Kelemen Imola (szerk.): A Csíki Székely Múzeum Évkönyve 8. (Csíkszereda, 2012)

Régészet - Tibor-Tamás Daróczi: Environmental Changes During the Holocene in Transylvania

TIBOR-TAMÁS DARÓCZI

those of Viorica Lupşa and Bălăuţă Diaconeasa, which have been carried in the north-central part of the Eastern Carpathian Basin.8 In the past two decades, of roughly the past 20 years, an explosionlike development of palaeoenvironmental research took place. For the Romanian parts of the study region, through work of the school of Cluj-Napoca9 more than 20 sites were drilled for cores (Appendix 1 and Map 4), from which palynology data could be inferred.

In Romania, this field had as only representative from the 1970s to the 2000s Marin Cârciumaru and most of the palynological samples collected were of liminal areas of the Eastern Carpathian Basin only spanning relatively brief periods of time.10 In the 1990s two major contributions appeared in the form of a more theoretical approach to the study of palaeobotany11 and that of the impact of humans on the environment through cultivation of crops.12 In the last decade, another specialist, Beatrice (Daisa-)Ciută, further extended the work carried out up until this point by Marin Cârciumaru. Several studies13 and her recently published PhD thesis14 fill in a much neglected space in the research, namely that of the human impact on the environment of Transylvania and adjacent areas through the cultivation of domesticated species. Moreover, studies of environmental archaeology have been carried out in smaller areas of the study region, like for example in its north- central part, in the upper basin of the Crasna/Kraszna River.15

Preliminaries to the environmental changes

The research of the Holocene of the Eastern Carpathian Basin has a history that reaches back almost a century, through field-work carried out in various marshes and bogs of Transylvania. The Holocene has the following major phases: Preboreal, Boreal, Atlantic, Subboreal, and Subatlantic (Fig. 1). The geomorphological features of Transylvania are mostly of Neogene origin and, as such, no major alteration to the geographic landscape occurred during the Holocene.16

Firbas

zones

BlyttSernander

zones

Pollenstratigraphic scheme

BCE

BP

Central

Europe

Southern

Scandinavia

Tiszántúl

Transylvania

X

II. Beech phase

Spruce-Beech-Fir phase 500-present 2500-present

IX

VIII

Beech phase

Spruce-Hornbeam phase 3700-500

5700-2500

Vllb

(-hornbeam, fir)

Vila

Oak phase

6500-3700

Spruce-Oak/Hazel phase

8500-5700

VI

Vb

Late Boreal

(~>pine)

Hazel phase

(~<pine)

10300-8500

Va

Early Boreal

Pine-Spruce phase

IV

Preboreal

Fir-Birch phase

Pine phase 950O-83OO (-spruce, birch, alder)

11500-10300

Fig. 1. Correlation of Holocene forest phases and pollenstratigraphic schemes - the BCE and BP entries are rough dates for orientation (after Feurdean 2004, fig. 1; JÁRAINÉ KOMLÓDI 2000, 41-47; Tanţăuetal. 2010, 79)

8 Diaconeasa 1979; Diaconeasa, Guist-Homm 1981; Diaconeasa, Mitroescu 1986; Lupşa 1972,1977.

9 Amongst these researchers I would like to mention Sorina Fărcaş (FĂRCAŞ, POPESCU 2006), Angelica Feurdean (FEURDEAN 2004) and loan Tanţău (TANŢĂU 2006). For a detailed overview of the playnological research history, especially in the Eastern Carpathian Mountains, please consult TANŢĂU 2006, 28-31).

10 Southeast Banat (CÂRCIUMARU 1971, 1974), southwest (CÂRCIUMARU 1973), southeast (CÂRCIUMARU, GlĂVAN 1975; CÂRCIUMARU, PĂUNESCU 1975) and northwest Transylvania (CÂRCIUMARU 1990).

11 Cârciumaru, Tomescu 1994.

12 Cârciumaru 1996.

13 e.g. Daisa Ciută 2006; Daisa Ciută et al. 2004.

14 Ciută 2009.

15 Fazecaş, Lakatos 2003.

16 Linzerét al. 1998,146-148,156.

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