A N N A L E S H I S T O R I C O - N A T U R A L E S M U S E I N A T I O N A L I S H U N G A R I C I Volume 88. Budapest, 1996 pp. 2 1 - 2 9 .

Late Holocene vegetation history and the activity of man in the Tapolca Basin

Zs. MBDZIHRADSZKY & M . JÁRAI-KOMLÓDI

Department of Botany, Hungarian Natural History Museum H-]087 Budapest, Könyves Kálmán krt. 40, Hungary

MEDZIHRADSZKY, ZS. & JÁRAI-KOMLÓDI, M.: Late Holocene vegetation history and the activity of man in the Tapolca Basin. - Annls hist.-nat. Mus. nam. hung. 88: 2 1 - 2 9 .

Abstract - Double boreholes were investigated by palynological analysis and i 4 C measurement to study the vegetation history and the human influence in the last 5000 year in the Tapolca Basin. In the diagram we can follow the changes of the forestation and the cultivated plants (i.e. the rye). The palynological data compared to the archaeological material outline the settlement history of the ter­ritory, even the Hungarian Conquest, from the Copper Age until the Middle Ages. With 3 figures.

I N T R O D U C T I O N

In May 1 9 9 5 in the frame of the project ( O T K A T 1 7 2 3 1 ) "The Holocene vegetation history of Hungary by palynological, carpological, geological and radiocarbon analysis" double boreholes were deepened in the Tapolca Basin on the bank of the Lesence creek, about 2 0 m from the present-day coastal line of Lake Balaton. From the whole 5 4 0 cm deep borehole we present now the upper 3 4 0 cm, which contains the period of the Hun­garian Conquest too, and these layers represent according to our opinion the V I I - X . pol­len zone, partially confirmed with 1 4 C data from the Late Atlantic phase until our days (Fig. 1).

The series o f the conventional radiocarbon data starts with the BP 3 3 4 6 + 6 2 and closes with the BP 1 0 5 3 + 8 3 year, and curiously enough this last data gives, after the cali­bration the A D 1 0 0 1 year, the year of first king of Hungary, St. STEPHEN'S accession to the throne. The marking of the places of the sampling sites and the cores was made by J. D Ö M S Ö D I (Agricultural Geological Survey), the samples for the 1 4 C were measured by E. H E R T E L E N D I (Institute o f Nuclear Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences).

METHODS

Field technique: The sampling place was marked by the earlier investigation of B. ZÓLYOMI and by the National Peat Cadastral Survey.

Chronology: About 3 0 cm from the basic borehole 6 samples were taken for l 4 C measuring wi th distances of 1 0 cm. From the lower and upper cover layer of each l 4 C

sample we made control pollen analyses to keep the agreement of the levels under strict supervision.

Laboratory technique: For the preparation of pollen samples we used the standard method of E R D T M A N ( 1 9 4 3 ) and Z Ó L Y O M I ( 1 9 5 3 ) (acetolysis combined wi th the heavy liquid method). When it was necessary we sieved the organic material to remove coarse debris.

For mounting the residue and in the identification of the pollen we used glycerol. We extended the analyses to at least 1 0 0 0 pollen per sample ( B E R G L U N D 1 9 8 6 ) . In case of poor sample, we analysed the whole slide ( 2 0 x 4 0 mm).

DISCUSSION

The lower border of the investigated profile was marked, from where we could con­tinuously observe the indisputable traces of human establishment, the pollen of cereals. According to archaeological chronology, our epoch embraces the period from the Copper Age until the Middle Ages (Fig. 2).

