Multidisciplinary Study of the Landscape, Cultural, and Natural Importance of Ancient Burial Mounds
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3397312 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ádám Bede (0000-0001-7768-439X), Orsolya Valkó (0000-0001-7919-6293), Péter Czukor, Balázs Deák (0000-0001-6938-1997) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-11 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Human Ecology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0300-7839 • E-ISSN: 1572-9915 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s10745-025-00620-x |
| OpenAlex | W4414129495 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 53 |
Millennia-old ancient burial mounds called 'kurgans' were built by nomadic steppe cultures and often hold significance related to landscape, cultural, and natural heritage. Although there are more than 500,000 mounds across Eurasia, comprehensive multidisciplinary inventories are only available for a few hundred of them. Nevertheless, regional mapping and assessments of their current and past state of preservation and destruction are essential for developing strategic protection plans and finding solutions to address potential threats. We conducted a thorough multidisciplinary survey of all the mounds within an 8,000 km2 area in the Hungarian Great Plain. Using archives of historical sources from the past six centuries, scientific literature, and repository materials, we pinpointed the locations of the mounds in the region. We visited every identified mound and evaluated its landscape, cultural, and natural values. A total of 2,335 mounds were documented, with 21% having been destroyed by human activities. Crosstab analysis showed strong connections between landscape, cultural, and natural values, as they were highly positively correlated. This suggests that coordinated prevention and mitigation strategies could effectively protect these values. To preserve all three, it is crucial to prevent harmful activities such as plowing, infrastructural development, and afforestation. We believe our regional-scale multidisciplinary study can serve as a model for future research in other parts of Eurasia
Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Archaeological Research and Protection · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
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| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |