Gaál Attila (szerk.): A Wosinszky Mór Múzeum Évkönyve 22. (Szekszárd, 2000)
Kiss Tünde: A Sió völgy későkelta és koracsászárkori településtörténetének vázlata
Tünde Kiss Settlement Patterns of the La Tène D and Early Roman Population in the Sió Valley. (South Eastern part of Western Hungary) Resume The author's aim was to draw an outlook of the settlement pattern and chronology of the Sió valley in the Late Iron Age and Early Roman period up to the turn of the 2 nd and 3 rd centuries A. D. In the first chapter T. Kiss summarizes the history of research: how different authors defined geographical, ethnical and linguistic conditions and problems of Roman ization in the regions south of Lake Balaton. According to the latest archaeological research held in the centre of Southern Transdanubia the Sió valley was a neighbouring region of the Kapos valley the dwelling area of the Celtic tribe of the Hercuniates who lived in relative isolation and preserved their pre-Roman lifestyle even in the 3 rd century A. D. The second chapter describes geomorphological and hidrological conditions. The flood plains of Sió contained an inpenetrable web of meanders before water managemant works conducted in the first half of the 20 th century. In the third chapter topographical description of twenty nine LT D and early Roman sites are enumerated. Nine of them were rescue excavations conducted by different archaeologists and twenty one sites had been researched by land survey of the author herself. The author supplemented archaeological data with achievements of air archaeology reconaissance and of hidrological mapping and water managemant. Connections between geographical conditions and LT D settlement patterns are emphasised in the fourth chapter: special hidrologycal conditions promoted the author to suppose a special importance of ancient hidrology in everyday life of the Celts before and after the Roman occupation of Western Hungary. She also presents the role of local Late Iron Age oppida (Balatonföldvár, Szabadhídvég-Pusztavár, Sióagárd-Leányvár) in the region's settlement pattern and interrelationships between them. The last chapter summarizes aspects of Romanization and types of settlements: surviving LT D sites, newly established Roman settlements, surviving and non-surviving oppida. Conseqently the Sió valley was not as isolated as the very heart of the Roman province Pannónia because of the influence of roads leading south of lake Balaton and north-south direction through the middle and southern sections of the marsh area of the Sió valley. Finally the author outlines aims of further research. 409
