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Tata-Porhanyóbánya is t h e richest Palaeolithic site in Hungary, The number of the catalogued items is 25 590.
The years of the excavations, t h e names of the excavators a n d t h e collectors and the inventory numbers a n d the item numbers are the followings:
Year of the excavations
excavator/
collector year/mark of inventory items
1909-1910 T. Kormos P b 2 6 6 - 3 9 1 1 2 6
In the years of cataloguing marked by * László Vértes determined the quantity of the flakes by weight. The detailed analysis of the many kilograms of flakes catalogued in a single
inven-tory unit according by excavation units has not yet been completed.
Two groups of finds were selected to represent t h e tools: László Vértes analysed in details and published t h e finds of t h e excavation seasons 1958 and 1959.' W i t h the adaptations of his data a n d their comparison with t h e results of the most successful year of the last excavation period (directed by V Dobosi and J. Cseh), we can draw the generally valid picture of the T a t a industry.
1 V É R T E S 1964.
6 6
Type groups Types
VERTESexcavation WS-WC DOBOSI - CSEHexca- vation 1996 Jiems total percent
h a n d axe 9 1 10 0,56
non-standard tools 88 352
flake 113 inv.
U n i t s 3822 3935
levallois flake 34 34
c o r e 6 4 17 81
Typological spectra of the two main excavation seasons
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The differentiation between standard and non-standard tools was finally determined at the analysis and typological determination of the pebble industry of the Lower Palaeolithic site of Vértesszőlős.2
The standard category contains the tools that can be fit into the conventional archaeological typology. After the flake had been removed from the raw material (nodule or core) or after the pebble had been split, a working edge was created in the same way and on the same place, which had an identical function. Thus the tools form large series and the diversions in the parameters of the objects of the same cate
gory are insignificant. It is not simply a semantic question if some of the independent tool types distinguished in the typological system by morphological traits can really significantly be differentiated, if the place, number and relationship of the working edges are important from the respect of the producer of the tools or if the only aim was t h a t the tool should be suitable for the designated function. The high proportion of non-standard tools makes this problem even more emphatic in the case of pebble cultures. The more t h a n 50 types in Vértes' list of the Lower Palaeolithic industry of Vértesszőlős probably did not actually mean so many tool types.
N o n - s t a n d a r d tools: (usually) pebbles split to regular geometric shapes without further elaboration. T h e working edge was the ad hoc working edge offered by the natural edge or point created by splitting. The proof of the pre-meditated and con
scious production is the place of the occurrence: the culture-bearing layer, the undis
turbed archaeological feature t h a t evidences long-range h u m a n settlement with all its criteria (typical tools, waste of tool production, the scattered remains of the butch
ered pray animals, and, in lucky cases, the spots of hearths with charcoal and burnt bones), and the large series of objects produced with identical methods.
DOBOSI-CSEH
excavation 1996 Item number percent
Standard tools 235 5,3i
Geometric tools 293 6,62
Blade-like flakes, cores,
pebble-fragments, debris 3898 88,07
Total
4426 1 0 0 , 0 0Excavation material from 1996
Regarding the traditional types of the standard tools we find that the extremely high proportion of the Middle Palaeolithic types as compared to the Lower and Upper Palaeolithic types unilaterally determines the cultural a n d chronological position of the site.
T h e differentiation of the group of choppers and chopping-tools among the Lower Palaeolithic tools is i m p o r t a n t because they offer a possibility to compare the
mate-2 VÉRTES 1990.
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rial with the Lower Palaeolithic finds of Vértesszőlős. These types, the proportion of pebble tools, the measurements of the artefacts and the identical/similar settle
ment patterns affiliate the two sites with a Central European cultural entity under
stood in a broad sense that encompasses wide chronological frames yet it can be de
finitely outlined.
The d e t e r m i n a n t pebble products of the pebble industries are the half a n d quarter pebbles, which were often split with geometrical exactitude, and the orange-slice and bread-slice shaped flakes coming from further segmentation (Fig. i, 4 - 9 ) . These last two groups are functionally identical with the blades (or flake blanks). They are the blanks of tools, or adhoc tools where the natural surface of cleavage facing the corti
cal back provided the working edge. More than half of the tools preserved pebble cor
tex in the T a t a material on a larger or a smaller surface.
The application of the "wechselseitege gleichgerichtete Kantenbearbeitung" on a few tools led to the differentiation of the "hand-axe" type (Fig, 2,1.), which is contra
dictory in itself in the case of objects measuring 30-40 mm, even t h o u g h they appear to be perfect hand-axes in a miniature form.
The proportion of scrapers is especially high (74%) in the middle palaeolithic mate
rial. They were made with reduction technique as well as on blanks (Fig. 3.),
The working edge could be simple: the shape was straight, convex, concave or lobed.
Tools on which a notch created with a single blow are grouped among the scrapers.
They could be used for the smoothing of cylindrical objects having the same radius as the arch of the notch.
At double scrapers the convergent working edges can meet at 90 or more degrees (angular) or at an acute angle. T h e difference between points and pointed scrapers is subjective. Beside tools having straight edges r u n n i n g symmetrically at an acute angle to a narrowing point and having a very flat lateral retouching, most of the tools of this group are asymmetrical along the longitudinal axis and have a short a n d wide
ning proximal end. Although we often cannot tell what practical purpose the scra
pers in the length group between 30 and 4 0 m m could serve (however perfect they appear to be), they were even less suitable for the function of a weapon or a projectile point despite the morphological perfection.
László Vértes called the bifacially elaborated scrapers on foliate, fine flat flakes scraper-knives.
From the mathematical-statistic analysis of the metric data of the type Vértes arrived to the conclusion that the differentiation was justified and its function was different from t h a t of the classical scrapers.
Series containing a couple of items can be differentiated among the scrapers, which are very diverse in shapes and execution. These series show a nearly perfect m o r p h o logical matching with the types n a m e d after classical sites. The convergence in this case can only be morphological a n d / o r functional. The communities that produced a given type or tool shape according to their own needs lived in drastically different environments a n d in significant distances from each other b o t h in a chronological and in a topographic sense. Neither lineage nor kinship ties can be supposed between them.
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