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A Copper Age settlement and cemetery was fully excavated at Rákóczifalva-Bivaly-tó Site 1/C in 2005-2007, making it possible to compare the use of its material culture in closely related, coeval, but different archaeological contexts. Such a rare set of circumstances allows the authors to highlight methodological issues associated with the distorting effect of archaeological finds made on sites where only settlement or burial data are available, and on the importance of choosing appropriate analytical units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of our research project was to date the Early and Middle Copper Age (4500/4450–3800 cal BC) of the Great Hungarian Plain more precisely. In our project, we took samples for accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating from both settlement features and burials, and the data were analyzed using Bayesian modeling. We examined the Early and Middle Copper Age finds of the Great Hungarian Plain on several levels (site, microregional, and regional levels) using a bottom-up approach. The AMS measurements were supplemented by statistics-based pottery analysis in order to make our understanding of the relationship between the Tiszapolgár and Bodrogkeresztúr cultures more detailed. As a result, we can see a significant, 130 (68.2%) 230 years overlap between the two types of find assemblages, which contradicts to the earlier accepted chronological sequences created by the traditional culture-historical approach. According to the stylistic analyzes, the two ceramic styles are not clearly distinguishable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the development and evolution of a Neolithic tell on the Great Hungarian Plain, with a particular focus on the depositional and functional changes over time. Recent, multi-disciplinary research in conjunction with the reassessment of old excavation records allows us to identify three major phases in the morphological and functional development of the Szeghalom-Kovácshalom tell. The original primary use of the tell was residential in nature. After several generations, as the settlement expanded into the surrounding landscape, the tell was used for more communal behaviors until, during the latest phase, it was used primarily for burials. This evolution of the tell—from a residential space to a cemetery—underscores the complexity of social processes that unfolded at prehistoric tell sites in southeastern Europe. The method we employ demonstrates how information from old and new research projects can be integrated successfully to model the development of complex, multi-period settlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inland excess water (IEW) is a form of surplus surface water, often regarded as a specific flood type. However, it occurs most frequently in local depressions of large flat areas, irrespective of river floods and the surface water networks. IEW is considered to be a typical Carpathian Basin problem, as it can cause major land degradation problems in the agricultural areas of Hungary, mainly located on the Great Hungarian Plain (GHP). An innovative method for mapping the probability of IEW inundation is proposed in this study. This method is based on the geostatistical modelling of the relationship between the natural and human driving factors and the occurrence of IEW inundations. The results show that significant part of the GHP (about 500,000 hectares) is moderately or highly affected by IEW inundations, where the combination of multiple influencing factors simultaneously occur. The resulted IEW inundation probability map can be used to meet future challenges in agricultural management and the adaptations to climate change effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common problem with research into farmsteads is that, at present, there is no universally- accepted definition of a farmstead. Another problem specific to the Hungarian context is that no exact data are available for the number of farmsteads on the Great Hungarian Plain in recent decades. Recognizing this problem, a farmstead survey targeting the delineation of the Farmstead Development Programme was carried out in 2016. The authors of the study attempted to collect the data and databases currently available about farmsteads and peripheral residential areas and present a background to the survey carried out in 2016. The results of the survey allow to identify new trends, such as farmsteads becoming territorially more fragmented and the transformation of farms away from their traditional functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of farming was a catalyst for the evolution of the human diet from the varied subsistence practices of hunter-gatherers to the more globalised food economy we depend upon today. Although there has been considerable research into the dietary changes associated with the initial spread of farming, less attention has been given to how dietary choices continued to develop during subsequent millennia. A paleogenomic time transect for 5 millennia of human occupation in the Great Hungarian Plain spanning from the advent of the Neolithic to the Iron Age, showed major genomic turnovers. Here we assess where these genetic turnovers are associated with corresponding dietary shifts, by examining the carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios of 52 individuals. Results provide evidence that early Neolithic individuals, which were genetically characterised as Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, relied on wild resources to a greater extent than those whose genomic attributes were of typical Neolithic European farmers. Other Neolithic individuals and those from the Copper Age to Bronze Age periods relied mostly on terrestrial C3 plant resources. We also report a carbon isotopic ratio typical of C4 plants, which may indicate millet consumption in the Late Bronze Age, despite suggestions of the crop’s earlier arrival in Europe during the Neolithic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to compare the wood charcoal assemblages from several archaeological sites near Polgár (north-eastern Hungary) with the pollen records of the same area in order to infer the character of forest communities that developed between 7500 and 6500 cal. yr BP. One question of particular interest is the structure of the woodlands in the mid-Holocene, particularly during the Holocene Climatic Optimum, when summer mean temperatures were higher than today. Pollen studies in this period suggest the dominance of wooded steppe with significant, naturally open, steppe-covered habitats. Hazel ( Corylus avellana ) and oak ( Quercus sp.) were the most important pollen components. On the other hand, the anthracological records suggest considerably less hazel, more oak admixed with several other woody taxa, particularly heliophilous Cornus sp. and Rosaceae trees or shrubs that still remain either invisible or are poorly represented in the pollen diagrams. The two types of data thus complement each other, and serve to better characterise this key time interval when Neolithic agriculture spread across the Great Hungarian Plain. Special attention is given to the joint occurrence of cornelian cherry ( Cornus sp. cf. C. mas ) and European smoke bush ( Cotinus coggygria ), as these commonly occur in the Sub-Mediterranean-subcontinental wooded steppe and thermophilous oak forest associations in SE Europe these days, under warmer summer conditions than those experienced in Hungary today. Their appearance and, in the case of cornelian cherry, abundance in the Atlantic wood charcoal assemblages suggest that, during the Atlantic phase, the wooded steppes of the north Great Hungarian Plain could have been of a Sub-Mediterranean character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work presents a complex metallographic examination of bronze, silver and golden artefacts from early medieval German (Gepid) cemeteries of the Hungarian Plain, focusing on the finds from Tiszapüspöki.A newly developed non-destructive X-ray diffraction method was applied on the artefacts for the first time, as a novel approach, for sampling-free residual stress measurements. Other techniques such as optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy combined with energy dispersive spectrometry has also been used. In addition to residual stress, crystallographic texture and properties of the reflections were analysed as well. The combined application of these methods was found to be an effective tool to deduce the production technologies of the examined artefacts. In addition to defining the characteristics of the material structures and compositions on the surfaces of the artefacts, the typical traces of several technological methods as casting, forming, coating were detected which are used for making various types of artefacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Forest cover in Hungary has increased from 1.1 to 2.0 million hectares during the last century. The EU (European Union) promotes further afforestation; thus, 15,000-18,000 ha are being forested each year, mainly in the Hungarian Great Plain. In terms of species used for afforestation, poplar plantations are preferred over native oak woodlands. The groundwater uptake of trees can be a significant water balance element of forested areas in shallow groundwater environments within the Hungarian Great Plain. Forests can cause water table depressions and subsurface salt accumulation in areas with negative water balance. This study examined the hydrological impact of forest cover in the Hungarian Great Plain. Within the framework of this research, climatic water balance, water table depth and salinity, subsoil layering, tree species and stand age were analysed as influencing factors. This paper compares the effect which an oak forest, a poplar plantation and a pasture have on groundwater uptake and salt accumulation. Results: The water table level was roughly 0.4-0.5 m lower beneath the oak forest and the poplar plantation than it was beneath the pasture. Forest groundwater use was 1.5-2 times higher than that of grassland. Groundwater uptake of oak forest was greater than that of poplar plantation during the monitoring period. Salt accumulation, which shows water use in the longer run, was slightly higher for poplar in deeper layers. Conclusions: The greater amount of groundwater used by trees does not lead to a higher salt uptake as only a slight accumulation of salt was measured beneath the forests. Overall, hybrid poplar was slightly less favourable than native oak when considering salinization effects. However, even greater groundwater uptake by trees over longer timescales could cause more significant salt accumulation under pronounced drought conditions due to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The land use and land cover pattern of landscapes are key elements of basic landscape structure; accordingly, this pattern has an important role in landscape management, nature conservation and preservation. In Hungary, the naturalness of the vegetation was surveyed between 2003 and 2006, and the vegetation-based Natural Capital Index (NCI) was calculated for almost the entire area of the country. This field-based database gave us the unique opportunity to analyse the statistical connection between the naturalness of the vegetation and the landscape (land cover) pattern on a regional scale. In our study, we analysed the efficiency of the regional-level CORINE Land Cover (CLC) database for the estimation of the naturalness of the vegetation. This connection was analysed at the country scale using every (2272) Flora Mapping Unit (FMU), or 5.5 × 6.5 km quadrate, of Hungary. We calculated the shape-, edge- and size-related landscape indices for all FMUs on a landscape level (including all CLC patches) and a class level (the land cover polygons were classified according to their land cover characteristics and their level of hemeroby). We determined the Spearman’s correlations to reveal the statistical connections between the landscape metric parameters and the NCI values. All of the investigated area-weighted landscape indices: Main Patch Size, (MPS), Main Fractal Dimension Index, (MFDI), Total Edge (TE), Main Shape Index (MSI) and Number of Shape Characteristic Points (NSCP) on the landscape level showed a significant statistical connection with the NCI, but the sign of its correlation with the NCI contrasted with the findings from previous studies on a larger scale. Our study shows that scale has a strong impact on the sign of the correlation between the naturalness of the vegetation and the landscape structure. On a class level, particularly the shape-related landscape indices of the “Forest and semi-natural areas” showed statistically significant correlations with the NCI. The correlation strongly depended on the method of classification of the CLC polygons. Furthermore, the spatial pattern of the land-cover-type-based CLC polygon categories showed higher correlation values with the NCI than CLC polygon classes, which were categorized according to their hemeroby state. These results show that although the sign of the spatial pattern change in the main land cover classes is scale-dependent, they can be used to estimate the increase or decrease in the naturalness of the vegetation better than the spatial changes of the hemeroby-level-based landscape pattern. We can predict the change in the naturalness of vegetation based on the spatial changes in the land cover pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fluvial sand succession was excavated at Tiszasas section, close to the present course of the River Tisza (Pannonian Basin). It was possible to distinguish lithologically between sediments of two different palaeorivers within the sediment record by means of heavy mineral analysis. In order to obtain age constraints for the re-arrangement of the drainage pattern in this area, luminescence dating was carried out on ten samples. The post-Infrared Optically Stimulated Luminescence (post-IR OSL) and pulsed OSL protocols were applied to obtain the equivalent dose (De) of the quartz samples, as they were contaminated by feldspar. Additionally, the K-feldspar separates were measured using a post-IR Infrared Stimulated Luminescence (pIRIR) protocol. Most of the OSL ages (ranging between 10.4 ± 1.1 ka and 17.8 ± 1.1 ka) and pIRIR ages (ranging between 10.4 ± 0.6 ka and 15.2 ± 1.0 ka) are in agreement within uncertainty, suggesting that both quartz and