The border between the Late Atlantic/Sub-Boreal phase, the V I I / V I I I . pollen zone was dated to be the end of the 4 t h , the beginning of 3 r d millennium BC. This border com­menced with some deterioration of the climate. It became cooler again wi th increased precipitation. According to palynological data, the forests closed in this time. In the cen­tral region of the Great Hungarian Plain forest-steppe with oak-woods existed. The most characteristic association here probably was the Quercus robur forests wi th Convallaria, as wel l as the oak-woods mixed with Carpinus and Fagus ( J Á R A I - K O M L Ó D I 1968, 1987, 1991a, b, K O R D O S & J Á R A I - K O M L Ó D I 1988). In Transdanubia, at Lake Balaton Fagus expanded again, this time along with Carpinus ( N A G Y - B O D O R 1988, Z Ó L Y O M I 1987). The 1 4 C data confirmed the investigations of Z Ó L Y O M I ( G Y O R F F Y & Z Ó L Y O M I 1996). In our pollen diagram there is a Fagus-Carpinus peak in this time, with a standard (20 -30%) Quercus quantity. The pollen o f the cereals have been continuous since the Late-Atlantic phase, but significant only from the Sub-Boreal phase.

About 2 km SW of our sampling site, in the boundary of Balatonederics in an about 250-300 m long and 150 m wide zone a prehistoric settlement was disarranged by ploughing. Among the archaeological finds collected from the surface few fragments rep­resented the Balaton group from the Copper Age ( S Á G I 1966). Finds from the same age have come to light from Keszthely-Fenékpuszta. A t this place the charcoal material of an oven was studied by radiocarbon method too, and dated to the year 2940±80 BC. The wood remain was identified as Quercus robur L I N N A E U S , 1753. From a short distance, again from the locality of the Balaton group, the date 2840+ 80 BC was obtained by l 4 C measurement ( Q U I T T A & K O H L 1969). Also from Fenékpuszta from the same age we know macrofossils o f cereals too, for example eincorn (Triticum monococcum L I N N A E U S , 1753), emmer (Triticum dicoccon S C H R A N K , 1789), barley (Hordeum distichon L I N ­N A E U S , 1753 cv. nudum R O T H M A L E R , 1963) and rye (Secede cerecde L I N N A E U S , 1753), which is the earliest rye find nowadays in the Carpathian Basin ( F Ü Z E S 1990). Likely it was not a cultivated plant, but a weed in other crop-fields (BEHRE 1992).

Aniüs hist.-nat. Mus. nain. hung. KM, 1996

The biggest part of the archaeological material from the prehistoric settlement of Balatonederics could be dated to the Late Copper Age, to the end of the 3 r , beginning of the 2 n d millennium BC.

The Early Bronze Age is represented by some sporadic pot fragments as well . Fur­ther to SW, in the boundary of Bala tongyörök another settlement was found from the Early Bronze Age. From Balatongyörök we know archaeological material dated to the Middle Bronze Age, the urn-field cemetery of the incrusted ceramic of Transdanubia too.

Fig. 2. Archaeological sites in the area of the borehole Tapolca Basin I I . C = Copper Age; B = Bronze Age; LB = Late Bronze Age; LT = Late Iron Age; R = Roman Period; N = Migration Period; A = Árpád Age; M = Early Middle Age

From Szigliget probably originating from a grave metal jewels were found from this peri­od. I t was presented by the layers between 2 3 0 - 2 5 0 cm ( 3 3 4 6 ± 6 2 BP, 1 6 1 4 cal. BC).

A t the boundary of the Tapolca Basin there are many archaeological sites from the Late Bronze Age. The surroundings of the town Keszthely, there could have been one o f the main centres o f settlement net of the early tumulus culture. Its classical graves were excavated in Keszthely, Csabrendek, and about 2 .5 km E of our borehole, at Szigliget. A t the same place, on the foot of the Várhegy, an important bronze treasure was found ( D A R N A Y 1 8 9 9 ) .

The inhabitation of the territory is continuous until the end of the Late Bronze Age, the period o f the urn-field culture.

