Viola T. Dobosi: Paleolithic Man in the Által-ér Valley (Tata, 1999)

Fig. 6. Vertesszőlós, lower cultural layer: pebble tools answer the question, where did Early Man obtain the raw material necessary for their implements. In our case, pebbles of suitable size (very small, 4-5 cm large!), half of them silex, the other half, quartzite was collected from the drift of the Által-ér. They are practically composed of the frittered debris of the Transdanubian Mid-Mountain, rounded and spread by the river in the dry period during the dry periods along the foothill region. These pebbles were chopped, split to cloves or slices (like orange or bread). The cleavage edge of the pebble in itself is sharp and suitable for working but men typically further adjusted their tools in view of the function by retouching. For understanding the living environment of those times, we have a wide choice of evidence from the microscopic to the giant Ostracodes, for example are very small crust;tceans living in the water, marking the temperature, salinity and vegetation of their environment. If we can find types of Ostracodet in dominance within a certain layer that prefer shady, slow moving, tepid and salt-free water covered with vegetation, we can clearly picture to ourselves the formation of the sediment comprising the finds. Snails are less rigidly bound to certain location but they can indicate the characteristics of the environment equally well. Molluscan shells will give more information because terrestrial and water-dwelling species complete the range of information. The study of small rodents and other small mammais can make a boast of long and fruitful history of research in the Carpathian Basin. Detailed lists of species were made on the basis of samples silted from cave sediments and clefts, thus the small mammal fauna of the individual periods are known adequately. 24 <