Geological History of the Carpathian Basin

During the Pliocene, the massif in the center of the basin gradually began to subside, yielding itself to another inland body of water ­ the Pannonian Sea. Having deposited a large amount (up to 3,000 m in some places) of sandy, clayey sediment, the Pannonian Sea slowly transformed into a series of isolated freshwater lakes. Subsequent uplifting and subsidance gradually turned these freshwater lakes into rivers, which also laid down several hundred meters of sediment on top of the Pannonian deposits. Within this context, the rivers that eventually became known as the Danube and the Tisza gradually began incising and filling the basin with large amounts of fluviatile sediment brought down from the surrounding uplands (Pécsi 1964).

The topography of modern Hungary is traditionally divided into several discrete landscapes. The areas of Quaternary deposition are known as the Great and Little Plains (Nagy and Kis Alföld, respectively). The hilly and mountainous region to the west of the Danube is called Transdanubia (Dunatúl), and the Northern Mountains define the northernmost section of the country, extending into Slovakia (see Figure 1).

The Geomorphology of the Great Hungarian Plain

The westernmost geomorphological feature of the Great Hungarian Plain is the area between the Danube and Tisza rivers (Duna-Tisza Köze). This sandy interfluve was created during the later Pleistocene as the alluvial fan of the Danube was blown to the southeast, forming an extensive series of dunes that extend to the floodplain of the Tisza. This area remained unoccupied throughout much of the prehistory of the region, creating a large geographic and social boundary between the rest of the Plain to the east, and Transdanubia to the west.

To the north and east of this sandy interfluve are a series of alluvial fans that separate the floodplain of the Tisza from the northern mountains (see Sherratt 1997a:275, figure 11.3). This string of alluvial ‘cones1 was formed by smaller streams as they flowed out of the northern mountains into the Tisza during the Pleistocene and Holocene. Another Pleistocene alluvial fan ­ the Nyírség ­ rises in the northeastern most corner of the Plain. Initially deposited by a series of rivers (Tisza, Szamos, Kraszna, and Bodrog) during the Pleistocene, the Nyírség was uplifted during the early Holocene, creating a substantial boundary to later streambeds. The westernmost margin of the Nyírség is abutted upon by the Hajdúság, a slightly more elevated pocket of aeolian loess. The southeastern corner of the Plain is occupied by the Maros alluvial fan, which was formed by a complex series of braided rivers that deposited thick layers of sand and sandy gravel during the Pleistocene and Holocene.

Flowing between these various Pleistocene formations today are a series of rivers that originate in the east. The largest of these, the Tisza river, flows southwest into the Plain from the Ukraine. The present course of the Tisza is somewhat deceptive, for it is currently meticulously regulated by a complex system of dams and levees. Prior to the construction of these water management features, the Tisza wandered freely across the western half of the Plain, depositing thick fluviatile sediments as it meandered across the soft loess surface. During the Pleistocene, the Tisza flowed much further to the east than it does today, entering the Plain from south of the Nyírség and carving out the Berettyó-ér valley. During the Holocene, its course shifted to the north of the Nyírség, where it currently enters the Plain at the Tokaj Gate (Pécsi and Sárfalvi 1964).

The floodplain of the Tisza is traditionally divided into three discrete regions ­ the Upper, Middle, and Lower Tisza regions. The region to the east of the Tisza, consisting mostly of Holocene alluvial deposits, is called the Tiszántúl. Created by the continuous meandering of the Tisza, Berettyó, and Körös rivers throughout the Holocene, this region was annually inundated by early spring and early summer floods. Prior to its drainage and regulation during the nineteenth century, this portion of the country was a complex series of swamps and oxbows, interspersed by alluvial silts and clays and pockets of wind-blown and redeposited loess (Pécsi 1970).

Soils and Environment

The present vegetation of the Great Hungarian Plain is currently given over to industrialized agriculture. Sunflower, rice, wheat, barley, and corn are harvested on the remnants of large collective farms, which have been replaced more recently by small individual farmsteads. A long tradition of stockbreeding persists in the region, and cattle, sheep, and horses all continue to be grazed on the more sandy areas that are not as suitable for intensive agriculture (see Pécsi and Sárfalvi 1964).

The Plain is technically the westernmost extension of the Russian steppes, and throughout its long prehistory had an environmental character much different than today. Classified as a forest-steppe environment, the Great Hungarian Plain harbored a wide variety of different plant associations. According to Kosse (1979:48), the various plant associations of the forest-steppe are heavily dependent upon water supply and sodium content of the soils on which they occur. In areas of low alkalinity, pastures tend to form. In higher alkaline areas, sagebrush and salt-meadow grasses dominate. On alkaline soils in elevations above the floodplain, tartar maple-oak forests border upon elm-ash-oak groves in the floodplains.

