No abstract

Árpád period pit houses with a stone oven, Roman period brick graves and public baths, debris from Middle Bronze Age buildings, an Early Bronze Age cemetery, and Late Copper Age clay pit complexes – the thousands of archaeological features that appeared one below the other in a several metres thick stratigraphic sequence, and the nearly thousand boxes of finds are only one side of the coin. The other is represented by the constant roar of the machines, the deafening noise and the dust clouds from the pneumatic drill, the rhythmical sound of the suburban railway, the hubbub of construction workers, and the tight archaeological deadlines. At the site of the former Óbuda Distillery, during the almost three years of test and rescue excavations, we have encountered nearly all known elements of urban archaeology. We also appreciate that, in spite of the difficulties, we were given a unique, extraordinary and perhaps unparalleled opportunity. The site, after all, lies at the edge of the historical cores of the Roman Military Town and medieval Óbuda. The excavation site is noteworthy not only in terms of its vertical but also its horizontal extent. Following the highly informative period of fieldwork, hopefully we can begin the analysis as soon as possible, through which we may understand, step by step, the significance of this special place, where, until now, there lay the stratigraphic sequence of six thousand years of human presence.

Árpád-kori kőkemencés veremházak, római kori téglasírok és közfürdő, középső bronzkori épületek omladékai, kora bronzkori temető, késő rézkori agyagnyerő komplexumok. A több méter vastag rétegsorban egymás alatt jelentkező sok ezer régészeti jelenség, valamint csaknem ezer láda leletanyag csupán az érem egyik oldalát jelenti. A folyamatosan zúgó gépek, a betontörés fülsüketítő robaja és porfelhője, a HÉV ütemes hangja, külföldi építőmunkások moraja és szűk régészeti határidők alkotják az ellenpólust. Az egykori óbudai szeszgyár területén csaknem három éve tartó próba- és megelőző feltárások során a városi régészet csaknem minden ismert elemével szembesültünk, ugyanakkor tisztában vagyunk azzal is, hogy a nehézségek ellenére egyedi, különleges és talán megismételhetetlen lehetőség részesei lehettünk. Kutatási területünk ugyanis a római kori katonavárost és a középkori Óbudát lefedő történeti városmagok peremén helyezkedik el. A terepmunka rendkívül informatív időszakát követően remélhetően mihamarabb kezdetét veszi a feldolgozás fázisa, melynek eredményeképpen lépésről lépésre haladva érthetjük meg e különleges hely jelentőségét, ahol mostanáig az emberi jelenlét hatezer esztendőt átölelő rétegsora húzódott.

<p>Geoarchaeological and geomorphological studies were carried out on the alluvial plain of the Danube in an urban environment in the Northwest part of Budapest. The human-landscape interactions were investigated from the Neolithic to the present times.</p><p>The environmental reconstruction was produced through inter- and multidisciplinary geomorphological, archaeological, environmental historical researches, using OSL and radiocarbon dating, malacology, stratigraphy, and sedimentological analyses of samples from archaeological excavations, GIS data processing of contemporary and historical maps, archival documents and the spatial pattern of prehistoric archaeological sites.</p><p>The Danube is Europe's second longest river with a large catchment area. Its drainage basins’ climatic and environmental changes have significant effects on our case study area’s environment and its societies. The geomorphological and hydrographical evolutions’ long-term and short-term processes as well as the landscape’s episodic events were studied by investigating the geomorphological responses to climatic, fluvial and human impacts on the environment.</p><p>The landscape evolution from a nature-dominated fluvial environment to a densely built up anthropogenic landscape of a metropolis was revealed. An active river channel used to cross the research area in the Early Holocene. Today only some moderate-sized swampy, waterlogged areas refer to the existence of this former river channel and the subsequent lake and marshy environment. Through time this relict form of the Danube’s paleochannel was occupied by streams, draining surface water, ground water and abundant karstic springs. The location of the two prehistoric settlement concentrations along the Danube can be linked with the former existence of the significant tributary streams’ confluence. Geomorphological-topographical investigations of the area’s archaeological sites revealed that one of the streams has reversed its flow direction through time. From the Roman Period onward, but especially during the Modern Times, the watercourses have been canalised and their channels have been relocated. Today hardly anything is reminiscent of the former alluvial environment in this part of the capital city.</p>