feldspar had been well bleached before burial. Relatively continuous sedimentation occurred at Tiszasas from the end of Late Pleniglacial (c. 26.5-15 ka) to the Lateglacial period (c. 13.5-11.7 ka). When the Danube had abandoned this area, very likely a so-called "Third River" occupied the present course of the Tisza River during the end of Late Pleniglacial carrying sediments from the Northern Carpathians. During Lateglacial the palaeoriver network has significantly changed due to the subsidence of the western and northern margins of the Great Hungarian Plain; the Tisza and Körös rivers occupied their present channel in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Drawing on four decades of field research on the Danube-Tisza interfluve, the Western zone of the Great Hungarian Plain, this paper places the “overheating” of the post-Cold War era in alongue duréeperspective. The first section traces a millennium of history in terms of multi-directional migrations and civilizational encounters of various kinds: between sedentary agriculturalists and pastoral nomads, between Christian and Muslim agrarian orders, and between capitalist and socialist industrial orders. The Hungarian variant of Marxism-Leninism (unlike most other variants) relied considerably on material incentives to households. It attached high priority to transforming the countryside, which experienced an effervescent involution or “overheating” in the last decades of socialism. Since 1991, however, the market socialist synthesis has given way to a peripheral variant of Western market capitalism. Overheating is no longer a phenomenon of the rural economy, which has lost the dynamism of the socialist decades and experiences deprivation in absolute as well as relative forms. Rather, overheating is to be observed in the symbolic dimension of political legitimation, as populist political parties vie with each other in nationalist rhetoric. This overheating was evident in negative attitudes towards strangers seeking to transit this part of Hungary in the summer of 2015, a migratory process which provided a challenge to the whole of the European Union. It is argued that these attitudes in rural Hungary can be explained in terms of the ressentiments of a population which has been palpably thrown back into an underdog position on the margins of Western capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper focuses on changes in settlement patterns on the frontier zones of wetlands and areas suitable for settling in the Great Hungarian Plain, Central Europe. Based on the statistical analysis of archaeological site elevations in a 4.128 km² lowland landscape, it is demonstrated that archaeological sites of the Árpád Period (AD 970–1300) were situated significantly (p = 0.01; n = 427) lower than those of the late medieval period (AD 1300–1540). Statistical results suggest that rising water levels are likely to have influenced the migration and transformation in settlement patterns from the Medieval Warm Epoch (mid-10 th – mid-13 th century) to the first part of the Little Ice Age (mid-13 th century – mid-16 th century). Zonal analysis also revealed close connections between flood-prone geomorphological features and spatiotemporal variations of settlement patterns during the medieval climate change. With regard to the lowland character of the extensive study area, its relatively high flood vulnerability and the numerous analogies from Europe and the Carpathian Basin, only one out of the multitude of factors influencing site selection, water level changes can be interpreted as a rational explanation for the vertical displacement of the settlement pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluvial geomorphologists have tried to describe the outstanding tectonically affected avulsion process of Tisza River at the Great Hungarian Plain by various theoretical concepts. Flume experiments provide the ability to examine the main characteristic processes of a highlighted surface development theory under controlled settings within an accelerated time scale. Our goal was to reconstruct and refine these hypotheses from a new experimental point of view. Contrary to the previous flume studies focused on a highlighted mechanism, our experiment combined several processes for confirmation purposes. In this study we performed an experiment of the avulsion process mentioned above on a 12 x 5 x 2.5 m flume where a special instrument was planted under the sand layers in order to simulate the vertical tectonic movements. A terrestrial laser scanner was used to record the different stages of the topographic evolution. We shaped the initial surface and executed the main landscape forming processes according to theoretical descriptions then with modifications to examine the similarities and differences between the experimental outcomes and the theoretical evolution. The results of three different types of scenarios proved the key role of the uplifting Nyírség alluvial fan in the channel direction changing process of Tisza River. On the other hand, the role of Bodrogköz area had been questioned. Flume experiments with appropriate equipment can serve as a suitable tool for the reconstruction of surface development theories taking into account several landscape forming processes simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Great Hungarian Plain (GHP), one of the most complex fluvial systems of Europe developed through tectonic and climatic factors and vegetation change. The aim of the present study is to summarise these controlling factors and to describe the evolution of the GHP. Special attention is paid to the latest results on late Weichselian and Holocene development in the Tisza River and their effects on the river's largest tributary: the Maros River. Several tectonically active subsiding basins existing in the GHP have determined the direction of river courses and erosional–accumulational fluvial processes. As a result of uneven subsidence, the river's flow routes have shifted frequently. For example, the Danube and the Tisza shifted 80–100 km, abandoning their alluvial fans where extensive aeolian processes started. Upstream from the subsiding areas, incision propagated headward, which resulted in the development of floodplain levels and terraces. Though climate and vegetation changes also simultaneously influenced the rivers' hydro-morphology, channel pattern changes were found just along the margin of the plain, and only meandering paleo-channels remained in the center of the GHP. During dry and cold periods, braided patterns appeared in the alluvial fans, most likely the result of abundant sediment supply and due to the inability of sparse riparian vegetation to stabilise the banks effectively. Based on paleo-discharge calculations, by the end of the Pleistocene the rivers of the GHP produced three to eight times more discharge than they do currently, and discharge levels continuously decreased during the Holocene. However, due to the long length of the rivers, there is a considerable time lag between the response rates of the different river sections, which makes creating paleo-hydrological reconstructions even more difficult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radon and thoron isotopes are responsible for approximately