The area called Sárrét is located in the former floodplain of the lower reaches of the Berettyó, Sebes and Fekete-Körös Rivers, in the present-day counties of Békés and Hajdú-Bihar. This area has been continuously inhabited since the Neolithic, and much of it was once covered by water and rough marshland, formed and fed by rivers flowing down from the Bihar Mountains. These hard-to-reach places formed by continuous flooding provided natural shelter for its inhabitants. The generally accepted name of the region: Sárrét began to be used only at the end of the Middle Ages, instead of the earlier Nagysár. The Sárrét includes two minor regions: the western part of the Berettyó-Körös region called Nagy-Sárrét (which is enclosed by Püspökladány, Szerep, Sárrétudvari, Biharnagybajom, Nagyrábé, Bihartorda, Bakonszeg, Darvas, Füzesgyarmat, Szeghalom, Dévaványa, Túrkeve, Kisújszállás and Karcag) and the south-eastern part of the area, the Kis-Sárrét bordered by Komádi, Csökmő, Szeghalom, Vésztő and Magyarhomorog. The settlements emerged mainly outside the marshland, on its edges, with the exception of Szerep and Komádi. The flooded pastures were used for nomadic and semi-nomadic livestock farming. Before the drains, ploughing and sowing were only possible in permanent water-free areas, i.e. on the islands. Thanks to the “fok” farming (“fok” – crevasse splay) which was significant from the aspect of flood management, the river filled in former riverbeds during floods. That reduced the water level and the sphere of destruction of the river, on the other hand it provided irrigation water for drier areas. Before the vast marshland of the Sárrét was drained in the 1860s, the marginalised people of the region lived on mostly gathering, fishing and hunting (these people are called “pákászok”). Following the drain of the marshland, that section of the local population could switch from that aquatic way of life to intensive cereal cultivation and livestock farming. The writings of O’sváth Pál and Szűcs Sándor provide insight to this natural ‘wonderland’ that once existed in our region.