A t the very end of the Sub-Boreal phase, at the beginning of the Sub-Atlantic in the 1 6 0 - 2 0 0 cm depth the pollen count decreases significantly in the samples. The car­bonised plant remains increasing in the soil possibly preserved traces o f a fire. In 1 7 0 -1 9 0 cm depth there were small amounts of several slightly humified (broken and frag­mentary) sedge (Carex nigra L I N N A E U S , 1 7 5 3 ) and rush (Schoenoplectus lacustris L I N ­N A E U S , 1 7 5 3 ) remains (J . B A J Z Á T H , pers. comm.). In his basic diagram Z Ó L Y O M I ( 1 9 8 0 ) draws a fossil water layer at the border of the Sub-Boreal/Sub-Atlantic phase.

Archaeologically the 8 - 5 T H centuries BC, the sites of the Early Iron Age cannot be found on those levels, where the finds of the Late Bronze Age and the Late Iron Age occur. Only further research wi l l decide whether this results from an inadequacy of the research, a possible rise in water level or the possible differences in the settling pecu­liarities o f the population of the Early Iron Age, and i f this hiatus may be related to the palaeobotanically hardly valuable material from the depth of 1 6 0 - 2 0 0 cm.

This layer is very important, because in the 1 8 0 - 1 9 0 cm depth the first Secale pollen grain was found. Might it be secondary?

In the 1 0 0 - 1 6 0 cm layers, at the Sub-Atlantic phase, which contains the Early and Late Iron Age, the Roman and the Migration Period with attention we can well follow the strong decrease o f the Fagus and Quercus, and the considerable increase o f the non arbor pollen compared with the earlier. Although Juglans still appears in the depth 2 2 0 - 2 3 0 cm, continuously only since the 1 5 0 cm depth could have been calculated. The cereals are constantly there, among them the amount of pollen grains of rye is significant (Fig. 3 ) .

From the weed plants, appreciable as anthropogenic indicator the Plantago sp. from the 3 2 0 cm depth, the Plantago lanceolata L I N N A E U S , 1 7 5 3 from the 2 7 0 cm depth occur continuously. Their amount increases in the Sub-Atlantic phase.

We have only few archaeobotanical data about the agriculture of the Celtic tribes in the Carpathian Basin. By the analogies of farther areas we know that the technology was fundamentally more advanced than in the Late Bronze Age ( S Z A B Ó 1 9 7 1 ) . Based on the evidence of archaeological sites in the environs of Sopron several species of wheat, bar­ley were cultivated, and among the cereals we can find the millet and the oat as wel l ( J E R E M et al. 1 9 8 4 , 1 9 8 5 ) . Antic sources refer to the Late Iron Age natural plant cover o f Transdanubia. Probably it was covered by large woods yet, because immanes silvae, huge forests denomination can we read.

In our pollen diagram a sudden increase of the cereal pollen is noticeable in this level.

In the boundary of Balatonederics, on the above-mentioned archaeological site Cel­tic pottery fragments, about 100 m farther Celtic skeleton grave were found too, so the area was inhabited in the Late Iron Age as wel l . The Celts might have lived in the recent area of Szigliget, their funeral place was found in the side o f the Várhegy ( D A R N A Y 1899).

In the time border of the Sub-Atlantic phase the Roman period marks mostly the landscape wi th one's impress. From this age we know of steady built roads, stone con­structions, o f ruins of which are still observable sometimes on the surface even today and which were often standing, also in ruins useful buildings, man made objects from the Conquest Period and the Early Middle Age.

In 1889 at Balatonederics a road made of rectangular stones deriving from the Roman period was found ( K U Z S I N S Z K Y 1920). To exactly determine its place is im­possible nowadays, but it may be supposed that it is the same road, which occurs in 1262

350-

Fig. 3. Pollen diagram of the cereals from the Tapolca Basin I I . 100% = Z NAP

as " V i a de Edelich ad villam Tumoy" (CsÁNKi 1897). The locality of the Copper Age -Late Iron Age settlement might be very suitable for establishment, because some frag­ments of roof covering bricks refer to Roman village as well .

