Viola T. Dobosi: Paleolithic Man in the Által-ér Valley (Tata, 1999)

cal consequences of which are known to us: cool climate - catastrophically low yields of crops - famine - peasant resurrection movements). Depending on climate (temperature, amount of precipitation), surface morphological forms (hillside, lowland, river valley) the soil and the sediments on the surface is changing, today as well as during the Ice Age. Loess - a yellow, porous calcareous dust transported by the wind - is sedimented in the circumstances of cold and dry weather. This .yellow earth" covers large areas within Hungary, deposited at some places in several metres thickness. Often it is stained by darker spots of plant-root cavities, holes and remains of ice-age animals and in specially favourable case, traces of settlements left by prehistoric men can be also found inside the layers. The sedimentation of gravel, pebble and sand took place also in the dry periods, marking at the same time the degree of comminution as well. The rivers with diminished water discharge could no longer transport their load. In the time of mild „inter" periods, calcareous tuff was deposited in the vicinity of the springs. The vegetation living on the surface of the loess transformed the soil into humus. In the caves, during the warmer periods, limestone pebbles rounded by chemical and physical weathering were embedded into the sediment instead of the coarse angular debris split by the frost in the cold periods. The different layers accumulated over each other show well these changes. The territory of the Carpathian Basin was too far to the south to be covered permanently with ice even during the most severe periods. The limit of the permanent ice sheet was closest to the area north of the Carpathes, about the latitude of Krakow. The climate and, consequently, its vegetation and fauna were, however, essentially different from those of our days. The valleys of the rivers with essentially less water discharge than today were escorted by riparian forests. In the interior parts of the basin, there were mainly wide grassy pastures supporting great herds of large herbivores (mammoth, wild horse, auroch, reindeer). In the „inter" periods lasting also for several thousand years the climate of the Carpathian Basin was similar to that of our days, sometimes even warmer. Remains of plants and animals native to the Mediterranean regions of our time were found in the corresponding layers. Among the many „Ice Ages" in the history of our Earth, typically the last one is mentioned this way, without any further adjectives of distinctions. This period is especially important for us because this is the temporal and spatial framework, the scenery of the formation and development of Man. Following several million years of antecedents, Man reached its current level of physical development by the end of the Ice 12