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

rial were supplied for long time by vegetal, animal and mineral resources, mostly bone and wood, most of the hand-tools were made to work on these materials. Their form and cutting edge were designed to fit the working process they are used for. The cutting edge of tools and the hardness of the material elaborated is interrelated and taken into consideration even today, a basic knowledge we can justly suppose to be in possession of our ancestors as well. The form of the tools originated on the basis of millennia of experience, the cutting edge and angle is made to fit the material it is applied on. As a general rule, a harder material should be worked at with steeper edge, the soft materials with more acute angle. Apart from traditional methods of typology, I have tried to study the function of tools and the tool-planning, tool-producing activity by a new method of analysis. Palaeolithic men knew well the regularities of selecting the correct cutting edge, valid also in modern slivering technology. If we can prove this, the role of a range of hand tools can be identified on stone tools as well. The angle, position and form of the working edge will determine the specific action (engraving, boring, decorating) performed on the object under processing. We can identify the tools actually used for slivering and from the use-wear on the edge of the tool we can estimate working hours necessary for their production and force used in manufacturing them. The modern hand-operated slivering tools are typically composite pieces. From the working edge till the hafting tang they are typically made of the same material, and the edge is occasionally sharpened, hardened separately. The hafting is made of softer, more elastic material, typically, of wood, to resist blows and shocks received during slivering. fudging from the size and form of the stone tools, part of them could be tools used separately. The form of the simple (not composite) tool is practical, fitting in the grasp of the hand. Firm grasping is secured by convenient retouch, to transfer the force of the working man with the smallest possible loss. Another part of the tools, especially small ones used - judging from the angle of the cutting edge - on hard materials could only be part of composite tools as stone inlays. These inlays could be stuck to wooden handle, perhaps bone or antler hafting using resinous materials or natural protein-based glues. The pressing force resulting from slivering could be occasionally used for fixing the edge into the hafting." Some of the small objects are beautiful even according to our modern aesthetical principles. The original function cannot always be identified even by the experts: thus our judgement is not influenced by practical aspects, i.e., a beautiful object is perfectly fit for its task. Thus our only aspects are the beauty of form and the finesse of finish. Among the objects of unknown function we 57