Gyulai1s (1993) recent synthesis of pollen cores allows a general reconstruction of the environment within the Carpathian Basin throughout the Holocene. Building upon the work of Szujkó-Lacza (1991), Gyulai suggests that the Atlantic Phase, which corresponds roughly with the early Neolithic, was characterized by mixed oak forests on loess soils (i.e., oak, elm, lime, and ash with hazelnut). During the beginning of the Subboreal Phase, towards the end of the Neolithic (i.e., after ca. 5,000 BC), there was an invasion of beech associated with a general cooling trend, which resulted eventually in the creation of large deciduous forests in combination with parkland steppe areas during the later Copper Age. During the subsequent cool period, the parkland steppe gradually was replaced by a mixture of beech and oak forests. By the end of the Late Bronze Age, during the late Subboreal, the general continental character that had previously characterized the region gave way to species of Subatlantic type, dominated by beech and hornbeam (see Gyulai 1993:13-18).

The Körös Regional Archaeological Project Study Area

Previous Research. For the last thirty years northern the Körös-Berettyó region has been the focus of intensive archaeological survey and excavation by Hungarian and British research teams (e.g., Ecsedy et al. 1982; Jankovich et al. 1989; Sherratt 1997a-b; see below).

Geographic Location. The Körös and Berettyó river valleys are the main east-west corridors that link the center of the Great Hungarian Plain with the rich copper and gold resources in Transylvania and in the Carpathian Mountains beyond. As such, the region would have been centrally involved with the various technological changes that occurred during the Late Neolithic, when 3native2 copper began to be exploited, and during the Early Copper Age, when copper ores began to be smelted.

Archaeological Location. The study area includes the region which Kalicz and Raczky (1987a) suggest was a ‘contact zone1 between the Tisza and Herpály groups during the Late Neolithic (see above).

Availability of Material. As a result of the extensive research that had been conducted in the region, two Early Copper Age sites with settlement features ­Vésztođ-Mágor and Örménykút 13 ­ had been excavated previously, but remained unpublished. I was offered the opportunity to analyze the ceramics from these sites, and to incorporate them into the current research project.

Geographic Description

The geographic region included within the study area extends from the Romanian border (in the east) to the parish of Békésszentandrás in the west, an area of approximately 100 km (east-west) x 10-30 km (north-south). The study area includes a large portion of the Körös river system, which begins as three smaller tributaries (i.e., the Sebes (Fast); Fekete (Black); and Feher (White) Körös) that enter Hungary from the foothills of Transylvania in Romania, and unite with the Berettyó to become the Harmas (Triple) Körös.

The complex geomorphology of the region has been created over the last 10,000 years by the continuous movement of the various streambeds across the soft surface of the Plain. Pécsi describes the Körös-Berettyó region in the following manner:

There is a vast wedge-shaped alluvial fan penetrating into the interior of the Great Plains along the Berettyó and the Triple Körös. It is in effect a system of coalesced alluvial fans, whose base is mostly sand, covered with river-laid silt. Among the alluvial fans deposited by the roaming river branches, deeper-lying swamps and morasses developed. Prior to the river conservancy works, the flood-laid silty waste of the meandering streams led to a gradual elevation of the river beds and banks. These natural levees enclosed small, basin-shaped, undrained depressions. Filled with water at flood times, the latter retained some of the water in the form of small alkali and salt lakes. In the dry summer seasons, most of these used to evaporate and contribute to alkali soil formation (Pécsi 1970:20).

Two of these lakes are still present in the eastern half of the study area (the Nagy Sárrét and Kis Sárrét).

The (Paleo-) Tisza flowed through the northern half of the study area during the later Pleistocene. During the early Holocene, tectonic processes shifted the bed of the Tisza further to the north, where it currently enters the Plain north of the Nyírség at the Tokaj Gate, leaving behind a large deltaic plain (the Dévaványa plain; see Sherratt 1997b:296-7) that was cross-cut by a series of much smaller lowland rivers. Even the present geomorphology of the study area shown in Figure 3, although quite complex, is deceptively simplistic, since the entire Plain was drained and canalized during the nineteenth century (see Pécsi and Sarfálvi 1964).

Hydrology and Geomorphology

In those areas that were high enough to avoid annual flooding, the study area is covered by alkaline loess that was redeposited by the various streams that have meandered their way across the region since the end of the Pleistocene. Sherratt (1997b:298) notes that, 3The characteristic soils of the islands are varieties of solonetz, whose saline character results from the high watertable and net upward movement of salt-charged water during the summer months2. In the areas that were seasonally inundated, meadow-clays and silty loess predominate. A few dispersed pockets of relatively pristine loess sand can still be found in the easternmost part of the study area, and the late Pleistocene Maros alluvial fan covers a large portion of the area in the south.

Kosse (1979:47-50) notes that tartar maple-oak forest (Galatello-Quercetum roboris) would have been found on the alkaline soils between floodplains and the higher loess plateaus. The floodplains would have contained willow and poplar groves, in addition to marsh grasses. Although the majority of the region is today under industrial production of sunflower and corn, prior to irrigation large tracts were given over to pasture (see Pécsi and Sarfálvi 1964).