half of the average annual effective dose to humans. Although the half-life of thoron is short, it can potentially enter indoor air from adobe walls. Adobe was a traditional construction material in the Great Hungarian Plain. Its major raw materials are the alluvial sediments of the area. Here, seasonal radon and thoron activity concentrations were measured in 53 adobe dwellings in 7 settlements by pairs of etched track detectors. The results show that the annual average radon and thoron activity concentrations are elevated in these dwellings and that the proportions with values higher than 300 Bq m−3are 14–17 and 29–32% for radon and thoron, respectively. The calculated radon inhalation dose is significantly higher than the world average value, exceeding 10 mSv y−1in 7% of the dwellings of this study. Thoron also can be a significant contributor to the inhalation dose with about 30% in the total inhalation dose. The changes of weather conditions seem to be more relevant in the variation of measurement results than the differences in the local sedimentary geology. Still, the highest values were detected on clay. Through the year, radon follows the average temperature changes and is affected by the ventilation, whereas thoron rather seems to follow the amount of precipitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zusammenfassung: Im östlichen Karpatenbecken hat die Forschung ein Chronologiegerüst für die frühe und mittlere Kupferzeit mit der relativen Kulturgruppenabfolge Tiszapolgár, gefolgt von der Bodrogkeresztúr und schließlich der sie ablösenden Hunyadi-halom-Gruppe, entwickelt. Insbesondere hochauflösende AMS-Radiokarbondaten, die in den letzten Jahren aus Ungarn, der Ostslowakei und Rumänien vorgelegt wurden, konnten dabei die Vorstellungen zur absolutchronologischen Stellung der einzelnen Kulturgruppen erheblich modifizieren. Die Bayesbasierte Modellierung der Daten stellt dem Archäologen statistische Hilfsmittel zur Verfügung, die zeigen können, dass die relativchronologische Sequenz der Kulturgruppen in Übereinstimmung mit den bislang vorgelegten AMS Serien steht. Résumé: La chronologie relative concernant le Chalcolithique ancien et moyen dans la moitié est du Bassin des Carpates contient les étapes suivantes: culture de Tiszapolgár, suivie de la culture de Bodrogkeresztúr et enfin culture d'Hunyadihalom. Les datations radiocarbone AMS obtenues récemment en Hongrie, Slovaquie et Roumanie ont considérablement amélioré la chronologie absolue de ces trois cultures. Les approches Bayésiennes nous permettent de démontrer que la chronologie relative est en accord complet avec les résultats de l'analyse des datations radiocarbone. Abstract: The relative chronological schemes for the Early and Middle Copper Age in the eastern half of the Carpathian Basin show the following succession: Tiszapolgár culture, followed by the Bodrogkeresztúr culture and finally the Hunyadihalom culture. The AMS dates recently obtained from Hungary, Slovakia and Romania are considerably improving the absolute chronology of these three archaeological cultures. Bayesian approaches make it possible to show that the relative chronology is in complete agreement with the analysis of the 14C dates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: From the Late Neolithic to the Early Copper Age on the Great Hungarian Plain (4500 BC, calibrated) a transformation in many aspects of life has been inferred from the archaeological record. This transition is characterized by changes in settlements, subsistence, cultural assemblages, mortuary customs, and trade networks. Some researchers suggest that changes in material culture, particularly the replacement of long-occupied tells with smaller, more dispersed hamlets, indicates a shift from sedentary farming villages to a more mobile, agropastoral society that emphasized animal husbandry and perhaps secondary products of domestication. In a previous study (Giblin, 2009), preliminary radiogenic strontium (87Sr/86Sr) isotope data from human dental enamel showed that Copper Age individuals expressed more variable isotope values than their Neolithic predecessors. These data provided support for the idea that Copper Age inhabitants of the Plain were acquiring resources from a greater geographic area, findings that seemed consistent with a more mobile lifestyle. In this article a larger sample from human and animal skeletal material is used to re-evaluate earlier work and shed new light on the transition from the Neolithic to the Copper Age in eastern Hungary. The expanded sample of strontium isotopes from human dental enamel shows that 87Sr/86Sr values are more variable during the Copper Age, but the change is more pronounced in the Middle Copper Age than in the Early Copper Age. These results, along with recently published complementary research, indicate that the transition from the Late Neolithic tell cultures of the Plain to the more dispersed Copper Age hamlets was more gradual than previously thought, and that the emergence of an agropastoral economy does not explain changes in settlement and material culture. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study explores a past climatic controversy dealing with the efforts and influences of the afforestration and water regulation in the Great Hungarian Plain. This debate had two amplitudes; the first in the mid' 1860s, after a summer drought, and the second in the interwar period of the 20th century. In the article I investigate the circumstances and present the milestones of the debate, and discuss how the changing historical context transformed the meaning of the clashing ideas during their afterlife. The theory of global climate change rearranged the position of the opposing sides; the idea of permanent climate in human history become history. The context of early socialist Hungary in the 1950s produced a similar situation. We can find also the losers of the controversy during the interwar period on the other side, i.e. the promoters of the afforestration due to climatic effects. The study offers the parallels of the past and present climate debates as conclusions: the faults of scientific communication, the problem of the limits of scientific knowledge and uncertainty, the polarizing effects of the debate as well the extreme weather and the visible scientific and lobby groups in background could be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The archaeological record of Eastern Hungary indicates that settlement patterns, subsistence strategies, ceramic style, trade patterns and mortuary customs changed from the Late Neolithic to the Copper Age (5000–2700cal BC). Despite a rich archaeological tradition, questions remain regarding the management and use of domesticated animals and the role animal husbandry played in social change during this transition. Some researchers have hypothesized that these changes reflect a shift towards an economy that intensified its focus on primary and perhaps secondary animal products. Here we synthesize isotope data from human and animal remains and residue analysis from pottery sherds from Neolithic and Copper Age assemblages. Results indicate that the consumption and use of animal protein and fat was relatively high for both periods, with an increase in animal fats in ceramic vessels during the Middle Copper Age; however, milk products do not appear to have played an important dietary role. We conclude that livestock management remained small-scale during the Neolithic and Copper Age and that dairy use was minimal. It is proposed that the cultural changes that occurred at this time were associated with the emergence of smaller, independent farmsteads and perhaps the innovative use of secondary products like manure. