Garam Éva szerk.: Between East and West - History of the peoples living in hungarian lands (Guide to the Archaeological Exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum; Budapest, 2005)

HALL 1 - The Palaeolithic and the Mesolithic (400,000-6000 B.C.) (Viola T. Dobosi)

haft spread to Western Europe from the Balkans with the Aurignacian culture. The hunters warming themselves by the hearth in the Istállóskő Cave used bone tipped spears of this type. Hunting strategies based on great physical strength, personal bravery and the approach of the prey from nearby was eventually discarded for hunting with bows and arrows. The invention and use of bows made from flexible boughs made hunting easier and more efficient. The small, perfectly crafted bone and stone points were probably arrowheads (Fig. 9). The hunters of the Palaeolithic exploited their prey to the full. In addition to providing meat, animals were exploited for making clothing, tools, ornaments, cords and storage vessels. The fruits, leaves, stem and roots of edible plants too figured prominently in the diet of the cave-dwellers, being at least as important as protein-rich animal meat. The available food resources were sometimes scanty and one-sided. During warm, moist periods easily storable plants were abundantly available, while in the colder millennia the immense herds of the dry steppes ensured the daily food and the reserves for the lean winter months. The manufacture of new tools, the reparation of broken tools and implements meant a permanent pursuit for skilled craftsmen. The hammerstones, antler hammers and debitage found on settlement sites represent the surviving remains of workshops. 8. THE RICH DIVERSITY OF LITHICS USED FOR TOOL-MAKING The sources of good quality, easily workable lithic raw material used during the Palaeolithic and the Mesolithic have been securely identified. In the early phases of the Palaeolithic, the communities living in Hungary used the rocks in their immediate environment for making tools and implements. In the Middle Palaeolithic, sources lying at a few days' walking distance from campsites were also exploited. The most valuable commodities of the Upper Palaeolithic - lithics, amber and shells used for ornaments - were traded many hundreds of kilometres from their source. 9. PALAEOLITHIC SITES IN HUNGARY Of the over one hundred Palaeolithic sites known in Hungary either from professional excavations or from stray finds, the map shows the ones whose finds are displayed in the exhibition. 10. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Perforated animal bones, most typically limbbones, have been found on several Hungarian and European sites. Their exact function still eludes us because the holes on them may equally well be interpreted as gnaw marks or the injuries of trapped animals. Some of the more regular holes, however, can be regarded as man-made, suggesting that some of these finds may have been bone flutes or whistles. The Istállóskő Cave yielded a flute made from cave bear bone. The long winters passed more quickly and pleasantly, stories of hunting adventures could be recounted more vividly, and rituals were more awe-inspiring if accompanied by music. 11. JEWELLERY A number of finds from Upper Palaeolithic sites allow a glimpse into the captivating art and rich spiritual life of Upper Palaeolithic hunters. Groups of the peoples who had made the buxom Venus statuettes also settled in the Carpathian Basin, and it is therefore possible that statuettes of this type will be found in Hungary too. The function of the polished stone objects with serrated edges from Pilis-