Folia archeologica 36.
20 VIOLA 'Г. DOBOSI TISZAÖRVÉNY-VARJASHÁT. By a fortunate coincidence, hardly a year after the Tószeg tusk vessel was found, in 1960, an excavator exploiting Tisza river deposits lifted out of the river a small chalice carved from the burr of an elk antler. It was made from the extremely thick spongy antler substance. Dimensions: 44 mms high, the diameter of the mouth is 70 mms. It has a cubic capacity of 50 cm 3. The object is shaped like a truncated cone {Fig. 9.). 2 1 This vessel is the stores of the Damjanich Museum at Szolnok. The Pleistocene age of the finds can be verified in several ways: — the raw material used i. e. objects made from mammoth-bones can not be expected from periods later than the Paudorf interstadial (the conditions of fossilization in our country do not make possible the manufacture of more modern objects from Ice Age mammoth-bones which is possible for example in Siberia); the occurrence of elk during the Holocene is not probable; — the formation of the Tisza river-bed at the very end of the Ice Age: During investigations made on the final Pleistocene hydrography of the Carpathian Basin, the different phases of the wanderings of the Pleistocene Tisza river-bed depending on ecologival-geological conditions have been delineated with high probability. The present bed was formed as a result of the early Holocene ground formations. At the date our finds were supposed to have been made, the Tisza might have flowed E of its present bed, between the rivers Körös and Szamos, some where in the line of the Ér-Berettyó. The bigger, right-side tributaries of the Tisza crossed the areas of the present-day Jászság and Nagykunság in straight lines. Their routes were longer than at present. 2 5 Thick Pleistocene sediments from them may be found in the above-mentioned areas. It is apparent that the Tószeg vessel could not have been for in the water for a long time since its surface is not worn or rounded. The Varjashát chalice was found in sand. Taking into account the hydrographie consequences the possible original provenance of the objects could have been a Pleistocene terrace formed by some of is the right-side tributaries (i. e. from possible Paleolithic site(s) in this terrace). These tributaries may perhaps have been the Sajó in case of the Tiszaörvény find and the Zagyva in case of the find from Tószeg. THE CSÁK VÁR ROCK-SHELTER Perforated red deer canines (Fig. 3, 3—4.) Inv. № Pb 1854—55 O. Kadic and M. Kretzoi carried out paleontological excavations in the cave. They found the pendants in a light brown Pleistocene clay at a depth of one meter below the surface. Ont the basis of their stratigraphical position and typology the finds were identified as belonging to the Aurignacian culture. Otherwise, 2 4 Vértes, J L., FA 14 (1963) 7—11. Id., Az őskőkor és az átmeneti kőkor emlékei Magyarországon. (Budapest 1965) 200. 2 5 Ihrig, D., A Kárpát-medence ősvizrajza, vízjárásának kialakulása és a magyar medence vízszabályozásának feladatai. In A magyar vízszabályozás története. (Budapest 1963) 9—19.
