Kiss, Andrea

1. Southern inundation area of Lake Fertő/Neusiedl in the later Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period Connection between water-level conditions, shoreline and the landscape Kiss, Andrea

2. Overview • Study area • Historical sources: the southern inundation area • Historical water-level conditions and water-level changes • The landscape and its development: different waterlevels • Main directions and the intensity of wetland landscape exploitation

3. Study area

4. Historical sources: the southern inundation area • Maps (18th-19th c.): military – rather schematic; cadaster (map+survey)-good; other small and large scale maps – schematic or refer to small area • Legal documentation: medieval charters, early modern (16-19th c.) land-ownership or borderline debates – refer to small areas • Other documentary: • Narrative (written evidence): e.g. Sopron citizens • Economic (written evidence) – taxation surveys • Domain surveys: Eszterházy, Széchényi • Archaeological surveys (not many yet… - but important)

5. Water level and landscape: the modern situation Any historical applications? Fixed water level – 20th century Transformation of basin – human impact (Kopf) BUT: How present processes can be applied in detecting historical (e.g. medieval conditions)? (and vica verse?)

6. What and how to apply from present? E.g. connecting medieval with modern; early modern with modern: shoreline and environment in the Inundation area Modern inundation model versus medieval reambulation charters? 1281, 1335 1362, 1434-1435 115.5 m water level S-Fertő

7. Historical water-level fluctuations: models and problems • Water-level reconstructions • or data-collections (e.g.): • Nagy (1869), Kövér (1940), Károlyi (1957), Balsay et al. 1975 stb. • Sometimes only based on ‘beliefs’ – e.g. Fertő river, 1568 human impact…. The Kopf-reconstruction (1963); ext.: Zorkóczy (1976) • Common problems: • No information on primary/original sources applied by F. Kopf (or others) • Continous information? • 3. Only for last 400 years (medieval: spotted – e.g. 1281, 1335, 1362, 1434) • 4. Complete desiccation???

8. What original sources tell us? High water Low water

9. Fixing medium water level – when it means what? For fixing (approximately the) medium water level: historical cadaster survey (1854), Eszterházy domain map (+ Sarród cooperative map) • Edge of lake basin • Open surface of water • Sarród area (today)

10. Transforming landscape into simple model: medium water level (for land use/exploitation model)

11. Land exploitation – different water levels – flexible reaction of society High water level (e.g. 1740s) Low water level (1710s-1730s) Intensity of exploitation special emphasis: Middle Ages

12. Conclusions • New, documentary (and map) based water level reconstruction is needed – also to landscape reco-s • Some aspects concerning medieval water levels and land exploitation can be as well detected • Land use and exploitation show strong flexibility towards predominant water level conditions • Intensities of land exploitation were very diifferent in certain period (e.g. Middle Ages)

13. Thank you for your attention