On the ‘pseudo-ditch’ system of the Late Neolithic Öcsöd-Kováshalom settlement complex on the Great Hungarian Plain
Documenta Praehistorica, Dec 27, 2023
The well-known Late Neolithic tell-like settlement of Öcsöd-Kováshalom on the Great Hun garian Pl... more The well-known Late Neolithic tell-like settlement of Öcsöd-Kováshalom on the Great Hun garian Plain gained a completely new context when a triple enclosure consisting of segments (hence the name 'pseudo-ditch') was discovered in 2018. Followed by two small excavation campaigns, this pa per gives account of the construction stages, various digging and filling actions, of the chronology and of the structured deposits that marked the closing event of these long-lasting communal activities. A comparison with European Neolithic enclosures supports the interpretation on the diversity of the numerous ditch systems, and do not allow any generalizing views-it rather speaks for the freedom of local communities in their choices within their respective cultural frameworks.
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Papers by Pál Raczky
settlements of the early 5th millennium BCE on the Great Hungarian Plain. In
the wake of new archaeological research, it proved possible to reveal previously
unknown dimensions of the Late Neolithic settlement and to refute some of the
previously uncontested assumptions related to the site. The magnetic anomalies
recorded during the new geomagnetic survey reveal an enclosure system of multiple
ditches ringing the settlement, which extended over an area of roughly 32 ha.
The 1.8-2 ha tell-like main habitation area, which lay in the settlement’s western
part, has suffered extensive damage. The settlement mound and the houses upon
it, which were oriented towards a focal area, formed a distinctive monumental
spatial system on the southern portion of the Great Hungarian Plain in the
early 5th millennium BCE.
floodplain woodlands started at ~6000 cal BC. So far, only scattered and irregular wood charcoal analyses have
been performed on Holocene archaeological sites, therefore the species composition of the GHP woodlands is
known mainly from pollen records. This study aims to fill this gap by systematic sampling and analysis of key
Early, Middle and Late Neolithic, and Copper and Middle Bronze Age archaeological sites. Pollen records from
the vicinity of some archaeological sites accompany the charcoal assemblages along with potential vegetation
and soil maps. Our results show that oak (Quercus sp.) was dominant in the floodplain and forest steppe, used as
construction timber and firewood. Both high and low floodplain forest woody elements (Populus, Salix, Fraxinus)
were represented. Elm species (Ulmus spp.) were widespread and often co-dominated the charcoal assemblages.
In the long-term charcoal assemblages of the Late Neolithic SE GHP, Ulmus was more frequent than in the NE
GHP. Soil and potential vegetation maps of these sites show meadow soil predominance with occasional chernozem
meadow soils. Floodplain woodlands predominate in the potential vegetation with the likely presence of
U. laevis and U. minor today corroborating the predominance of alluvial forests in SE Hungary during the
Neolithic likely with high amplitude water table fluctuation. During the Early Chalcolithic (4500–4000 cal BC),
we found a significant decline in Ulmus in the SE GHP both in the pollen and charcoal assemblages suggesting a climate change and/or pathogen induced elm-decline. In comparison with the Balkan region, we demonstrated that the SE border of the GHP was a major environmental barrier, north of which vast riparian and alluvial forests were alternating with steppe oak woods. The Early Neolithic communities had to adapt to this environment.