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Dark septate endophytic (DSE) fungi represent a frequent root-colonizing fungal group common in environments with strong abiotic stress, such as (semi)arid ecosystems. This work aimed to study the DSE fungi colonizing the plants of semiarid sandy grasslands with wood steppe patches on the Great Hungarian Plain. As we may assume that fungi colonizing both invasive and native species are generalists, root associated fungi (RAF) were isolated from eight native and three invasive plant species. The nrDNA sequences of the isolates were used for identification. To confirm that the fungi were endophytes an artificial inoculation system was used to test the isolates: we considered a fungus as DSE if it colonized the roots without causing a negative effect on the plant and formed microsclerotia in the roots. According to the analyses of the ITS sequence of nrDNA the 296 isolates clustered into 41 groups. We found that 14 of these 41 groups were DSE, representing approximately 60% of the isolates. The main DSE groups were generalist and showed no specificity to area or season and colonized both native and invasive species, demonstrating that exotic plants are capable of using the root endophytic fungi of the invaded areas. The DSE community of the region shows high similarity to those found in arid grasslands of North America. Taking into account a previous hypothesis about the common root colonizers of those grasslands and our results reported here, we hypothesize that plants of (semi)arid grasslands share common dominant members of the DSE fungal community on a global scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of railway network in the internal passenger and heavy traffic is continuously decreasing. Regarding the number of passengers, proportion of the railway out of the internal passenger transport was more than 20% less in 2000. The railway passenger transportation suffered a setback in shorter distances in the last decades. In case of railway transportation of goods both the carriage distance and the quantity of goods have decreased. Content of the load has changed, too. Comparing to the previous one, quantity of the transported building materials, metal waste, ores and coal etc. lessened. In contrast with it proportion of agricultural products, machines has increased. It is worth examining the changes in connection with the passenger and heavy traffic in the last few years not only in country level but in the level of several settlements, as well. In settlements' life a transportation route of the infrastructural sphere plays an important role. In this essay it is aiming to examine the changes in railway traffic of town Mezohegyes, a settlement on the Southern part of the Hungarian Plain, between 1990 and 2006. Research work of this kind has been carried out about town Mezohegyes earlier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The period corresponding to the initial phase of cultural evolution in the Late Neolithic of SE Hungary (turn of the 6th and 5th millennia) is characterized by a major transformation recorded both in settlement structure and strategy, as well as material culture of the agrarian societies settled in the SE part of the Great Hungarian Plains. According to the available chronological data and archeology from the sites of multi-layered settlement complexes (tells) located on natural highs of the floodplain of the River Tisza, during the initial phase of its evolution representatives of the Tisza Culture were mainly confined to the SE part of the Great Hungarian Plains south of the Körös River. This period was followed by a relatively stable phase lasting about 150 years which hallmarked the greatest northward expansion of the culture. Some studies noticed strange features in connection with the first settlement complexes dated to the first period especially along the northern borderline of the culture’s distribution; i.e. a loose cluster of distinct settlement nuclei instead of concentration of settlements to a confined area characteristic of tells. Furthermore, by the end of the first phase, in the evolution of some settlements a northward shift of the houses away from the water was recorded. Most likely these reflect a socioeconomic response to some transformation in the local and/or regional riparian environment. As shown by our data gained from the paleoecological analysis of freshwater mollusks from a tell site, the referred pre-transitional period was characterized by pronounced floods causing major perturbations in the regional riparian environment. At the same time, the introduction of new subsistence strategies including shellfishing and fishing and the reordering of settlement structure was also recorded at several sites implying a successful adaptation to such most likely climate-induced perturbation, which is contemporary with the 5.1 ky event known in the literature. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Körös River Drainage Basin is located in the eastern part of the Great Hungarian Plain, west of the Apuşeni Mts., in the middle of the Pannonian Basin. The channels of the river and its tributaries are mostly meandering, characterized by large loops and multiple bends in their pre-regulation form. The channel sinuosity of this river system is analyzed in order to draw conclusions on the neotectonic activity of the eastern region of the Great Hungarian Plain. The original, pre-regulation status of the river thalwegs was digitized from rectified historical maps. Sinuosities at different sample section lengths were computed in a GIS software environment, providing so-called ‘sinuosity spectra’ for each point of the analyzed channels. High sinuosity sections were correlated to linear features identified in seismic survey sections, indicating their neotectonic activity. Some low sinuosity sections, former marshlands and a special river section having anastomosed planform suggest zones of rapid subsidence. All of the above features cannot be verified by the topography as the relief in this area is below 10m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses environmental conditions and subsistence systems in Hungary's Carpathian Basin in the era of Ottoman occupation. It examines Hungarian military and political relations with the Ottoman Empire and comments on environmental degradation and climactic changes coinciding with the Little Ice Age. The author reflects on deforestation, water levels, and fluctuations in demographics and population density. Other topics include market towns in the Great Hungarian Plain and the Hungarian cattle export trade.

