Folia archeologica 53.

András Markó: The Upper Palaeolithic Site at Szob

FOLIA ARCHAKOLOGICA LUI. 2007. BLDAPKSI I HE UPPER PALAEOLITHIC SI TE AT SZOB András MARKÓ The discovery of the Palaeolithic site is linked on to the name of A. János Horváth, who collected fossil bones and flakes in the loess profile next to the river Ipoly/Ipel', at the Slovakian-Hungarian border. Later, during the excavation of a La Tène age pit he found a blade and between 1937 and 1941 he worked with a series of small trenches on the site.

1 In 1936 Sándor Gallus, archaeologist of the Hungarian National Museum and in 1940 Mária Mottl, assistant of the Hungarian Royal Geological Institute carried out excavations; they sorted the small assemblage to the Magdalenian culture and period.

2 In the fifties Miklós and Vera Gábori mentioned the site in several publications

3 and in the comprehensive study of the Hungarian loess Palaeolithic they discussed the archaeological material and the sedimentological data as well.

4 In 1962 and 1964-65 M. Gábori took an excavation of several hundred square meters, however, concerning the lithic assemblage, only preliminary reports

5 were published. In the eighties and nineties the site was taken into consideration in studies of special interest.

6 In 1992 the loess wall and the archaeological site was destroyed because of traffic causes; finally the assemblage of the last excavations got into the collection of the Hungarian National Museum in 1999. CHRONOLOGY Based on the relative altitude, the terrace underlying the cultural levels can be identified with the number I I/a in the morphological system of Márton Pécsi.

7 The formation of this level was generally placed to the end of the Pleistocene, however, in the section of Szob above the fluvial sediments sandy loess and loessy sand was observed. After the scientific examinations

8 three thin humic layers could be identified, two of them equivalent of the weakly developed soil hi and Ii2 of the Hungarian loess series

9 and the short climatic oscillations of the LascauxLaugerie-Ságvár mini-interstade.

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0 1 HORVÁTII 1945, 63; DOBOSI-VÁRI 1997. - In the archives ol the Hungarian National Museum: 14. Sz. I.; 50. Sz. I.; 127. Sz. III.; 141. Sz. II!.; 166. Sz. III.; 95. I'. II.; 422. Sz. VII.; XV. 166/1997.; 44. Sz. I.; X. 1960/446.; XVIII. 386/1962.; XVI. 180/1966. - GALLUS 1937, 137-138., 77. kép 2.. 78. kép 3; Mom 1942, 3-4. 51-52. » GÁBORI 1954, 100; 1958, 32; 1964, 53-54, 1964a, 185-186; GÁBORI-PATAY-SOPRONI 1958, 14. • GÁBORI-GÁBORI 1957, 48-52, 84-86., 111-112., IV. 1., XIV. 1-5, 7-13. » GÁBORI 1963, 1965, 1966, 1969, 1970, 362. - see also: О пт 1998, 20. « DOBOSI 1985, BÍRÓ 1984; Torma (ed.) (1993) 7 PÉCSI 1959. * GÁBORI-GÁBORI 1957, 84-86. PÉCSI 1993. 11

1 GÁBORI-CSÁNK, 1978.