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

position of climatic change line (Fig.2). On the basis of the malacothermometer method, the July temperature was between 17-20 °C in the southern- and 16-18 °C in the northern part of the basin during this interstadial. The geochemical, sedimentological and macrocharcoal data suggested that a podzol or podzol-like soil type developed under the Picea forest (SÜMEGI, 1996: 46-49) so a typical taiga or open taiga environment developed on the border line between the Carpathian mountain range and the Great Hungarian Plain (Fig. 3). The interior parts of the Carpathian Basin were populated cyclically by various waves of the Gravettian population at the beginning of this period (VERTES, 1966, 3; T. DOBOSI, 1994, 4) and according to the topographic data (Püspükhatvan-Diós, Püspökhatvan-Öregszőlő, Bodrogkeresztúr Henye-tető), the Gravettian camp-sites were in the ancient Picea type taiga or open taiga forest, in the close vicinity of the borderline of the mountain (Carpathicum) range and in the alluvial plain (Pannonicum) region. Palaeoecological data show that the Gravettian hunters lived in a special ecological niche, because their camp-sites can be found alongside some rivers and brooks (Galga, Hernád, Bodrog) which run from north to south, from the Northern Hungarian (Subcarpathian) Mountain Range to the Great Hungarian Plain. The Upper Palaeolithic hunters followed the game animals and hunted them in the great herbivores migration "channel" in the valleys of rivers and brooks which served as corridors between the two different palaeoecological zones. These corridors or "channels" of great herbivore migrations were very important for hunters because they could harvest herd-animals here. After 25.000 BP years, the environment of the Carpathian Basin strongly changed and dust accumulation and loess formation started. The distribution of woodland decreased, but they survived in some small, special protected environments during the period of loess formation. The herbaceous vegetation was composed mainly of grasses and sedges and steppe elements such as Artemisia and Chenopodiaceae. The rate of open vegetation increased and dominated in the analysed region. Although a cold and dry climate (ancient July was 12-15 °C) developed during the upper pleniglacial, two short phases (microinterstadials) could still be detected, when intermediate molluscs and some woodland elements spread from réfugiai areas in the Carpathians and immigrated from the Balkan Peninsula to the central part of the Carpathian Basin (Fig. 3). On the basis of radiocarbon data the first microstadial period developed between 21.000-23.000 BP years and the second one between 16.000-18.000 BP years. The July mean temperature increased and attained 16-18 °C, while and a number of charcoal remains suggested that a transition from forest steppe to closed forest took place in some well-drained locations of the Carpathian Basin. Simulated experiments have demonstrated that soil temperatures in taiga forest underlain with permafrost may not increase with climate warming unless accompanied by increased precipitation (BONAN, 1992: 126-137), so that a mild and wet climatic phase developed during the microinterstadials which interrupted the periods of loess formation. In these phases, the dominance of typical boreal woodland elements such as Discus ruderatus, Vestia turgida, Semilimax kotulai, Semilimax semilimax increased (KROLOPP-SÜMEGI: 1990, 6-9; 1991: 18-22; 1992: 257-258; 1995: 218; SÜMEGIKROLOPP, 1995: 137-138) in the loess-sequences and these woodland elements started spreading in the Carpathian Basin (Fig.3). The distribution of Gravettian sites of Ságvár stage (GÁBORI-GÁBORI, 1957: 4; GÁBORI-CSÁNK, 1978: 3-11; T. DOBOSI, 1967: 184-193; 1989: 15; 1993: 41; 1994: 5; T. DOBOSI-VÖRÖS, 1986: 42; 1987: 55-58; DOBOSI et al. 1983: 296-297; 1988: 18; VÖRÖS, 1982: 43-44) indicate that very favourable palaeoecological conditions developed in the Carpathin Basin during the last period of the Wurm, because human populations in the region analysed hunted mainly the /5,: