Folia archeologica 30.

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

PAINT MINE AT LOVAS 21and paint, much looser than the flint benches, it was presumably not necessary to add something to the length of the bone, given by its natural measures. According to the documentation of the 1951 excavation, lead by Gy. Mészáros and L. Vértes, the dark red "culture layer", consisting of dolomite detritus, settled in a height of 60-70 cm on the rock bottom of mine No. II, yielded 132 animal bones. The bone finds were dispersed in the whole depth of the "cultural layer" homogeneously, which allows the conclusion that the paint material was turned up during the mining activity several times, resp. that the mine was used seriatim. The animal bone material coming from Layer of mine pit No. II is entirely that of a "kitchen midden" containing no bone implements. From this follows that the area was not deserted even after the exhaustion of the paint mine. So could the bones of the hunted animals come into Layer 4, laid on the paint stratum. This layer yielded the cervical vertebra and phalanges of an elk, as well as the heel bone of a horse of small built. Durint the 1951 digging the environment was combed through meticulously, in order to find the settlement belonging to the work pits. Recently an experiment has been launched on the basis of a great number of ethnological examples, to determine with a great exactness the settlement system of population groups, living on hunting and gathering.

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1 At Lovas, beside of the unique special activity of mining, the ways and possibilities of food acquisition are traditional and there are no reasons for assuming the existence of a separate settlement of a constant character, apart from the mining pits, or, formulated in archaeological terms, a cultural layer in situ, more or less thick, consisting of settlement bones and wastes of the artefact production. The phenomena observed also allows the conclusion that these mining pits might have been, after the paint production has ceased, settlement objects as well. This is especially likely if we consider the possibility that a pit or more pits might have been destroyed during the recent mining activity, previous to the excavations. Our hypothesis is supported beyond the great number of settlement bones (kitchen midden) by the position and measures of the fireplace having been more likely a "camp fire", protected by a rocky wall, than a device for mining. 4

1 Láng, J., Az őstársadalmak. (Budapest 1978) 38-39. „The «nomadising» of the huntergatherers was, though, not an endless wandering on unknown ways and did not mean an unceasing seeking of more and more new areas. The group, belonging together, lived on a definite are staying the reconstantly, while changing its night shelters from tome to time." „The distance of the way and back, which could be done on one day during the hunting activity, determines, necessarily, the extension of the area around the camp; the average quantity of food, to be gathered by the given means of production, limited the number of persons, living in the same group.,, On p. 41 Láng summarizes some observations, applicable to the Lovas site with a special validity: „Individual groups, (i. e. such ones having hunting-gathering areas of their own) used, unquestionably also some materials not available on their own areas coming from territories under the control of other groups. Such are e.g. paints, to be applied to the body on the occasion of their feasts (italicized by the co-author, V. D.), or some sorts of stone, especially suitable for manufacturing tools. A great part of these materials was, though, not gained by an exchange of goods

, but by seeking out the sites (italicized by the co-author, V. D.). Several observations point to the fact that the groups, inhabiting the area of the sites, did not prevent alien groups from visiting the find places and that the free use of the materials, to be found only on some special areas, was, generally, acknowledged; provided that the members of the group inhabiting the said areas agreed. . . (it happened,though,that) «needing ochre they sent envoys with gifts, in return they were allowed to dig out ochre»." „These connections were, though, neither as intensive nor as important that they would make a perpetual and organic bond between the single groups."