A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 46. (2007)

B. Hellebrandt Magdolna: Mályinka-Dédestapolcsány-Verepce-vár és Miskolc-kőlyuk I.-barlang vasleletei

Pottery fragments resembling the channelled body sherd are known from the Herman Ottó Cave and the Szeleta Cave by Miskolc and the Baradla Cave by Aggtelek.

53 The more recent pottery finds from the Kőlyuk I Cave include sharply carinated fragments, whose analogies can be quoted from among the older finds from this site and the pieces from the Büdöspest Cave.

54 The bronze button from the Kőlyuk I Cave is paralleled by a piece from the Szeleta Cave.

55 Ornaments of this type were popular from the Reinecke ВС period until the Hallstatt В period.

56 The distance between Verepce-vár and the Kőlyuk Cave is roughly 10 km across the Garadna Valley (Fig. 13), which could be easily made either on foot or on horseback, meaning that the caves could quite easily be approached. It seems likely that the caves were sometimes used as temporary campsites during hunting expeditions. Stones A rampart rises above a ditch at the south-eastern end of the Verepce-vár hillfort. We found river pebbles on the rampart's inner side. The officials of the environmental protection and forestry office call the smaller area "Kőhajigáló" ("stone-thrower") after this gravel. The pebbles (Fig. 9. 13) fit into the hand, their average length being 7 cm, their average weight no more than 0.125-0.45 kg. It seems likely that the pebbles were transported there from the Bán Stream flowing under the hillfort and that they were used for defending the settlement, either by pelting the attackers with hand or by using some sort of catapult device. Lehoczky observed similar pebbles in the burnt debris of a house on the northern side of Mount Lovacska by Munkács. He found a rounded sling stone with a diameter of 4.5 cm weighing 0.75 kg at a depth of 60 cm,

57 together with other similar stones.

58 Flattened spherical sling stones with a diameter of 7 cm weighing 0.5 kg were also collected on Mount Vörös to the east of Mount Lovacska.

59 It is quite natural that stones were used as weapons from the most ancient times. At Tállya, for example, the stones built into the rampart of the Late Bronze Age hillfort were dislodged and rolled down the eastern side of the hill, from where the enemy had assaulted the settlement/'

0 Stones were repeatedly used in warfare throughout history. There are many artistic depictions of how the defenders of a besieged fortress threw stones on the besiegers. An over 2 m high relief in the British Museum (Fig. 12) shows a river and a walled town above it. The battle scene depicts the Assyrians assaulting the town of Lachish, with the men defending the town throwing stones on the assaulters, who protect themselves with shields while showering the defenders with arrows. The relief dates from the reign of Sennacherib (704-681 ВС).

61 While tracing the journey of Alexander the Great to the Indus, Sir Aurél Stein reached the fortress of Pir-Sar rising on the left bank of the River Indus.

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63 Stein surveyed the stronghold and found sling stones, which could also be thrown using heavier catapult devices. He found a heap of carefully arranged stones by a tower and noted that about thirty-eight rounds could be fired using these "ancient missiles". The stones were worn round. He found similar stones along the fortress' western wall, which had probably been brought there from the river. Alexander the Great had besN eged the fortress with arrows and catapults, which had a range of some 300 m. Stein identified the \ stronghold with the fortress of Aornos (meaning "rock" in Persian) described by classical authors.

64 Stein described other instances of the defensive use of stones in his book: in 1809, Tyrolean peasant defended their fields against Napoleon's French and Bavarian troops in this manner.

65 Finds of the Kyjatice culture are often found in hillforts. Kemencze» Aa|rít>teítn|f rrtffiáhy cases, the erection of hillforts was motivated by the need to control trade routes or the creation of political and economic centres.

66 Bükkszentlászló-Nagysánc was a settlement of this type, whose occupation spans the period from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age and the Celtic Age, j similarly to Mályinka-Dédestapolcsány-Verepce-vár. " Í Iron finds are often regarded by finders as being valueless post-medieval artefacts rather than articles dating from archaeological periods, although the opposite can sometiíhés also be . .. I . **tef7ii