Achaeometrical Research in Hungary II., 1988

ENVIRONMENT - Pál SÜMEGI - Ede HERTELENDI - Enikő MAGYARI - Mihály MOLNÁR: Evolution of the environment in the Carpatian basin during the last 30,000 BP years and its effects on the ancient habits of the different cultures

Pál SÜMEGI

1 - Ede HERTELENDI

2 - Enikő, MAGYAR!

1 - Mihály MOLNÁR

3 EVOLUTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE CARPATHIAN BASIN DURING THE LAST 30.000 BP YEARS AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE ANCIENT HABITS OF THE DIFFERENT CULTURES Abstract: The chief objective of this paper is to improve our understanding of reasons for change in palaeoecological conditions and their effects on the lives of ancient cultures in the Carpathian Basin, by using radiocarbon data in combination with palaeoecological results concerning the last 30,000 years. Geoarchaeological and palaeoecological data support the assumption that there was an environmental change line or zone in the central part of the Carpathian Basin which determined the pathways of game animal herds, the chances of grain cultivation and the keeping of domestic animals. The palaeoecological data suggest that this environmental change line or zone slowed down the Neolithisation process in the Carpathian Basin during the Early Holocene. Keywords: vegetation history, environmental change line, radiocarbon chronology, palaeoecology, geoarchaeology, Neolitic Introduction Before modern industrial times, the different cultures were rooted in nature, thus the economy of the ancient society was dependent much more on palaeoenvironment and palaeoenvironmental changes than today, in spite of the fact that man had a remarkable ability to adapt to a wide range of environmental changes. Different human impacts (e.g. the use of fire, hunting, fishing, domestication, cereal cultivation and pottery manufacturing) on the ancient ecosystem can be separated by different palaeoecological and geoarchaeological analyses because the imprints of human activity have been preserved at palaeoecological and archaeological sites. Some factors of palaeoenvironment can be registered by using different interdisciplinary methods (e.g. sedimentology, radiocarbon dating, geochemical and pollen and macrocharcoal analyses, malacology, palaeozoology) in the palaeoecological and geoarchaeological investigations. Palaeoecological data show that there were global climatic and environmental changes during the past 30.000 years and they influenced the behaviour of different human populations and the success of various types of economy. Global climatic and environmental changes can also be detected in the palaeoecological and geoarchaeological record of the Carpathian Basin. This region (that includes Hungary) is an important intermediate zone between the Balkan Peninsula and the western, eastern and northern parts of Europe, thus it occupies an important geographical position for understanding the interaction between migrating peoples, the spreading of cultures and sedentism, as well as environmental changes in Europe. Quartergeological, quarterpalaeontological and recent climatological data show that, from the Pleistocene up to the present, the Carpathian Basin has been situated at a meeting 1 Department of Geology, Kossuth Lajos University H 4010 Debrecen P.O.B. 4. Hungary 2 Institute of Nuclear Research H 400

1 Debrecen P.O.B. 51. Hungary Kossuth Lajos University, H 4010 Debrecen, Egyetem tér Í.Hungary 183