Middle Bronze Age fortification systems’ evolution in Kakucs-Turján in the light of geoarchaeological studies

During the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 2000–1500 BC), the Carpathian Basin witnessed new cultural groups characterized by distinctively different pottery styles and burial rites but unified by the occupation of sites surrounded by ditches or combinations of ditches and ramparts (Bóna 1975; Kovács 1984; Sørensen and Rebay-Salisbury 2008). Due to their long occupation, many such sites are classified as multi-layered settlements (Gogâltan et al. 2014; Jaeger 2016). Despite extensive research, there remains a lack of detailed information on the absolute chronology, spatial development, and chronological relationships between settlement occupation and fortification construction (Jaeger 2016; Staniuk 2021). Most site chronologies are based on funerary ceramic typologies associated with broad temporal ranges and high uncertainties (Jaeger 2016; Staniuk 2021). Kakucs-Turján is only one of nearly 190 multilayered Middle Bronze Age (MBA) settlements in the Carpathian Basin with a tripartite division of space (Harding 2018; Jaeger 2016) (Figure 1). This, combined with its high-resolution archaeological record makes it ideal for investigating the diachronic relationship between MBA habitations and fortifications (Filatova 2020; Staniuk 2020).