Folia archeologica 30.

Viola T. Dobosi - István Vörös: Adatok a lovasi őskori festékbánya leletegyüttesének értékeléséhez

14 V. T. DOBOSI—[

. VÖRÖS The reindeer is, if rarely, continuously present in Upper Pleistocene faunas. It was not found at the Tata and Tokod sites. The reindeer reached its full faunistical dominance only during the last cold maximum, in the Pilisszántó phase (Kretzoi). It is likely that the reindeer of the period had also a woodland environment.

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2 Ibex remains are known from several Hungarian Upper Pleistocene sites. The ibex has bound ecological demands; it lives in a rocky environment with sparse meadows (high mountains). Its mountain occurences are in the Bükk Mountain: the Subalyuk cave,

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3 Szeleta-cave,

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4 Ottó Herman cave,

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5 Büdöspest cave,

2® Peskő cave,

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7 Tarkő rock shelter, Block II-VII;

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8 in the Transdanubian Mountains it came to light in the Pilisszántó rock shelter

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9 and from the layers of Bakonybél.

20 Its lowland occurrence is known only as far as from Érd.

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1 Its highest vertical occurrence in Hungary is the Tarkő rock shelter, Block II-VII. The bone remains of the Lovas ibex came with the greatest likelyhood from the Bakony and were transferred as a bone awl to the area of the cave. Among the animals represented at Lovas the wild boar is the most sensitive climatic indicator. It is an animal of a woodland environment of moderate climates and lives in leafy woods (oak and beech). Its remains point to the vicinty of a leafy forest. The wild boar is relatively rare in Upper Pleistocene faunas. Its occurrence is restricted to the Riss-Würm interglacial and to the period before the first cold summit (Varbó and Subalyuk phases), resp. it is known from the interstadial fauna of Istállóskő Cave. The corpus mandibulae of a wild boar, found at Lovas, is of such small dimensions that even in the case if it were from a female specimen, it does not reach the dimensions of the smallest wild sows of the Early Holocene. There are no traces of wear or working on the surface of the corpus mandibulae, resp. of the caninus. The traces of latero-caudal wear on the peak of the caninus are natural: it was worn by the upper caninus. The material, available for examination from the horse species Equus sp. ind. is too insignificant for proving nearer racial features. The width of the calcaneus is, in spite of its fragmentary condition, measurable and makes 52 mm. The measures of the facies articularis talaris of the calcaneus in a surprising way agree with those of the subfossile wild and domesticated horses. Similar remains from horses of small stature are described by M. Kretzoi from Layer "a" of the upper cultural stratum of Érd with the denomination Equus sp. ind. II.

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2 Kretzoi, M., Étude paléontologique. In: Gábori С sank, V., La station du Paléolithique moyen d'Érd, Hongrie. (Budapest 1968) 84-85. 2

3 Mottl, M., Geol. Hung. ser. Paleont. (Subalyuk) 14(1938) 288. 2

4 Ead., Földt. Int. Jel. 1941. 14. 2

5 Ébik, Gy., op. cit. 25. 2

6 Mottl, M., Földt. Int. Jel. 1941. 15. 2

7 Ead., Barlangkutatás 17(1944) 16. 2

8 Jánossy, D., Karszt- és Barlangkut. loc. cit. 2

9 Kormos, T., Földt. Int. Évk. 23(1915) 415. 3

0 Varrók, S., Földt. Int. Jel. 1953. 491. 3

1 Kretzoi, M., op. cit. 3

2 Ibid.