Viola T. Dobosi: Paleolithic Man in the Által-ér Valley (Tata, 1999)
The locality Által-ér is a small rivulet in KomáromEsztergom county. Following a short turn in Fejér county, it is arriving the territoiy of this county over Pusztavám and reaches the great river Danube near Almásfüzitő. This stream was chosen as the title of our booklet because the settlements of prehistoric men are more or less connected to this decisive geographical element. Its wide valley separate the territory of the county into two parts, basically different in surface morphology. Által-ér is 51 km long, with a water catchment area of 120 km 2 . Its spring is located in the Bársonyos hills: the highest point of this elevation composed of loose sediments is just over the spring of the Által-ér at 287 m a.s.l. The valley of the stream separates the flanks of the Bársonyos and the north-western ridges of the upthrust series of the Vértes Mts. The valley is directed from south-west to north-east, and the stream Által-ér reaches the Tata depression at Bánhida. From the source of the stream, the elevation of the surface decreased till this point by 130 m. At this point the stream, uniting with the Galla-stream is following the western upthursts of the Gerecse Mts. for a while, later on, after Tata, reaching the plains in a partly artificial bed, filling up the Öregtó (Old Lake) at Tata, it is running into the Danube. A most enjoyable description of the area is given by Elek Fényes in his Geographical Dictionary (1851). True, he misplaced the spring of the Által-ér into Tolna county and mixed-merged it with the Galla stream, these small mistakes, however, did not spoil the value of the mid-nineteenth century description. Elek Fényes wrote appreciative words about the forerunner settlements of the city Tatabánya, Alsó- and Felsőgalla as well as Bánhida, and research workers of local history can also find a lot of interesting data in his „circumstantial descriptions" . The formation of the Által-ér valley is an organic part of the long geological processes resulting in the formation of our present environment. On the place of the Hungarian Mid-Mountains, extending between Keszthely and Tokaj today, hundred million years ago a shallow branch of the sea used to exist. Thick layers of carbonatic rocks were sedimented on its bottom. The limestone ridges of the gradually desiccating sea were broken up by the movements of the earth crust. Part of them were lifted as mountains, other parts sank down. Along the fault-lines, sometimes masses of erupting volcanic lava were brought to the surface (Börzsöny, Mátra, Tokaj Mts.), while at other places, tepid springs rich in soluted 5
