Folia archeologica 54.
16 ANDRÁS MARK O The artefacts, broken into angular fragments without bulbe of percussion belong to a clearly distinct group. The pieces of globular, wedge-shaped or irregular limnic quartzite (complexes 5-5a, 9, 21 and 22) and nummulithic chert (complex 10) pebbles or a limnic quartzite nodule (complex 6) belong to this group. At least four of them (complexes 9, 10, 21 and 22) were seemingly only tested and immediately abandoned on the site, because of the poor quality of the raw material. On the other hand, as we mentioned earlier, one of the numerous refitted fragments of the complex nr. 5 were used as a core and three naturally broken pieces from the same block were shaped for tools. 2 7 Finally we have to discuss the fragmentation of andesite slabs (complexes 11, 12, 13: Fig. 5.), typical for the site; a piece of quartzite with laminated structure, tested by a cortical flake and fragmented according to the same pattern (complex 19) may belong to the same group. As the first step of the operation the slabs were sliced as a fish, parallel with the planes of the pieces and were fragmented later. These artefacts are interpreted as 'baking slabs', a term going back to A. J. Horváth 2 8 and became widely accepted in Hungary. 2 9 Although on the pieces from the complex nr. 12, traces of heating and smuts were conserved, one of the moulds of fossil molluscs, documented during the last excavations, was lined around by these stones, 3 0 which call our attention to the cautious use of this interpretative term. * * * Because of the characteristic pattern, we will shortly discuss the 'recycling' of a broken tool from the assemblage excavated before the World War II (Fig. 6.1.). In this case a short end scraper on flake, similar to the piece depicted on Fig. 2.3. , was broken because of the inhomogeneity (may be a fossil reed or a twig), hidden in the limnic quartzite raw material. Both fragments were reshaped: one of them with repaired working edge as an end-scraper, having similar morphology to the original piece, the other one as a high scraper, with a shape similar to the conical single-platform cores with prepared back and natural striking platform. CORE EXPLOITATION STRATEGIES In the studied assemblage of Szob, excavated in the sixties three distinct methods of core-exploitation could be documented by refitting. The conical or flat bladelet cores of small siliceous pebbles of globular shape, with flaking surfaces extending to the sides, cortical back and striking platform shaped by a single blow, or remained unworked, were most probably completely worked on the site. On the level of the concept, we can talk about single platform cores, even if another flaking surface was started along a perpendicular axe to the earlier one, on the unused part of a previously exhausted piece. Beside the refitted pieces, pre-cores with cortical back of nummulitic chert and siliceous pebbles, abandoned because of the angular breaks, as well as cores with prepared back of porcelanite and siliceous pebble are also present in the assemblage excavated by Gábori. In the material found by A. J. Horváth, cores with cortical back of radiolarite pebbles and with prepared back of obsidian or radiolarite are also known. 3 1 2 7 MARKÓ 2007, Fig. 5.5 2 8 DOBOSI-VÁRI 1997, 78. 2 9 e.g: GÁBORI 1959, 6,12; CSONGRÁDINE BALOGH 1997, 38. 3 0 MARKÓ 2007, Fig. 2. 3 1 MARKÓ 2007, Fig. 3: 2, 5 (obsidian), 4 (radiolarite).
