Cultural and Landscape Changes in South-East Hungary I. [antikvár]

INTRODUCTIONARCHAEOLINGUA is a new publication series jointly edited by the Archaeological Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Linguistic Institute of the University of Innsbruck. It will publish monographs and collective volumes dedicated to what - in a very wide sense - may be called "Kulturwissenschaft", dealing with all aspects of human culture in prehistoric and eariy historic settings. Archaeology and Linguistics (again both understood in dieir widest application) will be the main supporting pillars of this interdisciplinary approach, which is also indicated by the title of the series. To prevent any misunderstanding as to the semantic content of this symbolic tíüe the editors wish to stress that it should be understood as the abbreviation of an additive compound (the linguists would call it a "dvandva"): archaeology + language.Archaeology is concerned with the recovery and inteipretation of facmal remnants of earlier cultures. For prehistoric periods, but also for historic periods in the absence of written testimony, this is often enough our only source of knowledge. Linguistics, together with philology and other associated techniques, is able to exploit language itself as a source of information, for instance where vocabulary or names reach back into prehistoric periods and thus may furnish semantic information about concepts of the past; for historical periods information which is contained in tiie form of written texts may be put to use. In the case of badly recorded, undeciphered or less well known languages this involves special interpretative techniques which often depend on the findings of the archaeologists. Linguistic documents such as inscriptions on material objects recovered by the archaeologist are in this sense also objects of archaeology. On the other hand, archaeological facts may need ethnic or linguistic interpretation. For these reasons archaeology and Unguistícs are interrelated and interdependent in more than one sense, and in many cases their findings will be mutually illuminating and will thus fit into a wider horizon of understanding cultoral networks. It goes witiiout saying that in order to obtain wide-ranging results interdisciplinary ways of approach are necessary: the archaeologist as well as the linguist will need the help of specialists in the fields of history, art, comparative mythology, ethnology, anthropology, genetics, palaeozoology, palaeobotanics, palaeoclimatology - to name only a few.Besides such smdies which - in a general or methodological way - deal with the interrelated subject of "archaeology and language" ARCHAEOLINGUA will publish studies in the prehistory and early history of central and (south)east central Europe, with special emphasis on the Danube-Alpine-Adriatic region which is interrelated in many ways, and within this wider area more specifically on Hungary in her present-day or historical confines. In accordance with the aim of arriving at a comprehensive cultural phenomenology and morphology interdisciplinary methods of research wiU be considered instruments vital to the task.The series which will be supplemented by a "Series minor" for the publication of lectures and small monographs intends to become an intemational forum of interdisciplinary research within the outlines mentioned and will be open to all qualified researchers - individuals and teams - in the field. It will also be in the position to publish the Acta of intemational meetings dedicated to subjects within the above-mentioned range.ARCHAEOLINGUA accepts contributions in German, English or French. If possible they should be processed by means of one of the current systems of electronic word-processing and submitted both on diskette and as a print-out. Enquiries and all further correspondence should be directed to ARCHAEOLINGUA at the address of tiie Archaeological Institute of tiie Hungarian Academy of Sciences, care of Erzsébet Jerem, Úri utca 49, H-1250 Budapest.Budapest, January 1992The Editors