A Herman Ottó Múzeum évkönyve 47. (2008)

Kordos László-Szolyák Péter: A hámori Herman Ottó-barlang pleisztocén gerinces maradványai és a „középső felső-pleisztocén" faunája a Kárpát-medencében

The strata of the Lower Entrance and the Hall were researched in 1915 and 1917. Thick of the 17 layers was about 2-3 meters. The lower six of them formed deposits in the Pleistocene. Gyula Éhik defined the faunal remain of the second, the third and the fifth layers. The No. 2 layer (yellow clay with limestone debris) served remain of Ursus spelaeus, Cam's lupus, Hyaena crocuta spelaea, Castor fiber, Cervus elaphus, Alces machlis, Megaceros giganteus, Caprella rupicapra. The No. 3 layer (limestone breccia) contained remain of Alope.x vulpes and Alces machlis. The excavators found several coherent remain of the skeleton of a Megaceros giganteus in the No. 5 layer (yellow clay). (Kadic, 1916a) The Palaeolithic knapped stones (700 pieces) also were dug out from the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 layers. The researchers and archaeologists of the twentieth century defined the assemblage as to be Aurignacian or Solutréan or Chattelperonian or Cave Gravettian. In 2000, the Department of Prehistory and Ancient History of the University of Miskolc asked AMS measuring from the Beta Analytic Laboratory, Miami, USA. The data were 35410±660 BP and 35630±630 BP to the second layer. These ones were measured on a cave bear tooth and a cave bear bone (MAPI V. 14610.1-2.; V. 14613), which had been found in 1915. (Ringer et al, 2006) In 2005 and 2006, Péter Szolyák directed excavations in B2 part of the Hall. He and his colleagues researched 15 square metres area. They found undisturbed and average 30 cm thick Pleistocene deposit in the No. 2 and 5 squares, which was served remain of vertebrate fauna and five knapped stones. This deposit corresponds to the fifth layer of Kadic (Fig. I) (Ringer et al, 2006). 2. The Pleistocene Vertebrate Fauna of the Herman Ottó Cave (László Kordos) Ottokár Kadic excavated remain of 26 mammalian taxons overall. This number is based on the older (Éhik. 1916) and the modern taxonomy. Only four species (Canis lupus, cf. Alopex lagopus, Ursus spelaeus, Rupicapra rupicapra) were represented in both the layers of the Upper Entrance and the layers of the Lower Entrance and the Hall. (Table 1.) The mammalian fauna is in the layers of the Upper Entrance and the Lower Entrance and the Hall in small number. The diversity of species is low in all three of places. The different between the species lists is seeming. The causes of these facts arc probably in the different techniques of collecting and the different taphonomical processes. We think that the Pleistocene layers of the Herman Ottó Cave and the Herman Ottó Rock-Shelter are contemporaneous and accumulated in the same places but more times. We detected 21 mammalian taxons in the assemblage, which had been collected in 20052006. (Table 2.) 12 taxons are the same in both the cave and the rock-shelter. (Table J.) The total number of the taxons is 33. These data show that both of the fauna lived in an ecosystem with cold and temperate climate in the Upper Pleistocene. In 2006, we excavated 5 levels in the No. 2 and 5 squares. The levels were 10 cm thick. We found that the series of Arvicolida species were Microtus arvalis>Microtus gregalis-Myodes glareolus>Microtus oeconomus in the upper levels (2/II-III and 5/I-III). The series were Microtus gregalis>Microtus arvalis> Microtus oeconomus in the lower levels (2/IV-V and 5/IV-V). The Lagurus lagurus was detectable only in the 5/IV level. It seems that the fauna of the older levels is rather continental and the fauna of the younger levels is more temperate. 3. The connections among the faunal remain of the Herman Ottó Cave, the Szeleta Cave and the Istállós-kö Cave (László Kordos) We analysed the connections among faunal remain of the Istállós-kö Cave, the Szeleta Cave and the Herman Ottó Cave. (Herman Ottó Cave: Éhik, 1916; Kordos, 2006, 2007; Szeleta Cave: Kadic. 1916b; Kordos, 2000, 2002; Istállős-kö Cave: Jánossy, 1955; Vörös, 1984; Kordos, 2001, 2004) The faunal remain of the caves derived from the Upper Pleistocene between about 40000 and 20000 BP. The collared lemming (Dicrostonyx) is an important indicator, because they lived in the Carpathian Basin before and after this era.