Madaras László – Tálas László – Szabó László szerk.: Tisicum - A Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Megyei Múzeumok Évkönyve 9. (1996)

Róbert Kertész: A New Site of the Northern Hungarian Plain Mesolithic Industry in the Jászság Area (Jászberény IV) (Az észak-alföldi mezolit ipar újabb lelőhelye a Jászságban — Jászberény IV)

by that observation that on certain pieces the worked surface of the homogeneous opalite raw material is covered by a patina which appears attenuated in a wedge-like manner towards a certain direction transforming into a surface completely free of patination. This is possible only if a pre viously thickly patir.ated piece which was suitable to be used as a core was manufactured asymmetrically. Those flakes the original external surfaces of which are covered by a thicker patina layer while their inner surfaces which adjoin the cores are covered by a thinner patina layer may confirm this because in their inner part we find light brown limnoopalite. In these cases it is reasonable to suppose that the patina of the inner surfaces had been developed after the manufacture of the pieces during that time when the pieces were buried, while the external surfaces were by all means patinated to some degree in advance. This is confirmed also by the presence of those pieces which have a highly asymmetrical patination; on which original patina is many times thicker on the intact surface parts of the tools than the patina on the worked surfaces, developed after the manufacture of the pieces. Analogies In the previous chapter of the present article we have already mentioned that the lithic industry collected on the surface at the site Jászberény IV is not representative, but it is suitable — though only to a certain degree — for making typological comparisons. The analogies of the industry of Jászberény IV are found in the northern part of the Carpathian Basin and in the regions adjoining to it; in the Middle Mesolithic industries of the Western and Central European cultural zone, in the NHPM Industry, in the Tisza Valley Mesolithic, in the Beuron-Coincy and Sauveterrian cultures. From typological point of view the lithic industry of Jászberény IV belongs to the same chronological horizon as the industry found in the layers С and B2 of the site Jászberény I. The site Jászberény I is situated in the central part of the 37 Kartész et al. 1994, 43; 1994a, 28 38 Kertész 1994a, 15—18 39 Kertész 1996, 26 40 Prosek 1959 Jászság area, in the vicinity of Jászberény IV, at an about 3,5 km's distance from it southwards. The 14

C age of the layer С of Jászberény I according to samples taken from shells of Cepaea vindobonensis, a terrestrial Mollusc species which is dominant in the settlement debris of the site and from the sediment carbonate material of the embedding deposit of the Mesolithic culture layer is 8.030±250 B.P. (Deb-1666), 7.350±80 B.P. (Deb2466) and 7.154±62 B.P. (Deb-3155).

37 In the typologically diversified industry of the layers С and B2 of Jászberény I

38 tools made both on flakes and on blades are present. As for scrapers in the layers С and B2 of Jászberény I also those made on flakes are dominant. Angular burins are present at both sites, at the same time the microburin, borer and points are present only at Jászberény I. At the site Jászberény I geometric microliths belonging to several basic type categories (triangle isocéle, triangle scalene, triangle á un cőté convexe, segment de cercle, segment asymétrique) are present in the layers С and B2 while at Jászberény IV only the scalene triangle is present. Transversally and obliquely truncated blades which are present in the layers С and B2 at Jászberény I are absent at Jászberény IV, though notched and backed pieces appear at both sites. Both the raw material basis and the raw material use structure of the lithic industries at Jászberény I and Jászberény IV are identical. The raw materials used by the inhabitants of both sites are mainly those limnic siliceous materials which are found in the SW part of the Mátra Mts., being not far away from the sites. Carpathian obsidian, a long-distance import material, is subordinated; it is represented only by 1—2 pieces. The chipped stone industry of the layers С and B2 at the site Jászberény I belongs chronologically to the Middle Mesolithic, to the Boreal period.

39 The surface find material of Jászberény IV can also be connected with the lithic industry of the layer В at the site Jásztelek I. The finds of three Slovakian Mesolithic sites belong to the same chronological phase which Jászberény IV belongs to. The material excavated at the Eastern Slovakian site Barca I is a microlithic industry, the raw material of which is exclusively obsidian.

40 Like in Jászberény IV at 40