Kormos (1912) noted the followings:

Kormos (1912) noted the followings:

"Az ősember itt... jobbára folyókavicsból készítette szerszámait. E kavicsokat talán nagyobb távolságról (a Dunából?) hordta össze s ezért az anyagot megbecsülte"

. That is, the tools were made of pebbles, collected probably from a longer distance, maybe the Danube. He also noted the presence, apart from tools, that of fabrication debris found in thousands.

In the description of the individual tools of outstanding typological merit,

he listed the followings:

1 K O R M O S 1912,14.

2 K O R M O S 1912, 35-44., Items 1-50.

77

Table i.

Key to Table i:

types separated by Kormos: a: wide points; b: narrow points; c: arrow-heads; d: points of more developed [sic] types; e; massive points;/; axe;g: blades; h: end-scraper on blade; i:

high end-scraper; j : arched scraper; k: general scraper; /; microlithes.

It should be noted, that he presented, following a very modern concept, which is unfortunately not practised by most of the technical publications in our days, the selected pieces on colour prints. This is essential in the study of rock types and very useful for petroarchaeological assessment.

H e commented on the bulk composition the following:

"A kőszerszámok anyaga túlnyomó részben színes tűzkő, szarukő és jáspis, amelyet az ősember részben a tatai völgy (Altalér) kavicsaiból, részint pedig a Kálvária-hegyen és a Kegyesrend háza alatt jellépő liászmészkövek tűzköves rétegeiből gyűjtött össze, A tűzkövek legtöbb esetben chalcedonnal kitöltött radioláriákat és gyakran vékony kalcedo-nereket tartalmaznak. Alárendelt mennyiségben kvarcit, lidit, stomolit és mészkő is szere­

pelnek a kőszerszámok anyagaként...",

That is, the raw material of the tools is mainly coloured flint, hornstone and jas­

per collected from the pebbles of the Altalér, the Kálvária-hill (Tata) and under the building of the Piarist order. H e noted the presence of Radiolaria in the "flint" with chalcedony matrix. According to Kormos, quartzite, lydite, stomolite (hornfels) and limestone were also present in subordinate quantities among the stone tools, also col­

lected from pebbles. H e did not find any hammerstones.

The "jasper" of Kormos can be clearly identified as red, reddish brown radiolarite, as well as most of his "flint"—he himself stressed the presence of Radiolaria in t h e m . 78

Types flint quartzite horn-stone lydite stomolite (hornfels) jasper lime-stone silex

a

"Quartzite" and "lydite" was located by subsequent analyses as well. Limestone must be local. The questionable sorts of raw material is hornstone (is it really hornstone? per­

haps Buda hornstone, lying rather far but certainly available and known to be used by Middle Palaeolithic people of Érd,3 even claimed to be quarried in the Middle Palae­

olithic period.4 Stomolite (hornfels) needs petrographical checking; possible geologi­

cal source can be in the Velence M t s .

Végh-Viczián 1964

In the 1964 monograph by Vértes et al.,5 partly we have some petroarchaeological statements of Vertes as well as the special petrographical analysis by A n n a Végh and István Viczián.

The authors summarised the raw materials differentiated by Kormos. Analysed macroscopically the ca. 150 kg debris from the excavations of Vértes (1958-59).

Selected about 100 samples for further analysis, made altogether 18 thin sections.

They separated about 20 kinds of raw materials, mainly silex and its varieties.

There were other rocks of various genetical origin (magmatic, sedimentary and meta-morphic) identified. The terminology used by Végh and Viczián for silex included

"Feuerstein" (used for Jurassic and Cretaceous silices) and "Hornstein" (used for Trias-sic and Palaeozoic silices).

They separated two main groups among the T a t a raw materials:

a: flint and hornstone of the neighbouring region

b: other raw materials "aus dem Kieselkomplex" (meaning, from the pebble complex).

They specifically mention (classified under a,) "flint" of Jurassic age, from Tata-Kálvária-hill and other localities of the "Vértes and Gerecse"), in fact, Gerecse Mts., from Agostyán-Tűzköveshegy, Piszke and Lábatlan, from the Dogger and M a l m lay­

ers. This is, by all means, identical with radiolarite, known from current research as the most important local raw material used in Transdanubia. O n the p h o t o table (Abb. I . , I - 2 . ) they use the name "Radiolaritfeuerstein" and the photo is clearly about radiolarite. Also the recent investigations on the T a t a raw materials (see later) testify a clear d o m i n a n c e — b o t h from pebble and block of radiolarite among the raw mate­

rial of the artefacts. They also note,6 that no traces of mining could be spotted. This statement, however, changed with the discovery of numerous "flint mines" of radiolar­

ite all over Transdanubia,7 notably and specifically the one on the Tata-Kálvária hill, just over the site in the territory of the Geological Park,8 They did not dwell more on

3 Dienes In GÁBORI-CSÁNK 1968.

4 GÁBORI-CSÁNK 1989.

5 VÉRTES Et. Al. 1964.

6 V É G H - V I C Z I Á N 1964,131.

7 See Catalogue Of Flint Mines, Bácskay And Biró In LECH 1995.

8 FÜLÖP 1973.

79

"hornstone", however it would be interesting to see if they spotted any of the Triassic hornstone (of Buda hornstonef) or not.

Classified under "other raw materials", they listed limestone, sandstone, quartzpor-phyr, I think they use the word Kiesel (silex) meaning pebble, referring to Kieselkom-plexes several times, mentioning that a large part of the pieces came probably not from the Danube but the Helvetian complex (of what?) and from the drift of the Slo-vakian rivers, e, g. Vág (Vah). They also mention a possible place of origin in the foot-hill pebble complexes of the Gerecse and Vértes Mts.

The Nummulitic limestone pebble and the silicified wood encountered are sup-posed to come from a Pliocene-Helvetian (pebble ?) layer. More stone types men-tioned without hint at the place of origin is tuffite and sericitic siliceous schist, gneiss and quartzite pebbles. They claimed that the petrographical characteristics of these are fairly uniform and they are to be located in any pebble complex.

In the photographic evidence, they are presenting—apart from the radiolarite—

a fine-grained cryptocrystalline silicite as flint with a vein of chalcedony-fairly gen-eral texture for fine-grained siliceous rocks (Abb. i„ 3-4.), a silicified intermediary tuffite (Abb. 1,, 5,). Theoretically, this rock occurs closest to the site in the Viseg-rád and Pilis Mts., but can be found in the Slovakian pebble drift of some rivers, e.g., Garam (Hron). The last preparátum presented on photo is a nummulitic limestone presented on Abb, i„ 6.

The approach and treatment of the material can be considered modern in those