Folia archeologica 49-50.

Kovács Tibor: A múltat idézve, előre tekintve emlékezzünk! 200 éves a Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum

FOLIA ARCHAELOGICA XLIX-L. 2001-2002. BUDAPEST EX PROBOSCIDEIS Proboscidean remains as raw material on four Palaeolithic sites Viola T. DOBOSI Part of this paper was presented on the 1st International Congress "The World of F.lephants", Rome 2001 The faunistical-palaeontological data this paper is based on were supplied by István Vörös, archaeozoologist. The author wishes to express her thanks for the determination of the bone remains. Elephantidae were the most frequent large mammalians found in the Pleistocene faunas of the Carpathian Basin, on both archaeological and palaeontological localities. István Vörös elaborated the phylo- and ontogenesis of the taxon from the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary till the middle of the Würm glaciation.

1 Some 470 localities have yielded fossils belonging to this family, mainly without proper stratigraphical control: river banks, gravel quarries, cover of open-air lignite extraction sites, calcareous tuffs of different age. The high taxonomical value of dentition, the known rules of the formation of dental enamel rendered Elephantidae a "fossile directoire" among the faunal remains. Starting from the boundary of the Pliocene-Pleistocene till the end of the Lower Pleistocene the form Archidiskodon (

grommi

, meridionalis and ürömensis), while in the Middle Pleistocene Parelephas (Mammuthus

) trogontherii is the dominating species. The archaic form of mammoth appear as early as the Middle Pleistocene (Vértesszőlős Lower Palaeolithic site), its acme can be placed to the Upper Pleistocene till the inter-pleniglacial period (at the beginning of the period we find the Middle Palaeolithic Tata, at the end, the Aurignacian Istállóskő sites). By the Pleniglacial B period, mammoth is already missing from the fauna according to I. Vörös- and the mammoth bones found on archaeological sites were no longer elements of the contemporary fauna. (Remains found on the site Esztergom already belong to this "post-proboscidean" period). Four sites were selected from the Hungarian Palaeolithic: Vértesszőlős

3, Tata', Istállóskő

5 and Esztergom.

6 The presented objects from the above sites are connected by the single fact that they were made of remains of Proboscideans. These objects are different in - chronological / cultural position - character of their site - anatomical position of the utilised piece - technique of workmanship - function of the object - connection of the item with the fauna of the site - role in the find assemblage from the site. 1 Körösi 998, 2000 2 Körösi 998. :

i Kretzoi-Dobosi 1990 4 Vértes 1965 5 Vértes et al 1955 6 Dobosi-Kövecses—Varga 1991