Viola T. Dobosi: Paleolithic Man in the Által-ér Valley (Tata, 1999)
Apart from the cave bear and the hyena, all other mammals could get on the hearthplace of the cave-dwellers in one or two exemplars only. Such rare booty comprised primeval elephant, primeval rhinoceros and two forms of horses, a medium-size and a large size type. .. " Under the layer with Hyenas, there is a grey sandy layer of two meters thickness on the average with extremely few number of finds. Though according to the excavator, the character of the cave sediment indicates an aquatic origin of the layer, it can be hardly maintained due to the orographical position of the cave. Not even allowing that the absolute altitude of the cave is identical with some river terraces along the Danube. Under the grey sand, that is, preceding its formation, a much younger sediment was formed than the comparable terraces of the rivers. Sedimentation of this layer must have also taken some ten-thousand years. When reaching the lowermost layer complex, layer E comprising the well-known finds, we are back some 70-80 thousand years in time. The climate is still pleasant, the slopes are covered with deciduous forests. Bones of mammoth, bison and giant deer came forth from these layers - they were, in all probability, brought here as hunted booty. Again we have cave bears, part of them could die here in a natural way. The archaeological material of the layer belongs to the Middle Palaeolithic period, the heritage of another group of people with different tool-making tradition. These hunters made their coarse tools with zig-zag edge using 10-12 cm large globular quartzite pebbles. Objects functioning as arms were not observed, but the rich vegetation could serve raw material for a variety of arms and tools as well, which did not remain to us. Further settlements of these pebbleusing Neanderthals are known also from the north-eastern parts of Transdanubia, their most famous site is Érd. Summing up we can say that the Szelimcave used to serve for habitation of the prehistoric people almost continuously during Fig. 24. Fir 45
