Evolution and environment of the eastern linear pottery culture: A case study in the site of Polgár-Piócási-Dűlő

A salvage excavation preceding a major investment project was conducted in 2006–2007, during which associated settlement features of a Middle Neolithic, Eastern Linear Pottery Culture (Alföld Linearbandkeramik – ALBK) were uncovered in an area called Piócási-dűlő on the eastern outskirts of Polgár. The features of the ALBK settlement date from two periods. The cluster of multi-functional pits yielding a rich assortment of finds, the handful of post-holes and an unusual ritual well found in the southern part of the investigated area formed one unit from the earliest phase of the Middle Neolithic (ALBK I). The settlement’s other occupation can be assigned to the late phase of the Middle Neolithic (ALBK IV). Five houseplans representing the remains of timber-framed buildings outlined a distinct area with three multi-functional pits. Associated with the above features were 8 burials. The preliminary archaeobotanical results from Polgár–Piócási-dűlő are based on the plant material found within the sediments of 11 archaeological structures, which mainly represent pits and a welI. It can be stated that the natural environment offered habitats in which oak trees dominated in the local vegetation, forming floodplain forests and wooded steppes. They also provided food in the form of fruits and formed an optimal habitat for domestic animals. Arable fields were probably also established in the vicinity of the settlements, suggested by findings of macroscopic plant remains that represented cultivated species. In both settlement phases lithic production activities are manifested both by the local on-site lithic production and – most importantly – by the presence of imported, mainly mesolocal, raw materials that point to contacts with deposit areas, or off-site preliminary working of obsidian and limnoquartzites. The kit of harvesting tools and a large number of grinding stones – especially in the younger phase – for the preparation of plant food suggest a major role of plant cultivation

The rise and fall of turbulent fountains: a new model for improved quantitative predictions

International audienceTurbulent fountains are of major interest for many natural phenomena and industrial applications, and can be considered as one of the canonical examples of turbulent flows. They have been the object of extensive experimental and theoretical studies that yielded scaling laws describing the behaviour of the fountains as a function of source conditions (namely their Reynolds and Froude numbers). However, although such scaling laws provide a clear understanding of the basic dynamics of the turbulent fountains, they usually rely on more or less ad hoc dimensionless proportionality constants that are scarcely tested against theoretical predictions. In this paper, we use a systematic comparison between the initial and steady-state heights of a turbulent fountain predicted by classical top-hat models and those obtained in experiments. This shows scaling agreement between predictions and observations, but systematic discrepancies regarding the proportionality constant. For the initial rise of turbulent fountains, we show that quantitative agreement between top-hat models and experiments can be achieved by taking into account two factors: (i) the reduction of entrainment by negative buoyancy (as quantified by the Froude number), and (ii) the fact that turbulence is not fully developed at the source at intermediate Reynolds number. For the steady-state rise of turbulent fountains, a new model (‘confined top-hat') is developed to take into account the coupling between the up-flow and the down-flow in the steady-state fountain. The model introduces three parameters, calculated from integrals of experimental profiles, that highlight the dynamics of turbulent entrainment between the up-flow and the down-flow, as well as the change of buoyancy flux with height in the up-flow. The confined top-hat model for turbulent fountains achieves good agreement between theoretical predictions and experimental results. In particular, it predicts a systematic increase of the ratio between the initial and steady-state heights of turbulent fountains as a function of their source Froude number, an observation that was not handled properly in previous models