The Deliblato (Banat) Sand Sea, which is one of the largest areas of аeolian sand in Europe, is located near the Iron Gate, which marks the crossing of the Danube River through the biggest gorge of this river. Here, Danubian alluvium has served as the sand source for the Banat Sand Sea, which was formed primarily through southeasterly (Košava) winds. Utilizing a multi-proxy approach, the objective of this study is to gain a better understanding of the environmental dynamics of the Banat Sand Sea. To achieve this goal, we conducted an analysis of an archive representing an approximately 20-m-thick dune formation on the northern edge of this dune field. Using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating, we calculated aeolian sedimentation rates and dune ages. Sand was deposited here approximately between 17 ka and 13 ka. Magnetic susceptibility, grain size, and colorimetric analyses were interpreted in terms of local paleoenvironmental conditions. Calculated sedimentation rates (SR) indicate intensive aeolian deposition during the study period that range from 483 cm/ka to 502 cm/ka. We compared our data with regional and other European archives, as well as with climatic variations recorded in the Greenland ice core North Greenland Ice Core Project (NGRIP).

The Early and Middle Bronze Age in the Carpathian Basin is often viewed as a long period of transition from a dispersed form of land occupation to one of increasing aggregation, ultimately resulting in the formation of tell settlements and large cemeteries. This developmental trajectory remains a legacy of early 20th century archaeology, where the similarity of material culture recovered from cemeteries and settlements was used to develop a multi-linear scheme of progression of regional chronologies tied to specific archaeological cultures. While typologically conclusive, the recent increase in the availability of radiocarbon determinations suggests that these sequences represent a priori interpretation of social development rather than empirically verified observations. In order to do so, it is necessary to re-evaluate the existing dataset in order to determine whether the formation of tells was a chronologically contemporary development and whether the regional chronological sequences are supported by independent dating.

In the late Avar period (eighth to ninth century ad), vast quantities of utilitarian artefacts were produced in series in the Carpathian Basin, a phenomenon not seen since the end of the Roman period. The distribution of these articles reflects not only the region's settlement pattern, but also how these artefacts were disseminated. The communication network in the Carpathian Basin underwent a significant transformation between the early and late Avar period: its major nodes, equated with population centres but not necessarily with elite centres, contributed to moulding a social and cultural milieu that included specialized craftsmen. An early single hub in southern Transdanubia was replaced by multiple centres by the late Avar period. Around ad 700, a bipolar settlement pattern emerges in the southern part of the Carpathian Basin. It seems that the Great Hungarian Plain began to play an equal, if not dominant, role in the communication network of the Carpathian Basin at this time.

We investigated the chemical characteristics of the astatic soda pans in the Carpathian Basin based on comprehensive new and archive data. Analysed parameters were salinity and ionic composition. The most frequent type of soda waters was the basic alkaline type (Na-HCO3) that represented more than half of the natural soda pans. Besides 11 subtypes occurred. The second and third most frequent types were the chloride (13%) and sulphate subtypes (11%), with the secondary dominance of these anions. The other subtypes meant <4% of the pans. Magnesium sometimes occurred as a secondary dominant cation beside sodium. Until now, this subtype of soda waters has not been published in any part of the world, because of the general rule of soda lake formation (depending on low levels of magnesium and calcium). We found a regionally constant correction factor [Salinity (mg.L−1)=0.8×El.Cond. (μS.cm−1)] for confidentially estimating salinity from electrical conductivity in these habitats. Salinity varied between sub- (0.5–3 g.L−1) and hypersaline (>50 g.L−1) ranges, with its mean value (∼4 g.L−1) in the hyposaline range (3–20 g.L−1). The basic alkaline type had random geographical distribution, while the other subtypes were restricted to certain regions of the Basin. The high number of subtypes reflects the high chemical diversity of alkaline soda pans in the relatively small territory of the Carpathian Basin.

Hoard finds appear throughout the European Bronze Age with distinct chronological and chorological peaks. While there is some consensus on seeing hoards as an expression of cultic behaviour, the large ‘scrap metal' hoards in particular still provoke interpretations as raw material collected for recycling. With socketed axes whose sockets were intentionally filled with deliberately fragmented metalwork, Hansen (1996–1998) has pointed out a group of finds that could be crucial to a better understanding of ‘scrap’ hoards. Using the finds from the Carpathian Basin as a case study, a dual biographical approach is applied to this group. A close look at the complex use-life of the objects themselves, as well as an attempt at re-integrating them into the local history of hoarding, leads to the conclusion that they constitute single acts of dedication in larger contexts. “Scrap hoards’” can thus be understood as long-term accumulations of votive objects and can be integrated into the social practice of Bronze Age hoarding.

Understanding the prehistoric narrative of a region requires good dating, and in recent years good dating has moved increasingly from models drawn from types of artefacts to a framework provided by radiocarbon sequences. This in turn is bringing a change in the way events are described: from broad cultural histories to a network of local sequences. In this case study, the authors apply this rethinking to the Copper Age in a key region of Europe, the Great Hungarian Plain in the Carpathian Basin. They replace the traditional Early and Middle Copper Age, defined by pottery types, with an 800-year sequence in which six cemetery and settlement sites experience different trajectories of use, and the pottery types make intermittent and often contemporary appearances. In this new chronology based on radiocarbon, the variations in pottery use must have some other explanation.

Celestial events often exerted a great or even decisive influence on the life of ancient communities. They may provide some of the foundations on which an understanding of the deeper meaning of mythologies, religious systems and even folk tales can be based. These influences are reflected and may be detected in the archaeological material as well. There is good evidence that celestial (especially solar and perhaps lunar) phenomena played a particularly important rôle in the worldview of prehistoric Europe. To reveal the social and ideational significance of concepts relating to the celestial bodies in the prehistory of the Carpathian Basin, complex investigations on orientations of houses and graves, prestige archaeological finds and iconography have been accomplished. The results indicate ideological and/or social changes, which developed into a likely organized ideological system in large part of Central Europe including the Carpathian Basin by the Late Bronze Age. It might also be the first period in prehistory when people became really interested in celestial phenomena.

The rondels – circular earthworks of late Neolithic Europe – have a repeated form highly suggestive of deliberate design and symbolism. The concentric ditches are cut by two, three or most often four causeways at right angles. Here the authors investigate the orientation of the causeways in 51 rondels belonging to the Lengyel culture and conclude that they correlate well with the sunrise. The idea of a solar cult receives some corroboration from patterns on contemporary pottery.

This article discusses tenth–sixteenth-century pottery kilns in the Carpathian Basin in the territory of medieval Hungary. Kilns are classified on the basis of their structure, building technique and firing technology and these characteristics are examined using archaeological evidence, ethnographical sources and also technological and pyrotechnical analysis. The archaeological and stratigraphical features and some methodological problems of medieval pottery kiln study are also discussed and a topographical analysis of the pottery kilns in relation to the workshops and settlements on the basis of archaeological and historical evidence is presented. The history of the development, origin and distribution of the types of medieval pottery kilns in the Carpathian Basin is also presented. There is a brief discussion of the contribution that pottery kiln studies can make to the understanding of workshop organization.