Merkl O. Szerk.: A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 93. (Budapest 2001)
Medzihradszky, Zs.: The Holocene sequence of the pollen record from Keszthely-Úsztatómajor, Hungary
ANNALES HISTORICO-NATURALES MUSEÍ NATIONALIS HUNGARICI Volume 93 Budapest, 2001 pp. 5-12. The Holocene sequence of the pollen record from Keszthely-Usztatómajor, Hungary Zs. MEDZIHRADSZKY Department of Botany, Hungarian Natural History Museum H-1087 Budapest, Könyves Kálmán krt. 40, Hungary e-mail: medzi @ bot. nhmus. hu MEDZIHRADSZKY, ZS. (2001): The Holocene sequence of the pollen record from Keszthely-Usztatómajor, Hungary. - Annales historico-naturales Musei nationalis hungarici 93: 5-12. Abstract - The upper part of a pollen profile from Keszthely-Usztatómajor (western Hungary) containing the period between 7525 and 1681 years BC is presented. The profile was dated by 6 radiocarbon data, between 8864+161 BP and 3730+58 BP. The surroundings of our locality is a wellinvestigated area by archaeological methods. According to the archaeological chronology, our epoch contains the period from the beginning of the Neolithic until the end of the Middle Bronze Age. The difficulties in recording prehistoric occupation phases in pollen diagrams compared with the results of the archaeological excavations are discussed. In our sequence only the primary anthropogenic indicators were observable, the pollen of the secondary indicator taxa were occurred only in a very small number, they were inexpressible in percentage values. With two figures and one table. Key words - Holocene, pollen analysis, human impact, Kis-Balaton. INTRODUCTION Human impact has been a very important factor effecting vegetation change in Europe during the Holocene. With the onset of agriculture the human role became an active element which formed more or less directly the nature. Changing land-use systems, intensity of animal husbandry and crop cultivation, using of the trees as firewood, timber, rope and charcoal, leaf-foddering and clearing of the forests are traced in the composition of the arbor and non-arbor pollen flora. The period between the 6th and 2nd millennia BC is of particular interest because of the beginning and the existence of Neolithic, Copper Age and Bronze Age settlement history and land-use systems in Transdanubia. Keszthely-Usztatómajor is a part of a large mire complex, which occupied the ancient bay of the Lake Balaton, the so-called Kis-Balaton. The area is wellinvestigated, excavated and published by archaeological projects, "The archaeo-