Aim We used a combination of new and previously published palaeoecological data to test three hypotheses: (1) that wooded steppe persisted in the Great Hungarian Plain throughout the Holocene; (2) that wooded steppe and steppe were most extensive between c. 9900 and 8300 cal. yr bp (the ‘Boreal steppe’ period); and (3) that Southern Continental, Pontic and Eastern Sub-Mediterranean steppe species reached the region during the early Holocene via the ‘Lower Danube Corridor’. Location Sarló-hát oxbow lake, Hungary and the Eastern European wooded steppe zone. Methods Holocene sediments deposited in the Sarló-hát oxbow lake were subjected to pollen and microcharcoal analyses. Twelve radiocarbon age estimates were obtained to determine sediment chronology. In addition, previously published palaeoecological data from the Great Hungarian Plain were compiled, analysed and compared with previous studies in other regions of steppe and wooded steppe in eastern Europe. Results Palynological data from two sediment cores extending to c. 11,400 cal. yr bp indicate the persistent dominance of the landscape by temperate deciduous wooded steppe throughout the Holocene, although with varying canopy composition. Warm-continental steppe grasslands and saline tall-grass meadows developed on edaphically constrained areas, which remained steppe-dominated throughout the Holocene. The extent of steppe grasslands did not increase between 9900 and 8300 cal. yr bp. After c. 3100 cal. yr bp, anthropogenic activities led to the development of cultural steppe. Thermophilous steppe species of the Southern Continental, Pontic and Sub-Mediterranean floristic elements probably reached the Great Hungarian Plain principally via the Lower Danube Corridor during the late glacial interstadial and Holocene. Eurythermic members of these elements, however, probably survived the Last Glacial Maximum in favourable microsites, extending their ranges during the Holocene from these local sources. Main conclusions Our results confirm the Holocene persistence of wooded steppe in the Great Hungarian Plain, disprove the ‘Boreal steppe’ theory, and suggest an Early Holocene period of greater vegetation openness between 11,400 and 9900 cal. yrbp. Evidence for the post-glacial immigration of south-eastern steppe elements into the Carpathian Basin is equivocal: the last glacial/interglacial presence of several southern steppe species suggests that the Hungarian Plain hosted suitable habitats for them during warm and cold phases alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: One of the most vulnerable regions in the Carpathian Basin is the Great Hungarian Plain, where small and shallow oxbows are endangered along river Tisza. The purpose of this paper is to determine how the global warming affects a typical oxbow, located on the floodplain of river Tisza, in Hungary. A coupled meteorological–hydraulic model is developed and applied for this oxbow. Results suggest that the monthly minimum water levels are expected to decrease, moreover, extreme drought events sometimes result temporary drying-up of the oxbow. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper the planform of the Crişul Repede (Sebes-Körös) River is analyzed. Downstream of Oradea, along the present Romanian-Hungarian border, a surprising feature is found on the pre-regulation maps. A part of the river has anastomosed pattern albeit the all other section on the Great Hungarian plain is meandering. The natural evolution of this river section is followed in the sheets of the First and the Second Military Surveys, between 1783 and 1859. Some changes on the maps are because of the errors of the surveys but surprisingly a lot of them can be verified even the modern maps. The river regulation was done between the Second and Third Surveys, so these latter sheets from the 1880s shows both the last natural and the planned regulated forms of the river. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The NW corner of the Little Hungarian Plain, which lies at the junction of the Eastern Alps, the Pannonian Basin and the Western Carpathians, is a neotectonically active region linking the extrusional tectonics of the Eastern Alps with the partly subsiding Little Hungarian Plain. The on-going deformation is verified by the earthquake activity in the region. An extremely flat part of the area, east of Neusiedlersee, the so-called Seewinkel, has been investigated with Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS, also known as airborne LiDAR) techniques, resulting in a digital terrain model (DTM) with a 1 m grid resolution and vertical precision of better than 10 cm. The DTM has been compared with known and inferred neotectonic features. Potential neotectonic structures of the DTM have been evaluated, together with geological maps, regional tectono-geomorphic studies, geophysical data, earthquake foci, as well as geomorphological features and the Quaternary sediment thickness values of the Seewinkel and the adjacent Parndorfer plateau. A combined evaluation of these data allows several tectonic features with a relief of <2 m to be recognized in the DTM. The length of these linear geomorphological structures ranges from several hundred meters up to several kilometers. The most prominent feature forms a 15 km long, linear, 2 m high NE–SW trending ridge with gravel occurrences having an average grain size of ca. 5 cm on its top. We conclude this feature to represent the surface expression of the previously recognized Mönchhof Fault. In general, this multi-disciplinary case study shows that ALS DTMs are extremely important for tectono-geomorphic investigations, as they can detect and accurately locate neotectonic structures, especially in low-relief areas. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The spatial distribution of the annual mean urban heat island UHI intensity was simulated applying empirical models based on datasets from urban areas of Szeged and Debrecen, using simple and easily determinable urban surface cover variables. These two cities are situated on the Alföld Great Hungarian Plain and have similar topographic and climatic conditions. Temperature field measurements were carried out, Landsat satellite images were evaluated, and then one and multiple variable models were constructed using linear regression techniques. The selected multipleparameter models were verified using independent datasets from three urban settlements. In order to obtain some impression of the mean UHI patterns in other cities with no temperature measurements available, the better model was extended to urban areas of four other cities situated in geographical environments similar to Szeged and Debrecen. The main shortcoming of typical empirical models, namely that they are often restricted to a specific location, is overcome by the obtained model since it is not entirely site but more region specific, and valid in a large and densely populated area with several settlements. Copyright © 2009 Royal Meteorological Society [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The strontium isotope ratio (87Sr/86Sr) is used in archaeological studies to identify major events of population movement in prehistory such as migration, conquest, and inter-marriage. This study shows that the strontium isotope method can be expanded to identify more subtle shifts in prehistoric human mobility. 