Folia archeologica 36.

FOLIA ARCHAEOLOGICA XXXVI. 1985. BUDAPEST 7 JEWELRY, MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND EXOTIC OBJECTS FROM THE HUNGARIAN PALEOLITHIC VIOLA T. DOBOSI During several decades of excavations Paleolithic sites in Hungary have yielded a large number of objects which for certain reasons stand out from the material common and usual in archeological assemblages. These objects, as with many of the findings of Hungarian Paleolithic research, are hardly known in the foreign literature. This is because they were published long ago in periodicals not easily available, neither have they been emphasized sufficiently in newer publications. Though neither the quantity nor the quality of these objects attain the level of the artistic works found on W-European or Ukrainian sites, by enumerating them in this paper I should like to draw attention to these beautiful and unusual objects. It is possible to classify these artifacts from several view-points. The method used here will be to discuss the objects together with their sites in chronological order, regardless of the individual object functions. TATA-PORHANYÓBÁNYA (Porhanyó-quarry) Churinga (Fig. 1.) Inv. № Pb 59/1. Its dimensions: 107—54—9 mms. This find is one of the most exotic objects found in the Hungarian Paleolithic, if only because its chronological dating is well-established. The object is a carefully manufactured, polished piece of lamina, in some places rubbed with red paint, split off from a mammoth-tooth. It came to light from the "A" profile of the Middle Paleolithic site of Tata.

1 Mammoth was the main game hunted by the inhabitants of this site. By analogy with certain objects from later periods identified as churingas, Vértes considered that this object also played some part in primitive cults/magic. Polishing of bones was not unknown in other contemporary localities. 1 Vértes, L. et al., Tata, cine mittelpaläolithische Travertin-siedlung in Ungarn. (Budapest 1964) 139. Taf. 6.