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

the last hundred thousand years of the Ice Age. Apart from the sporadic finds which are not adequate for cultural classification, the cave was inhabited for considerable time in the following three periods: - The first inhabitants used to live here by the end of the mild period preceding the last glaciation (Riss-Würm interglacial period). These Neanderthal men used quartzite pebbles for the production of their tools. They were not typical cave-dwellers in this region. They collected raw material for their tools in the drift of river valley and often settled in travertine basins (Tata) or shallow valleys (Érd). The scanty amount of finds compared to the thickness of Middle Palaeolithic period sediments here, in the Szelim-cave also indicate a short, transitional use of the cave. Part of the animal bones found in the cave also belonged to species favouring the plains and probably got into the cave as prey. - The next culture in the Szelim-cave is still belonging to the Middle Palaeolithic period, representing the heritage of the „leaf-point people". Their traces are typically found in caves opening the margin of mid-mountains (like Gerecse), facing the plains. So far no open-air settlement of this population is known, though in the opinion of the excellent student of this culture, Vera Gábori-Csánk the deficient tool kit, the reworked, refreshed tools indicate a transitional winter camp. In their booty we find a higher ratio of mid-mountain species though due to the „liberal" excavation technique, traces of hunting specialisation cannot be proved in the case of the Szelim-cave. The excellent material for their stone tools was also obtained from the mid-mountain environment. The two cultures coming from the of the old layers of Szelim cave (with pebble tools and with leaf-shaped tools, respectively) belong culturally to the same level of development, i.e., the Middle Palaeolithic but both of them have different roots, predecessors, successors and traditions. In this early phase of history, „the same level of development" does not necessary imply that they are really contemporary cultures. The terms „coeval" of Jiving together" can be understood in a geological perspective. Archaeological sites are described as „contemporary" if they were deposited in similar climatic conditions, found with similar scientific evidence like the two Middle Palaeolithic industries of the Szelim-cave, whereas it is clear that between the two groups following each other in the layer sequence of the cave several dozens of generations could well have passed. Finally, the youngest Late Pleistocene layer yielded a few stone blades and a pierced tooth the direct analogies of which are known from the settlements of Upper Palaeolithic rein-deer hunters living along the terraces of the river. On the basis of phenomena observed at other localities we can think that the cave could serve as a furdeposit and hide-processing site of the Upper 46