87Sr/86Sr isotope ratios were analyzed in dental enamel from human and faunal specimens from the Late Neolithic and Copper Age on the Great Hungarian Plain. The archaeological record indicates that several aspects of life changed during the transition from the Late Neolithic to the Copper Age (ca. 4500BC) in Hungary; evidence for increased interaction over a wide geographical area, less resource pooling and the use of secondary products has been used to support the idea that local populations became more mobile, perhaps due to the adoption of an agro-pastoral economy. Results from this study identify a change in the range of strontium isotope values from the Late Neolithic to the Copper Age from a very narrow range of values to a much broader range of values, which suggests that changes in how land and resources were utilized on the Great Hungarian Plain affected incorporation of strontium into the skeletal system. This study indicates that the strontium isotope ratio is a valuable tool for identifying more subtle changes in prehistoric behavior such as a shift to a more pastoral economy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Two kurgans located on the Great Hungarian Plain, the Csípo˝- and Lyukas-mound, have been examined in precise detail with the involvement of experts of various disciplines. International cooperation enhanced research on the biogenic genesis of soils and landscapes. The aim was to elucidate the construction of both mound bodies, to describe modern soil development, to analyse the buried soils under the kurgans, and to reconstruct the palaeoenvironments of their surroundings, utilizing biomorphic analysis and pedological investigations. The results of the biomorph (phytolith) analysis and the soil macromorphological descriptions indicate that both the modern and palaeo profiles of both kurgans include Chernozem-type soils, formed under predominantly semi-arid steppe vegetation. No evidence of Luvisol development was detectable. The ancient environments of both kurgans were similar in many points with the modern landscape, and development was determined by climate and vegetation typical for steppe environments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We studied the effects of sheep [Ovis aries (L.)] and rabbit [Oryctolagus cuniculus (L.)] grazing on the spread of induced fire on an open sand grassland community in the Hungarian Plain. Patches of open sand grassland were grazed by sheep in April and by sheep and rabbit in May of 2003. Half of each patch was burned in July. Canopy cover of the litter and vascular plant species, species number, plant height, burnt area, and the speed of fire-spread were estimated in 1 × 1 m quadrates. The burnt area was significantly smaller with late sheep grazing, while the speed of fire-spread decreased significantly due to rabbit grazing compared to that of the control. Plant height was significantly decreased by early and late sheep grazing, while rabbit grazing resulted in significantly lower canopy cover values of vascular plants compared to the control. Early sheep grazing resulted in overcompensation of the canopy cover of vascular plants. Species number was not affected by the grazing treatments. This 1-year experiment demonstrated that moderate grazing has no short-term effects on the species diversity of the semi-arid open sand grassland. Furthermore, late spring grazing decreased the spread of fire on the grassland portions of the community; thus it may inhibit the burning of large areas of the semi-arid forest-steppe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the Kiskunság sanddune region in the Great Hungarian Plain is a network of poplar forest fragments surrounded by open grasslands, it offers an opportunity to study the ecological effects of natural, long-term fragmentation on the invertebrate assemblages. The spider assemblages of 15 forest patches and the grassland matrix in between them were sampled using pitfall traps. A Principle Coordinate Analysis revealed three distinct groups of forest assemblages: (1) small patches with high species diversity, similar to the surrounding grassland, (2) medium sized patches and (3) large forests. The only significant relationship was observed between the frequency of forest specialist species and the fragment size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of the evolution of the river network in the Great Hungarian Plain has been based on sedimentological, neotectonical, morphological investigations, heavy mineral analysis and complementary OSL dating. The study area extends from the Körös sub-basin into the Ér and Beret- tyó river valleys which are situated northeast from the subsiding basin and northwest from the uplifting Apuseni Mountains. The OSL ages provide evidence that a large river run in the Ér-valley at least from 46±4 to 39±4 ka. It deposited garnet and magnetite-ilmenite-rich sediments, similar to the recent Berettyó, Ér and Sebes-Körös rivers and less intensive the modern Tisza river. These sediments originated from the nearly located metamorphic and Neogene volcanic rocks and contain some reworked older elastic sedimentary rocks from the northern part of the Apuseni Mountains. These OSL ages fit the active tectonic phase of the Érmellék depression. Loess is 49-47, 44, 39 and 25 ka old and aeolian sands 10 to 9 ka were dated. Their heavy mineral composition and that of fluvial sands is similar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Two spinel lherzolite xenoliths from Hungary that contain pyroxene–spinel symplectites have been studied using EPMA, Laser ablation ICP-MS and universal stage. Based on their geochemical and structural characteristics, the xenoliths represent two different domains of the shallow subcontinental lithospheric mantle beneath the Pannonian Basin. The occurrence of symplectites is attributed to the former presence and subsequent breakdown of garnets due to significant pressure decrease related to lithospheric thinning. This implies that both mantle domains were once part of the garnet lherzolitic upper mantle and had a similar history during the major extension that formed the Pannonian Basin. Garnet breakdown resulted in distinct geochemical characteristics in the adjacent clinopyroxene crystals in both xenoliths. This is manifested by enrichment in HREE, Y, Zr and Hf towards the clinopyroxene porphyroclast rims and also in the neoblasts with respect to porphyroclast core compositions. This geochemical feature, together with the development and preservation of the texturally very sensitive symplectites, enables us to determine the relative timing of mantle processes. Our results indicate that garnets had been metastable in the spinel lherzolite environment and their breakdown to pyroxene and spinel is one of the latest processes that took place within the upper mantle before the xenoliths were brought to the surface. