Geoarchaeological Study of Szálka and Vajda Kurgans (Great Hungarian Plain) Based on Radiocarbon and Geophysical Analyses

Abstract

Two archaeologically unexplored mounds were studied in the area of the central Great Hungarian Plain. The age of the construction of the mounds was clarified on the basis of radiocarbon (14C) age determination of buried soil layers. Different, later-building phases of the mounds were detected by pedological and geo-electric analyses of the human-made layers. The age of the buried soils was corrected for the reservoir age of the recent soils found in the surroundings of the mounds. Radiocarbon ages of the carbon extracted from the soils at temperatures 400 and 800ºC were almost completely the same. Based on the calibrated ages of cal BP 4830–5270 (Szálka Mound) and cal BP 4880–5290 (Vajda Mound) of the buried soil layers, the identified kurgans were built by people of the Copper Age Yamnaya Culture. On the basis of the pedological and geophysical analysis of the layers, Szálka Mound and Vajda Mound were built in two and in three phases respectively from the chernozem-like humus-rich topsoil layers of the surrounding area. The former shallow quarry sites have been almost completely filled and cannot be identified at the foot of the mounds even using geodetic methods.

Hajdúnánás–Zagolya ETA-01 kurgán komplex paleoökológiai vizsgálata

“…Az árvalányhaj pedig tökéletesen beleillik ebbe a környezeti keretbe. Itt érdemes kiemelni, hogy a Hajdúság és a Hortobágy területén feltárással, vagy sekélyföldtani fúrással vizsgált kunhalmok esetében jellemzően csernozjom talajok kerültek elő a halomtest alól, illetve csernozjom talajok voltak megfigyelhetők a halmok felszínén, palástján (többek között: Barczi és Joó 2011; Sümegi és Szilágyi 2011; Bede et al 2015;Tóth et al 2018). E kettőség -azaz a "csernozjom-csernozjom indikáció" -pedig arra irányítja a figyelmet, hogy az építéskori környezet és a jelenkori környezete, közel azonos talajképződési körülményeket biztosított a terület üledékösszleteinek és talajainak, így nagyon eltérő természeti körülményekkel nem számolhatunk a rézkor/bronzkor határán sem.…”

Late Quaternary Paleoecology and Environmental History of the Hortobágy, an Alkaline Steppe in Central Europe

“…The most surveyed archaeological level is the Late Copper Age/Early Bronze Age-Pit Grave (Yamnaja) culture, which left visible traces on the surface in the form of burial mounds (kurgans) [14][15][16][17]. Several waves of this culture have been modeled in the Carpathian Basin [18], and data have been reported from radiocarbon analysis of kurgans in the wider region between 3300 and 2600 BC [19][20][21]. In fact, this can be considered the first productive farming culture to appear in the whole Hortobágy region [22].…”