A t the end o f the last century at Szigliget, on the foot of the Várhegy a Roman brick grave was found. According to the description by the archaeologist, the soil was flat and boggy ( D A R N A Y 1899). I t means, that the water level of the soil was higher in the last, than in the first centuries. Roman settlement was observed at Réhely too, in the neigh­bourhood of the Early Medieval church from Avas (KuzsiNSZKY 1920). After the "bar-barisation" of Pannónia , then its delivering according to contract to the Huns ( A D 433) we can reckon with settlement continuity in the surroundings of Keszthely, which is veri­fied by the settlement richness of our area in the Late Migration Period. The cereal pollen permanently occurs roughly in the same per cent, while the number of the rye pollen steadily increasing.

In the layer (80—100 cm), which indicates the time of the Hungarian Conquest and the foundation o f the state the value of Quercus is about 25% with a very small quantity o f Tilia and Ulmus, between 10-15% Fagus, 4 -5% Carpinus. In the percentage of the non arbor pollen there has been no fundamental change since the Late Iron Age. The map of B . Z Ó L Y O M I wi th the exception o f the boggy areas indicates closed dry oak forests to the eastern part o f the Balaton Highland, while in the Bakony range supposedly i l lyric mountain beech forests developed ( G Y Ö R F F Y & Z Ó L Y O M I 1994, Z Ó L Y O M I 1995a, b). I t is confirmed by our pollen diagram. We do not know archaeological material from the Con­quest Period from the surroundings o f our borehole. Archaeobotanically the most com­pletely elaborated material from the 10 t h century was excavated from the settlement of Fonyód-Béla te lep ( G Y U L A I 1987a, b). The analysis of the crop remains unambiguously shows that there were more species of cultivated cereals, and at the settlement the fruits of apricot, cherry, sour cherry, plum, walnut occurred. We can also reckon with the survi­val of the Roman garden culture.

The archaeological finds of the Early Árpád Age are observable at several places in the surrounding of our sampling site. Around the ruins o f the church at Avas the village Zeglegeth (today Szigliget) lay as shown in the charter material of the 12 t h century ( S Z E N T P É T E R Y 1927).

[n the very upper, 60-70 cm level the pollen content was poor probably due to des­iccation and recent drainage of the mire. It was not enough for the statistical calculation, so we are unable to present the changes of the vegetation in the Late Medieval and recent periods.

CONCLUSION

In this paper we made an attempt at synchronising the vegetation historical results of a palynological investigation wi th the history of the neighbouring area, and harmonising the palaeoecological changes reflected in the pollen diagram and the settlement as out­lined by the archaeological finds. In our profile we have drawn the vegetation history of

the past c. 5000 years, without the changes of the modern times. According to the archae­ological chronology this is the period from the Copper Age until the Middle Ages.

We plan to solve the yet open problems, the extension of the results in the time and further improvement o f the results with new sampling and pollen analysis in the near fu­ture.

* * *

A c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s - Our project was supported by the Hungarian National Scientific Research Fund (OTKA T—17231). We are working with the permanent assistance of Prof B. Z Ó L Y O M I for which we should like to express our gratitude.

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The oribatid species described by Berlese

(Acari) M A H U N K A , S. and L . M A H U N K A - P A P P

The authors had the opportunity for years to study the Oribatid species described by Berlese currently deposited in the Istituto Sperimentale per la Zoológia Agraria at Florence. The results of this series of studies are summarized in this volume.

The volume begins with an essay-like Introduction heavily re­lying on subjective opinions discussing the general questions of Oribatology. The following section lists Berlese's species placed in the modern system helping the specialists with morphological notes and many drawings; here also the condition of the specimens is discussed and lectotypes are designated.

The third, large section is the catalogue proper, wherein all the species are listed in the systematic order together with their combi­nation and synonymic names. Here one may find all the literature data, usually missing from ordinary works, with reference to De­scription and Taxonomy, Distribution, with special emphasis on Catalogues whose references are partly unreliable. Where it was deemed necessary further information arc added under the heading of Remarks. The volume closes with a very detailed list of lit­erature.

ISBN 963 7093 27 3 325 pages with several figures. Soft bound.

© Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, 1995 Price: 40 US dollars excl. p. & p.

Order should be sent to the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Library

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