Folia archeologica 30.

T. Dobosi Viola: In memoriam Vértes László

IN MEMÓRIÁM LÁSZLÓ VÉRTES On the tenth anniversary of his death, László Vértes was remembered in a commemorative session held in the Hungarian National Museum. Under the chairmanship of the Director-General of the National Museum, Ferenc Fülep, five lectures were read by his colleagues, pupils and friends, appreciating his undying merits on the field of Palaeolithic research and in the propagation of general knowledge on the highest level. After an introduction József Korek delivered a commemorative address, recalling the entrance of László Vértes into his profession and inserted his scientifical career into the historical framework of Hungarian Palaeolithic research. He analysed the three periods discernable in the activity of Vértes, as 1. re-valuating of the find material collected; collecting of new finds. This period closes with the monographical elaboration of the Istállóskő Cave and with his dissertation for obtaining the degree of a candidate on cave sediments; 2. radical reformation of the methods, applying of mathematics and statistics, culminating in the first volume of the Archaeological Manual; this latter serving as his dissertation for obtaining the degree of an Academic Doctor; 3. period of the Vértesszőlős excavations and the combinative evolution theory. These few years of his life-work remained unfinished. József Korek underlined the activity of L. Vértes as an organizator of exhibitions, his ability in explaining abstract ideological categories in a lucid way; he regarded the activisation of the visitors as directives of the modern organization of exhibitions. The lecture of Miklós Kretzoi drew the course of a scholar interested in biology and starting with speleological research work, who concentrated his research work of the stratigraphy of the Quaternary, calibrated by absolute chronology, on a great aim: on the cognition of the rhythm, direction and last of all of the moving forces of motion, change and development. Behind the mathematical expression it is Man who stands in the centre of interest int he work of Vértes, it is the human thought, the model of thought and the fulfilled work, the primaeval, Palaeolithical section of the connection between the psychical development of Man and his material culture. Dénes Jánossy, a pupil, later the closest collaborator of László Vértes in his extensive cave excavations, remembered the great speleologist. Vértes begun his activity under the guidance of Ottokár Kadic in the Solymár pitfall shaft, consequently with his Istállóskő diggings he brought to perfection the cave excavations of scholarlay character, based on the work of the great predecessors. The dredging method, introduced by Jánossy and Vértes, resulted in an abrupt increase of the small mammal fauna of the layers. The research on sediments, begun under the pressure of necessity on the material of the Istállóskő Cave and spread consequently over the whole country, resulted in a dissertation for obtaining the degree of a candidate, written with an exemplary thoroughness, belonging ever since to the basic works of the field.