Abstract
The Ecse-halom is a burial mound (kurgan) in the Hortobagy region of Hungary. Built in the Late Copper Age/Early Bronze Age by nomadic people from the east, it now stands on the border between two modern settlements. A road of medieval origin runs along this border and cuts deeply into the body of the mound. The southern half of the mound was plowed and used as a rice field, and later a military observation tower was built on top of it. Despite this disturbance, the surface of the mound is in decent condition and provides a home for regionally significant, species-rich loess steppe vegetation. The mound comprises two construction layers as indicated by magnetic susceptibility and thin-section micro-morphological analysis. Examination of organic compounds and carbonate content at various levels showed different values, which suggest a variety of natural and anthropogenic stratigraphic layers. Mid-sized siltstone fraction is dominant in the section. The layers originate from the immediate vicinity of the mound, but have different characteristics than present-day soils. These mounds contain a valuable record of cultural and environmental conditions occurring at the time of their construction, and also serve as a refuge for ancient loess vegetation; therefore their conservation is highly recommended.
Highlights
A few ancient architectural monuments remain standing in the central region of the Great Hungarian Plain
The Ecse-halom kurgan in the Hortobágy National Park is a good candidate for such research because it has been badly damaged in the past and remains at risk of complete destruction
We present the preliminary results of this research, including geomorphologic, landscape historical, botanical, sedimentological and micro-morphological results
Summary
The Ecse-halom kurgan (mound) in the Hortobágy National Park is a good candidate for such research because it has been badly damaged in the past and remains at risk of complete destruction. Ecse-halom, surrounded by alkaline marshes and meadows, stands on the border between two modern settlements, Karcag and Kunmadaras, within the Hortobágy in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County (Fig. 1). The Ecse-halom is a roughly circular kurgan (mound), slightly elongated along its west-east axis, located on an elevated point of the landscape on a remnant surface covered by redeposited Pleistocene loess.
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