Folia archeologica 43.

MATERIAL OF THE KISKEVÊLY CAVE 33 Biostratigraphy of the Kiskevély cave The chronology of the sequence in Kiskevély cave can be reconstructed on the basis of the Paleolithic industries and of the vertebrate remains (Fig. 7.). The archeological and paleontological interpretation of the material known from the cave illustrates well the epistemological changes in the development of these two disciplines during the past seventy years. The geological age of different species and of layers were determined - according to the current state of knowledge - with the aid of Paleolithic industries and their foreign, first of all Western European, parallels (or vice versa!). It means that in the Protosolutrean - Uppermost Aurignacian and Magdalenian phases in the "middle" and "upper" phases of Pleistocene, forests had flayed only a subordinate role, they were replaced by arctic tundra and subarctic steppe. According to J. Hillebrand the paleomammal finds of the Hungarian caves correlate well with this ecological picture. The fauna of Protosolutrean stage (phase) can be characterized by reindeer, a few microfauna and hyena.

4

b The lower (I), archeologically homogeneous stage of Magdalenian contains several reindeers, a few cave bears and an arctic microfauna, while the upper (II) stage is free from cave bears.

4

7 M. Mottl had put the faunas of layers 4. and 3. of the Kiskevély cave into the "Young Pleistocene Illrd fauna development phase". The fauna of layer 4. (Protosolutrean) she classified as belonging to the Pleniglacial faunas, to the W II

—III with cool-temperate, more humid climate. According to the contemporary term layer 4. contained "characteristic glacial mammals". In this phase cave bear is the dominant animal while more extreme steppe species disappear. Arctic species still occur only sporadically. In the fauna of Magdalenian I. the strong and abrupt cold wave is well detected by the presence of arctic lemming, reindeer and steppe rodents indicating a cold continental climate. She put the fauna of layer 3. to the "Late glacial" Magdalenian I. fauna, to the W III. having a cold continental climate.

4

8 According to Gaál, I. the fauna of layers 4. and 4/3. of the 1948 INQUA excavation belongs to the "Aurignacian or more probably to the Mousterian" phase.

4

9 Table 1. contains the vertebrate fauna of the Pleistocene sequence of the cave revised in 1912 as well as the faunas which came to light in 1948 and 1957. The natural and anthropogeneous (that is game animals) faunas of the "summarized" 4-2. layers of the 1912 excavation represent a typical assemblage of species containing cave bears. The percentage occurrence of different species and of animal groups are the following: Ursus spelaeus 69 per cent, Equids 13,3 per cent, carnivores 6,2 per cent, Cervids 5,75 per cent, Lepus 3 per cent, Coelodonta 2,7 per cent, B'ovids 1,8 per cent. The natural cave bear fauna of layers 4-4/3. of the 1948 INQUA excavation which is free from archeological remains is more homogeneous as regards both its specific composition and percentage: Ursus spelaeus 85,9 percent, (!), Equids 4,4 per 4

6 Hillebrand 1913b, 157. The layer 4. of Kiskevély cave cannot be Mousterian because - in contradiction to the European localities known up to that time (mostly those in France) - paleoanthropology remains were absent from it (Hillebrand 1913b, 160). 4

7 Hillebrand 1914,121-123. 4

8 Mottl 1941, 21-24. The species "Megaloceros", "Capreolus" and "Bos" should be crossed out from the fauna of the 1912 excavation. I did not find Meies, Microtus nivalis and Ochotona sp. remains in the Paleovertebrate collection of the Hung. Geol. Inst. 4

9 Sashegyi 1948a, b.