Achaeometrical Research in Hungary II., 1988

ENVIRONMENT - Levente FŰKÖH: The role of malacological examinations in arheology

plant association. There may have been a wet, periodically inundated, but not swampy area in the site's environment. Stratigraphie examinations along the M3 Motorway Archaeological examinations offered a possibility to carry out geological examinations along the tracks of this Motorway, which contributed new data to the knowledge of Late Quaternary developments in the territory studied. The basis of this research was produced by malacostratigraphic examinations that had been carried out during the last decades within the framework of the so-called „Holocene programme". On the basis of these examinations, regularities could be explored that had influenced the development of the molluscan fauna during the Pleistocene and Holocene periods in the Carpathian Basin. In light of these results it became possible to describe the palaeogeographical, palaeoecological events that took place in the young subsided zones. Tracing faunal changes made the establishment of a new ecological classification possible and was of help in creating new biostratigraphic units. In the case under discussion here, the aims of sampling included exploring geological conditions in the environment of an archaeological site and, incidentally, determining the age of the site with the help of biostratigraphic methods. The territories examined (eleven archaeological sites near Nagyfügéd, Kál, Kompolt, Nagyút, Füzesabony, Mezőszemere) are located in the southern foreland of the Mátra and Bükk Mountains, along the rivers that run down from these mountains (Bene-, Tarnóca-, Tárna-, Laskó- and Eger-streams). On the basis of the examinations of sediments recovered from former riverbeds the following conclusions can be drawn: I. The ancient Tarna river and its drainage system (Bene-stream and Laskó-stream). The terrace sediments formed during the Late Quaternary. According to the malacological material from older sediments (the occurrence of Vallonia tenuilabris, Vertigo geyeri, Vertigo par ce dent at a), terrace formation took place during the second half of the Late Pleistocene. The climate was cool and rainy (Trichia hispida - Bithynia leachi zone). Holocene layers covering the Pleistocene sediments are indicative of watercourses, dead water territories and dry grassy associations where the occurrences of such species are the consequences of deforestation. II. The environments of Laskó-stream and Eger-stream. During the analysis of qartermalacological materials, Late-Pleistocene and Holocene sediments could be identified. The older sediments belong to Helicopsis striata, a subzone within the Trichia hispida - Bithynia leachi zone (Pleistocene, Wurm i.

2

). The younger sediments can be classified into the Bithynia leachi - Gyraidus ripariiis zone (Holocene, Sub-boreal). These results clearly correlate with the results of terrace investigations that had been carried out earlier at this same territory (Fig. 2). 212