Astaloş, Ciprian (szerk.): Satu Mare. Studii şi comunicări. Seria arheologie 28/1. (2012)
Gergely Bóka: Changes int he Settlement History of the Late Bronze and Iron Age Körös Region Hydrology, Reliefs and Settlements
Aeolic sediments (loess): superficial loess soils are regularly Upper Pleistocene in origin. Aeolic/ typical loess (eQp3l), infusion loess (hQp3il), clayey loess (hqp3a-l) and loessy sand (eQp3lh) can be found in Hungary. The vast majority of lands is covered with the infusion loess, a.k.a. loess mud. The aeolic dust deposited in water, or it was leached due to later inundations. It occurs on the quondam floodplains of the Great Hungarian Plain rivers20. The Great Hungarian Plains surface is covered by the latest formations of the Earth history: Holocene sediments in the fluvial floodplains, and Upper Pleistocene strata on flood free reliefs21. Apart from marginal areas, we distinguish among three height levels: plains adjacent to the rivers (e.g. Körös region), Pleistocene flatlands that surmount floodplains altitudes with a few meters (e.g. Békés-Csanád alluvial fan), and sand hills ascending 20-80 m above the average altitude22. Körös regions surface is dominantly a floodplain with plenty of wetlands, marshes, peaty bogs, and divergent, meandering river branches. The surface cover is thick silt in all directions, whereas clay emerges in the margins, and loess ridges alongshore. These islands of loess are Pleistocene relief remnants even in the middle of the depressions23. We conduct a comparative analysis of the prehistoric hydrological features capable of reconstruction24 (Fig. 2), the reliefs appropriate to accommodate human habitations and the settlement locations of those cultures that were involved in the investigation (Gáva, Vekerzug and La-Téne cultures). We assumed that peoples of these cultures adapted themselves to the quondam weather, hydrological and topographical circumstances, and selected the locations of their habitations according to these. We recorded the data of 1177 settlements (processed 90%), among which 365 belonged to the Gáva Culture, 538 to the Scythian Vekerzug Culture, and 274 to La-Téne. Based on the databases that present Quaternary geological formations,25 we can delineate the pre-regulation state of those low floodplains that can refer to Late Bronze and Iron Age persistently or temporally inundated lower floodplains, marshes and lakes, and the higher plains inundated periodically or in case of significant floods, as well as permanently floodfree islands (loess terraces, Pleistocene sand surfaces) (Fig. 1). By means of comparing these reliefs to the locations of the individual cultures (with the help of geoinformatics (ArcGIS)) we can provide data on the quondam hydrological and climatic relations, as well as their alterations in chronological aspect (Fig. 3). Low floodplains provide place for 30.4% of the Gáva culture settlements, 17.1% of the Vekerzug and 18.9% of the La-Téne sites. In contrast, we can find 25.6% of the Gáva Culture, 43.7% of the Vekerzúg culture and 37.5% of the La-Téne culture settlements on high floodplains. Whereas on (loess) terraces, which reliefs are considered the highest in altitude, 30.6% of the Gáva culture settlements, 26.3% of the Vekerzug and 28.8% of the La-Téne culture settlements are represented. Sandy surfaces give place to as few as 0.5% of the Gáva, 9.4% of the Vekerzug and 7.2% of the La-Téne cultures’ habitations. On lower surfaces covered with lacustrine sediments, which indicate persistently inundated environments, 4.6% of the Gáva Culture and 2.1% of the La-Téne settlements settled down, whereas Vekerzug sites are not represented on this type of sediment. Peat and marsh sediments provide place for 2.1% of the Gáva, 0.5% of the Vekerzug and 0.7% of the La-Téne periods’s sites. Finally, on (the separately studied) alkali soils, indicating wet environment, 19.4% of the Gáva settlements, 13.3% of the Vekerzug and 18.2% of the La- Téne cultures’ sites are represented (Fig. 4). The population of Gáva culture did not prefer any of the major relief types (low and high reliefs, terraces), but it rather occupied them in approximately equal distribution. That tendency indicates the predictability and stability of the onetime environment. Reliefs and sediments - e.g. low floodplains, lacustrine sediments, peatbogs and alkali soils -, which can be regarded as „moisture indicators”, and the ratios of settlement distributions undoubtedly suggest a drier and warmer climatic period in the era Changes in the Settlement History of the Late Bronze and Iron Age Körös Region 20 Kaiser/Gyalog 1996, 60. 21 Rónai 1985,87. 22 Rónai 1985, 89. 23 Rónai 1985, 367. 24 Gyucha/ Duffy 2008. 25 MFT 2005. 25
