Ilon Gábor szerk.: Pápai Múzeumi Értesítő 6. (Pápa, 1996)

Bronzkor a Nyugat-Dunántúlon - L. Bartosiewicz: Bronze age animal keeping in northwestern Transdanubia, Hungary. Bronzkori állattartás az Északnyugat-Dunántúlon

forest cover lasted until the end of this transitional period. The temperature fell to its minimum around 2600 B. C. By the beginning of the Bronze Age these changes stabilized. As a result of prolonged forest cover, chernozem soils in the plains turned into brown forest soils. Podzol formation also started in hillside areas. The humid weather characterized by heavy precipitation became somewhat drier during the Subboreal Phase. Palynological research showed that at the time of the Late Bronze Age a new climatic deterioration started. This phenomenon is often called the „late Subboreal cooling" (approximately 1450/1300 B. C.-800/600 B. C.).'

7 In spite of their immensely complex nature, archaeozoological data from many parts of Hungary also seem to reflect the trend that the warm and dry climate of the Neolithic became cool and humid by the Bronze Age. According to Bökönyi this climatic change may have been one of the factors that led to a decrease in the exploitation of domestic animals for example at the tell settlement of Tószeg-Laposhalom in the great Hungarian Plain.

19 This, in part, may be due to the contribution of red deer, for example, which remains high in the bone inventories of sites located in the ecotone between the plain and the hilly northern region.

20 This trend, however, may often be overestimated when antler fragments are taken into consideration as well. Consequently, pieces of shed antler in a faunal assemblage may be indicative of red deer habitats, but do not mean intensive hunting.

21 During the Bronze Age, due to the permanently cool weather the parkland steppe vegetation of the plains slowly disappeared and was replaced by a mixture of beech and oak forests. Bushy hornbeam parkland forests occupied the extensive floodplains of rivers. Large mixed beech forests spread over the area of Transdanubia. In contrast to the mixed oak forests of the Neolithic, Bronze Age beech forests were characterized by a smaller number of plant species. The shrub and grass levels were enriched only by occasional surplus sunlight available in the areas where trees fell. Meanwhile, the Bronze Age the advancement of agriculture resulted in the immense increase of such areas. Technical conditions for plowland cultivation in the Carpathian Basin were given by the beginning of the 3rd millennium B. C: crops and draft animals were available, wagons and harnesses were known.

23 It is therefore reasonable to assume that by the end of that millennium, plowing was widely practiced in tiiis region as well.

24 The overwhelming dominance of domestic animal bones in all the northwestern samples available for study is also consonant with the evidence of crop cultivation at many coeval sites. Pedological changes may be observed as well both in the culture bearing layers and settlement features. Permanent plant production changed the natural environment and a new culture landscape emerged. The keeping of domestic animals itself is influenced by an interaction between local geographical conditions, the physiological capacity of animals and the culturally determined expectations of the human population. Animal species also compete with each other within the human subsistence economy. Due to their complementary habitat preferences as well as relatively high reproduction rate, Caprinae and pig are especially sensitive indicators of environmental change. Schlbler, J.: Die Stichprobenanalyse des Tierknochenmaterials. In E. Gross ed.: Zürich „Mozartstrasse". Neolitische und bronzezeitliche Ufersied lungen Band 1. Berichte der Zürcher Denkmalpflege, Monographien 4, Zürich, 1987. 190-197. 17 Gyulai 1993. Bökönyi Verzeichnis... 1974 Bökönyt 1992.; On the other hand, a clear diachronic increase in the contribution of wild animals occurs at the tell site of Jászdózsa-Kápolnahalom. e. g. Alsóvadász-Várdomb and Mende-Lcányvár; Choyke An analysis... 1984. Choyke, A. 1VL: The exploitation of red deer in the Hungarian Bronze Age. Archaeozoologia I (1987) 109-116. 22 Gyulai 1993. 23 Bona 1992. 74. Balassa, I.: Az eke és a szántás története Magyarországon (The history of plow and plowing in Hungary). Budapest, 1973. 25 Choyke Faunal... 1984. 26 Bartoslewlcz 1990.