fire. ' Steadfast old Väinämöinen had a sharp axe made; then he cut down a big clearing, cleared a huge tract. The bird of the air struck fire, caused flame to flash. The north wind burned the clearing, the northeast wind blew hard, burned all the trees to ashes, reduced them to fluffy ashes... " The quoted verses of Kalevala vividly illustrate how mankind's day-to-day food procurement activities food is connected to the destruction of natural environment. Using archaeopalynological methods, human activity (animal husbandry, agriculture, metallurgy) can be investigated from the archaeological point of view. On the other hand, we also study human influence on the vegetation (deforestation) from a palynological aspect. These phenomena can be observed in pollen diagrams in the form of the quality and quantity of pollen types. Animal husbandry itself may result in the presence of certain plant taxa. Samples from an agricultural environment, on the other hand, would yield pollen percentages of weeds and ruderalia greater than average. Different agricultural systems might cause the advancement of different weed and ruderal taxa. Deforestation is clearly mirrored in the decrease of some tree taxa. Metallurgy itself, for example, has also lead to very widespread deforestation. In 1995, an attempt was made to compare a pollen record and archaeological developments in an area during a period that was entirely dated by 14

C measurements. The area selected for investigations was the Tapolca Basin, north of Lake Balaton in western Hungary. From the Copper Age until the Period of the Hungarian Conquest, parallels may be observed between the changes in pollen counts from trees and herbs and the appearance of past cultures. Occurrences of cereal pollen grain are unambiguously indicative of human activity. We could continuously observe cereal pollen from the Copper Age onwards (about 340 cm depth). In this level, there is a Fagus peak with a standard 20% contribution by Quercus. Until the beginning of the first millennium ВС, a relatively high percent of tree pollen, representing mainly Quercus, Fagus and Carpinus was observed. In the layers of the Sub-Atlantic phase (Pollen zones IX-X) during the Late Iron Age, Roman and Migration Periods a strong decrease in Fagus and Quercus pollen can be followed, while nonarboreal pollen increased. This is indicative of a significant degree of deforestation (MEDZIHRADSZKY and JÁRAI-KOMLÓDI 1996). We plan to extend investigations both in time and space, with additional pollen sampling and analysis of the archaeological environment, in order to detect human impact as exactly as possible. „The primary consideration for pollen analysis of anthropogeneous deposits is to collect data and interpret them as they are, without trying to fit them in advance into a preconceived system, either archaeological or palynological. Many of the (unnecessary) discussions and misinterpretations between archaeologists and palynologists are due to straitjacketing data for the sake of established systems and chronologies. If they do fit in, 201