SEDIMENTOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF A BRONZE AGE HOUSE
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2021-01-07

The following presentation concerns the results of a geoarchaeological study of a defensive settlement from the Middle Bronze Age in Hungary. The research project KEX (Kakucs Archaeological EXpedition) combined a variety of non-invasive and interdisciplinary methods with precise excavations. The interdisciplinary approach was aimed at recognizing and investigating, macroscopically and on-site, the remains of habitation-related practices in the second millennium BC which are invisible on the surface Spatial organization of the settlement was investigated by means of magnetometry, ERT, GPR and drillings for a preliminary characteristic of archaeological features. A complimentary intra-site evaluation of the sedimentological record of prospected house structures was also carried out. The latter was purposely applied as a combination of magnetometry-based spatial analyses for targeting archaeological features. Raster evaluation was applied for distinguishing particular house structures. It provided the basis for a targeted excavation project. The level representing house structures was selected for granulometric and geochemical analysis. Investigated was the sedimentary environment and functional properties of the house structure. Geoarchaeological investigations discovered a division of sedimentological parameters outside and inside the investigated structure, with sorting and mean grain size of the deposit being the key markers. Distribution of compounds (P, Zn and Cu) provided supplementary information on the intensity of the sedentary activity. Synergy of the acquired data (geophysical imagery, archaeological planigraphy, sedimentological and geochemical investigations) has proven to be a valid interdisciplinary methodology for studying site formation processes and spatial differentiation of multi-layered settlements in the Carpathian Basin.


Author(s): Niebieszczanski, Jakub (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań) - Pető, Ákos (Szent István University, Gödöllő) - Hildebrandt-Radke, Iwona (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań) - Serlegi, Gábor (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) - Jaeger, Mateusz (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań) - Kulcsár, Gabriella (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) - Staniuk, Robert - Taylor, Nicole (Kiel University) - Galas, Joanna (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań)