Construction materials and building techniques – Comparing anthropogenic sediments of three Middle Bronze Age sites from Hungary

Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-024-02027-z (2024) 16:143 RESEARCH Construction materials and building techniques – Comparing anthropogenic sediments of three Middle Bronze Age sites from Hungary Gabriella Kovács1 · Astrid Röpke2 Magdolna Vicze1 · Ákos Pető5 · Jana Anvari2 · Klára P. Fischl3,4 · Tobias L. Kienlin2 · Gabriella Kulcsár4 · Received: 10 April 2024 / Accepted: 1 July 2024 © The Author(s) 2024 Abstract This paper compares various ‘earthen’ construction materials and building techniques from three Middle Bronze Age tell (multi-layered settlement) sites in Hungary: Százhalombatta-Földvár, Kakucs-Turján (Vatya material culture) and Borsodivánka-Marhajárás-Nagyhalom (Otomani-Füzesabony Cultural Circle (OFCC)). It employs microscopic analyses – archaeological soil micromorphology and phytolith analysis within thin sections – to examine floor, wall and fire installation materials at a high resolution. The term ‘earthen construction materials’ is used in archaeology extensively to refer to anything from soils to sediments that sometimes lack proper classification or terminology. Through a closer look at the types of materials used at the three analysed sites, we describe more clearly what comprises ‘earthen’ construction materials. Using this data, we then employ a chaîne opératoire approach to think through various stages in the sourcing and preparation of building materials. In analysing this, the paper makes visible the decisions by Bronze Age builders and discusses their possible reasons, which include environmental conditions and socially learned practices. Further, by comparing three contemporary sites within a micro-landscape, our analysis highlights that even small variations in the environment and therefore the available raw materials impact building materials and techniques, and that different groups of people can make different decisions even when facing similar environments. Keywords Earthen construction materials · Building techniques · Material choices · Chaîne opératoire · Soil micromorphology · Phytolith analysis · Bronze Age Magdolna Vicze * Ákos Pető Gabriella Kovács 1 Astrid Röpke Hungarian National Museum Public Collection Centre, National Institute of Archaeology, Budapest, Hungary 2 Jana Anvari Department of Prehistoric Archaeology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany 3 University of Miskolc, Miskolc, Hungary 4 HUN-REN RCH Institute of Archaeology, Budapest, Hungary 5 Department of Nature Conservation and Landscape Management, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Gödöllő, Hungary Klára P. Fischl Tobias L. Kienlin Gabriella Kulcsár Vol.:(0123456789) 143 Page 2 of 23 Introduction Construction materials, referred to as ‘earthen construction materials’, have been investigated worldwide using a variety of methods including archaeological soil micromorphology (e.g. Matthews 1995, 2017; Matthews et al. 1996; Middleton 2004; Barba 2007; Karkanas and de Moortel 2014; Kanthilatha et al. 2014, 2017; Friesem et al. 2017; Amadio 2018; Macphail and Goldberg 2018; Lisá et al. 2020; Lorenzon 2023). Among the many different possible approaches to archaeologically studying earthen construction materials, this paper combines archaeological soil micromorphological and phytolith analyses of floors, daub and hearth construction material with a chaîne opératoire analysis. In doing so, this paper attempts to combine the application of natural scientific techniques to archaeological materials, with a social interpretation which sees the built environment (e.g. house, oven, hearth etc.) as the result of socially and culturally conditioned choices. Microscopic techniques have already been successfully applied to investigate social aspects of built environments (Boivin 2000; Karkanas and Efstratiou 2009; Anderson et al. 2014; García-Suárez et al. 2021; Tomé et al. 2024), and, in particular, building techniques (e.g. study of daubs, re-plasterings, renovation) (Cook et al. 2006; Kreiter et al. 2013, 2014; Pető and Vrydaghs 2016; Pető et al. 2015; Pecci et al. 2017). In this study, we emphasise a precise description of the ‘earthen’ building materials used at the analysed sites. The term earthen building materials mostly refers to soils and sediments (Friesem et al. 2017). Wherever the origin of ‘earthen building material’ has been investigated, mostly sediments, but also soils have been used for construction (Goldberg 1979; Rosen 1986; Macphail and Goldberg 2018; Wattez et al. 2020). However, in many cases there is no focus on pedological and geological differentiations (Lorenzon 2023). Depending on the availability of sources in the surrounding environment, the material can be soil, muddy sediments or parent sediment (parent material); each has completely different properties as a consequence of different origins. Whether weathered or unweathered, the initial choice of material from a particular environment can provide indications of specific techniques and expertise. Similar to many other prehistoric archaeological sites worldwide, earthern materials also predominate Middle Bronze Age architecture in Hungary (Courty et al. 1989; Nicosia and Stoops 2017; Cammas 2018; Knoll and Klamm 2020), and require a precise description and categorization to better understand their formation, utilisation and social aspects. To date the literature on Hungarian Bronze Age architecture lacks such a precise description. For example, when floor building matter is discussed in the Hungarian archaeological record two main types are differentiated based on the macroscopically observable composition and colour (for further reference see Kovács and Vicze 2022): 'Yellow clay’ Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences (2024) 16:143 and ‘earthen’ floors are distinguished, which in our recent study was further specified in the case of Százhalombatta and Borsodivánka sites (see Röpke et al. 2024b), and the traditionally termed ‘clay’ floors were differentiated into silt (loess) floors, being very fine (but not clay size) in composition and yellowish in colour, and earthen floors, being beige or brownish-greyish in colour with a coarser matrix (loam/ sandy loam texture). A chaîne opératoire approach – an archaeological analytical technique that attempts to reconstruct the technical and social processes that occurred in connection with the production, use and discarding of archaeological objects – is one way to achieve the goal of viewing building materials as social or craft products, so that rather than applying little to no analysis to them, building materials are treated as archives of social and environmental information (Love 2013; Lorenzon 2021). The production of a floor, wall or hearth includes similar processes when compared to other craft products (Sofaer 2006, 2011), such as vessels, tools or metal objects. The building materials are composed of soil or sediment, with water and vari (...truncated)