Kurgans in the Great Hungarian Plain: Our survey continues

This year we continue our large sampling campaign of the kurgans in the Great Hungarian Plain. Kurgans are ancient burial mounds built by nomadic steppic tribes millenia ago, and still harbour dry grasslands in the heavily transformed agricultural landscapes. You can read more about these iconic landmarks in our earlier publications.

Last week we sampled kurgans in the central part of the Great Hungarian Plain, near Szentes and Szarvas, which region is very rich in kurgans. Below we selected some pictures from the fieldwork.

The iconic Gödény-halom (Pelican-mound) near Békésszentandrás: the largest kurgan in Hungary.

Hék-halom mound in the background and a large population of Salvia nemorosa in the foreground.

This is the peak flowering season for Consolida orientalis.

An ancient riverbed and the mounds on the river bank: a nice example how the ancient cultures formed the landscape.

Survey of a mound, where ploughing was recently abandoned.

This mound has been ploughed for a long time, but recently, ploughing has been stopped in at least a part of the kurgan body.