No abstract

The 10 m thick Madaras loess-palaeosol profile is one of the Hungarian outcrops that yielded Upper Palaeolithic artefacts in 1966. To clarify the nature of the deposits and establish a reliable litho-and chronostratigraphy, a profile was opened and sampled at 25 cm intervals on the northern side of the brickyard in 1975. Analyses focused on grain size, carbonate content and the mollusc fauna. The chronology was based on the mollusc composition and a single date from the archaeological layer at the depth of ca 7 m below the surface. The 1975 profile was destroyed by mining but the reposited samples allowed an extended analysis of this important Marine Isotope Stage 2 record to which archaeological features were directly assigned. A new absolute chronology was built based on 11 14 C dates. Environmental magnetic, geochemical and palaeoecological investigations allowed a refined view of site evolution with reliable chronology for the Last Glacial Maximum. Our results corroborated those of previous investigations done on other coeval loess-palaeosol sequences of the Southern Carpathian Basin. This also allowed for a temporal correlation to another local record with the published high-resolution chronology of the same brickyard and enabled modelling of local-scale heterogeneity of the environment in the long run.

The loess-paleosol profile near the settlement of Pécel has a notable size among the loess-paleosol sequences of the Northern Carpathian territories. Therefore, comprehensive sedimentological examinations were performed to understand the profile and the information preserved in it. The past periodicity and intensity of winds were showed by particle composition studies (GSI, U-ratio). At least two source areas can be presumed based on geochemical indices (CIA, CIW, Rb/Sr, Zr/Rb). Based on the characteristics of the chemical composition of sulphide minerals (P, S, Pb, Ni, As sulphides), the lower 10 m of the profile was supposed to be transported from the NW direction (Buda Thermal Karst, Börzsöny, Cserhát). Sufficient information is not yet available in order to determine the source area of the upper 10 m. By using the mentioned indexes, major developing and weathering horizons also could be identified.

In this paper, the authors present new palaeoecological and sedimentological results from the Upper Palaeolithic site of Ságvár, Hungary. Simple (abundance and dominance) and advanced (cluster analysis, principal component analysis, correspondence) statistical analyses of malacological results were carried out, determining eight malacological zones (MZs) and the key species of the fauna evolution in the sequence. Furthermore, an age-depth model was calculated via Bayesian modelling using new radiocarbon age data. The accumulation rate (AR) was calculated by deriving data from the age-depth model. The palaeoecological reconstruction indicated a cool/cold climate and chiefly steppe environment, with low loess ARs. Not only the vegetation cover but also the geographical setting of the sequence could have led to the low AR values. However, in the uppermost part of the sequence, during the GS 3 and GS 2.1c stadials, the reconstructed palaeoclimate indicated a warming period. Nevertheless, this contradiction is not unique in the Carpathian Basin. The settled Upper Palaeolithic hunters around 22 300 cal a BP lived in a progressively warming wooded steppe environment, hunting mainly for reindeer. Climate change might have forced them to migrate away, following the reindeer.

This paper presents the results of comparative sedimentological and geochemical analysis of the mire at Sânpaul, Round Lake (Kerek-tó). The palaeoecological site is situated in the western foothill area of the Eastern Carpathians in Romania. The primary objective of this study was to analyse the accumulation of major and trace elements in a 7500 year-long peat and lake deposition. The concentrations of 13 elements were determined by using handheld XRF. This paper presents the results of a multidisciplinary study, for which the principal aims were to examine the long-term relationship between land degradation in the Homoród Hills using various palaeoecological techniques, primarily comparative geochemical analyses. The PCA of elemental concentrations suggests that Round Lake is mainly controlled by the input of inorganic mineral matter and the LOI550 of peat. However, some elements are influenced by biological processes of vegetation and groundwater. Geohistorical studies compared with vegetation changes and elemental distribution helped the detection of erosion phases in the level of 12 prehistoric cultures.