Folia archeologica 51.

István Vörös: A magyarországi fosszilis Elephantidák biokronológiája

BIOCHRONOLOGY OF Fossil. ELEPHANTIDAE IN HUNGARY 17 sandy gravel under blue clay at 1

.5-2 in); Galgagyörk (at the limit of gravel and loess); Gyékényes gravel quarry, at 15 and 30 meters. From loess: Vài; Paks-Brickyards, at the depth of 28 m; Komló - andesite quarry; Mogyoród - Csíkvölgy; Visonta K-I 1981, at the upper part of sandy clay with tuff debris, at 12-13 m (Fig. 5.3., KRETZOI et al. 1982). Other occurrences: Vértesszőlős, Lower Palaeolithic settlement I.: Culturebearing Site I. Layer 1. - "Proboscidea indet." Tibia sin. diaphr. fr. = bone tool, (T. DOBOSI 1990, 349, 392. Pl. XXIII.); Kiscell-Holztpach Brickyards, in calcareous tuff (

SCHRÉTER 1953; VÖRÖS 1974). From unknown sediments: Balassagyarmat, Berkenye, Gyöngyös-Mátrafüred. Geological age: the biostratigraphical position of M. (P.) trogontherii is documented by an accompanying fauna only at a few places in Hungary. 11 is probable, that the species appeared in the lowest levels of the Upper Biharian substage (Visonta K-I 1981, (KRETZOI et al. 1982); Buda-Castle hill, Úri str. 72 (KRETZOI 1965; JÁNOSSY 1969, 1976; VÖRÖS 1980); Vértesszőlős I.). The species is pre-sent in the Carpathian Basin till the end of the Oldenburg-(Steinheim) substage (Kiscell calcareous tuff, Table 2). PALAEOLOXODON MATSUMOTO 1924. Palaeoloxodon antiquus (FALCONER et CAUTLEY 1846) Localities: Győrszabadhegy; Győrújfalu (JÁNOSSY et KROLOPP 1994) gravel quarry, Vác-Danube bed; Lökösháza-gravel quarry from a depth of 15-20 m (Fig. 4.2.); Castle Hill at Buda, under at Országház str. 14. and Szentháromság str. 7. (from "loess-like soft limy clay /=limy silt/" forming the underlying layer of the calcareous tuff, lower M (Fig'. 4.3.) (MOTTI

. 1943; KRETZOI 1965; JÁNOSSY 1969, 1976; VÖRÖS 1983). Geological age: finds of P. antiquus can be dated only indirectly, lacking accompanying faunal assemblages. The most important find is that of the Buda Castle hill, from under I he calcareous tuff. Here, riverine sequence sedimented over Focene Buda Marl, limy silt and calcareous tuff with Elephantidae fauna separate well in a stratigraphical as well as taxonomical sense. The contemporaneity of the species Archidiscodon and Mammuthus (Parelephas) can be, according to our present knowledge, excluded. The taxonomical separation of the two species was not yet possible in the 40-ies. Elephas finds from Úri str. 72 were classified by MOTTL as F. trogontherii, belonging to the same age and the same species. The sediment comprising the faunal remains were described as "riverine sediment", terrace sand and gravel, sandy gravel and gravel, respectively (MOTTL 1942, 1943) in spite of the exact description of KADIC, collector of the finds, who documented the position of the finds exactly as found in "sandy clay" (KADIC 1939, Fig. 3. Layer 2) and "ferrous gravel layer" (KADIC 1939, Fig. 3. Layer 4.). Mammal fossils found in the "ferrous gravel" were, as KADIC said, similar to the former ones, i.e., layer 2. (KADIC 1939, 7.). In the opinion of the author, by saying "similar" and not "identical" or "corresponding", KADIC wanted to draw attention to the differences in the faunal composition of the two layers which were contracted by MOTTL in the spirit of the fashionable "unified (ancient Pleistocenepreglacial) fauna concept" of those days (

MOTTI

. 1942, 1943). That this hypothesis is more than a forced philological treatise, is further corroborated by the differences of sediment traces found on the fossils. Morn, described the Elephas remains found in the "terrace gravel" as primitive, ancient meridionaloide Elephas trogontherii and Archidiskodon trogontherii, respectively