Folia archeologica 30.
Viola T. Dobosi - István Vörös: Adatok a lovasi őskori festékbánya leletegyüttesének értékeléséhez
18 V. T. DOBOSI—[ . VÖRÖS 1. The Vértesszőlős bone implements were made from the long bones of the most frequent hunted animals (Cervus, Equus, Bison-Bos and the Elephantidae, this latter represented with a single bone in the fauna); among the 26 implements anatomically identifiable there were only five specimens made of metapodia. 2. Fresh bone is exceptionally suitable for a method used in working stone implements, as it is not only elastic but compact as well. 3 7 3. Fresh bone splits - when worked in the same way - rather in the same way as the silex; the same vestiges of retouche with conchoidal fracture show at the working edges, and as it is more elastic than the silex, it is possible to knap perfect coniform-shaped flakes out of it, for which we have examples in the Vértesszőlős material. 3 8 In the case of the very rich find assemblage of Vértesszőlős we could allow us to define a bone object as an implement only when we were absolutely sure about it, i.e. when unmistakable traces of working were demonstrable. Although it is not possible to draw general rules from the material of a single Lower Palaeolithic site, we may surmise that in the future we could count on the occurrence of more bone implements - not only of those produced by a grinding and polishing technique, much later in time, but we may look for the criteria of tool production by retouching on long bones, being perhaps at their diposal in much bigger quantities — possibly in much larger measures - than silex or quartzite. At Lovas we found also such bone splinters of 1,5 to 2 cm which might be byproducts of tool-making. L. Vértes made thorough investigations on every implement as for the way and course of débitage. Among the technological devices splitting, pointing, cutting, carving had equally long antecedents till they became chrystallized. It is the adaptation of the manual dexterity — acquired by working on stone and wooden implements - to bone material which we consider as a genial innovation. We think that the deep striations, running parallel to the long axis of the tool, are, on the majority of the implements, due not to human activity but to lesions made by the gravel, occurring among the paint pockets. The direction, depth and length of the striations are heterogenous and they are not suitable for establishing the direction and way of use. Trying to typologize and classify in the metric classes the different implements, made within the same site of different bones of different animals, having had divergent functions, as a starting point we have to chose the structural form and dimensions of the given bone. In the case of long bones and antler, there are much lesser possibilities to evolve the implement making activity in a typological richness found in stone implements, but there is no need for it, either: it was only necessary to make the structurally given bones "handy". The great importance of the Lovas find assemblage lies in the fact that these bones were made, with a little "adjusting", apt for performing a special working activity, important for the life of the community. At Lovas the worked ulna implements are to be divided morphologically - and presumably also functionally — in three groups, representing at the same time the phases of the working of the ulna bones. 3 7 A bone cube of one cm 3 resists a compressing force of 19 kgs and a pull force of 10,5 kgs. Kovács Gy., A háziállatok anatómiája. (Budapest 1958) 26. 3 8 Dobosi, V., Ph. D. thesis. 63-64.