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Hungarian sodic water bodies have a rich macro- and microcrustacean fauna due to the lack of fish populations. The crustacean population is very abundant, for this reason these wetlands provide good feeding resources for waterbirds. The density of macro- and microcrustacean populations together with feeding waterbirds was investigated in March, April, and May of 2002, on two characteristic sodic pans, “Kelemen-szék” and “Zab-szék”. The following dabbling-filtering waterfowls and pelagic forager wader species were counted: northern pintail ( Anas acuta), northern shoveler ( Anas clypeata), garganey ( Anas querquedula), common teal ( Anas crecca), avocet ( Recurvirostra avosetta), spotted redshank ( Tringa erythropus), greenshank ( Tringa nebularia), and marsh sandpiper ( Tringa stagnatilis). The dominant macrocrustacean species was the [Anostraca – Branchinectidae] natronophile Branchinecta orientalis, and its density was significantly higher in Zab-szék than in Kelemen-szék. The microcrustacean zooplankton community was also different in the pans, [Cladocera] Daphnia magna density was significantly higher in Kelemen-szék than in Zab-szék, but the density of the [Copepoda] natronophile Arctodiaptomus spinosus, was higher in Zab-szék than in Kelemen-szék. The density of the investigated waterbird species was also significantly higher in Zab-szék than in Kelemen-szék during spring. We can conclude that the macrocrustacean B. orientalis is one of the most important potential food resources for migrating pelagic foraging waders in spring on characteristic Hungarian sodic pans. However, the most abundant available food item for waterbirds are copepod microcrustacean zooplankton, which have a biomass that is larger by approximately one order of magnitude than the macrocrustacean zooplankton biomass. Considering the lack of submerged water vegetation, we suggest that planktonic microcrustaceans are an important food resource for dabbling-filtering ducks because they can utilise the small crustacean biomass more effectively than the less abundant and rapidly moving macrocrustacean B. orientalis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since spatial databases created from maps in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) do not typically meet the requirements of multivariate tests such as multiple linear regression analyses, we used novel, more robust statistical techniques for predicting the occurrence of certain categories of a soil map. Based on published maps of salt-affected soils (SASs), (hydro) geological conditions (all at the scale of 1:500,000) and regionalization, we showed that the spatial occurrence of SASs in the Great Hungarian Plain can be predicted with an overall precision of 91; 96% for the SASs and 99% for the non-SASs. When we separated the non-SASs into potential SAS and non-SAS categories, the overall precision was 91%, and 87% for the SASs, 92% for the potential SASs and 94% for the non-SASs. The technique of classification trees proved to be better than the classical Multiple Linear Regression, since it does not have limitations regarding the distribution of the data set created from the maps and because it flexibly provided a possibility for incorporating nominal variables through the previous use of homogeneity analysis by means of alternating least squares (HOMALS). Inside the multidimensional space, the first and most important (regarding spatial extent) splits for the separation of non-salt-affected cases from salt-affected ones were realized in the plane of two variables derived with HOMALS from the map of "Textural classes of near-surface geological formations" and the map of "Dominant ion type of groundwater" combined with the map of "Taxonomical division of the regions of Hungary." The plane of these variables was split into five main bands. The clay band has 70% of SASs and the mixed silty layer was divided to a bicarbonatic one with 12% SAS, and a sulfatic one with 65% SAS cover. The remaining sandy band has few SAS, but the dominance of sulfate in the groundwater indicates a higher cover of SASs and these soils constituted the two last bands. Other variables entering the classification were the groundwater level above sea level and the depth to groundwater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil salinity and sodicity is often related to the presence of shallow groundwater. We evaluated the importance of factors that affect soil salinity and sodicity in one typical salt-affected area, the Carpathian Basin. Five hydrogeological maps were used to demonstrate the occurrence of salt-affected soils in the Great Hungarian Plain. The 1:500,000 scale maps showed the depth to groundwater, the concentration of soluble salts in the groundwater, the height of groundwater table above sea level, textural classes of near-surface formations, and the dominant ions in the groundwater. After digitizing the maps, a database was created, and the association between variables was quantified by the uncertainty coefficient. The largest statistical association with the occurrence of salt-affected soils was found for the height of groundwater above sea level, the dominant ions of groundwater, and the textural class of subsurface layers. The hydrogeological maps showed close interrelationships of these factors, therefore no single factor, but a combination of factors, were responsible for the occurrence of salt-affected soil types. Regarding the most frequent categories of hydrogeological variables in which the salt-affected soils occurred, two groups were distinguished: the noncalcareous solonetzes and related soils (26.7% of the Plain) were most frequently associated with clay and the groundwater is dominated by Na[sup +] and HCO[sub 3][sup -] with a height above sea level at 80-90 m. The sodic solonchak and calcareous meadow solonetzes cover only 1.5% of the Plain, and these are most frequently associated with sand, where Ca[sup 2+] and HCO[sub 3][sup -] was dominant in the groundwater. However this group did not adhere to one specific zone of groundwater level, and also showed territorial segregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary The objective of this study is to assess whether changes in the surface pressure field over Europe are reflected in the statistical structure of the wind field over the Great Hungarian Plain. The data basis consists of hourly wind speed data from 1968–72 and 1991–95, from three meteorological stations (Debrecen, Békéscsaba and Szeged) located in the Great Hungarian Plain. A new statistical test and its application for determining the statistical significance of differences between expected values of non-independent wind speed time series is presented in the paper. The summer wind field over the Great Hungarian Plain shows evidence of change: wind speeds have been decreasing and a tertiary maximum, in July, has become less pronounced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Union and their development is not controlled by strict quota systems. In Hungary a lot of unique products of excellent quality are produced. Here in this essay we would like to find the answer to the question how the two significant products of the southern part of the Great Hungarian Plain can provide the families with the income that they can live on. We aim at the economical examination of the cucumber grown in Méhkerék and asparagus of Homok. To do this we will apply the so called Standard Gross Margin. The agriculture of the states of the European Union is measured with the help of this method. It can also help us in the future to decide whether the different farms belonging to families are economically viable in Hungary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]