Floods and Long-Term Water-Level Changes in Medieval Hungary

The book provides an overview of the floods and major hydrological changes that occurred in the medieval Hungarian kingdom (covering the majority of the Carpathian Basin) between 1000 and 1500 AD. The analysis was based on contemporary documentary evidence presented for the first time and the results of archaeological and scientific investigations. Beyond the evidence on individual flood events, the book includes a comprehensive overview of short-, medium-, and long-term changes detected in a hydrologically sensitive environment during the transition period between the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age. It also discusses the possible causes (including climate and human intervention) and the consequences for the physical and human environment, namely the related hydro-morphological changes, short- and long-term social response, and human perception issues.

Inhalt
Preface.- Why floods and why the medieval Carpathian Basin?.- Aims, reasons and the background.- Structuring and main sections.- Environmental background: floods, modern hydrology and the medieval environment.- Research on medieval floods, long-term water-level fluctuations and the environment.- Floods, inundations, inland excess waters and the environment.- Medieval environment and its changes: the human and physical background.- Long-term changes in the hydrological regime.- Millennial-scale reconstructions: the role of palaeo-environmental evidence.- Mainly archaeology and documentary based information and reconstructions.- Long-term changes in medieval water levels and humidity/wetness: an overview.- Sources and methodology applied.- Reporting flood events in medieval Hungary: Sources and main characteristics.- Floods in space and time: distribution and limitation of the available source material.- Methodological questions.- Floods in medieval Hungary: case studies on the individual flood events.- Analysis of the 11th-12th century flood related evidence.- Recorded flood events in the 13th century.- Flood events recorded in the 14th century.- 15th-century flood events.- Analysis of flood events.- Basic hydro-meteorological analysis of natural flood events.- Years and decades of highest flood frequencies documented.- Reported flood events of the largest rivers: present stage of knowledge.- Medium- and long-term information, and hydro-morphological impacts reported.- Floods, climate and weather.- People and Nature Floods, consequences and attitudes.- Conclusions, discussion and outlook.- General conclusions.- Discussion.- Outlook.- Appendix.- Overview maps on the locations of 11th-15th-century floods.- 11th-13th-century floods reported.- 14th-century floods.- 15th-century floods.- Floods, flood related hydro-morphological events, major damages reported, and the administrative changes documented in medieval Hungary: a temporal-spatial overview.- Janus Pannonius: De Inundatione.- Glossary.