New chronology and extended palaeoenvironmental data to the 1975 loess profile of Madaras brickyard, South Hungary

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.

Development History of the Loess–Paleosol Profiles of Pécel, Kisdorog and Bonyhádvarasd, Hungary

“…The four profiles examined in this study can be found in two different geographical regions of Hungary (Figure 1). One of them can be found in the vicinity of the town Pécel in the Gödöllő hills area [1] in a foothill location (e.g., [2][3][4][5][6]), while the other three profiles are located in the Tolna hills [7] in a lowland location (e.g., [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]). In addition to the one in Pécel, two of the examined sections are located in Kisdorog and one in Bonyhádvarasd, 130-140 km away from Pécel.…”

“…Detailed pieces of information on the loess sequences of the Carpathian Basin are available (e.g., [2,3,6,[8][9][10][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]), however, the sections we examined have not been studied before, thus, the data extracted from them could provide excellent additional information about the paleoclimate and regional mosaicism of the area. Several profiles have been studied along the River Danube [2,14,15,18], the data of which were supplemented by data from southern Hungary [6,[8][9][10]12,13], northern Hungary [3][4][5]22], Transdanubia [6,11,14,15], and data derived from drillings [23,24]. The excavation of the loess-paleosol profile of Pécel was completed in 2022.…”

“…We have therefore sought to achieve the highest possible resolution-of course within reasonable limits. Thus, a sampling interval of 4 cm was applied, which can result in the resolution of decades-to-centuries if it is supplemented with well-designed radiocarbon age data (e.g., [4,[8][9][10][11][12]26]). The loess-paleosol profiles near Kisdorog (Figure 1) are located in the midwest region of Hungary at 46°23′54″ N and 18°29′47″ E (Kisdorog-West) and 46°23′34″ N and 18°30′01″ E (Kisdorog-East).…”

“…The bottom 65 cm of it consists of clay, while sand with massive, cross-layered and laminated features can be described in the upper 51 cm. Based on the experiences of previous research on loess bodies and similar sediment depositions, the higher resolution of sampling enables a higher resolution of examination (e.g., [8][9][10][11][12]. We have therefore sought to achieve the highest possible resolution-of course within reasonable limits.…”

Az Északnyugat-Jászság 11–15. századi településtörténetének vázlata

“…A 14-15. század fordulóján még folytatódtak ezek a trendek, de a 15. század második felében a Kárpát-medence centrális részein, így az általunk vizsgált területen is drasztikusan visszaesett a gabonapollenek aránya. 121 Pusztán ez alapján azonban nem lehet valamiféle általános mezőgazdasági válságra következtetni, mivel egyéb tényezők is szerepet játszhattak a gabonatermesztés mértékének csökkenésében. 122…”