The Gravettian is the most widespread Paleolithic culture in Slovakia. The Early Gravettian (30–25/24 ka BP) does not involve any significant network of sites. It represents mainly workshop sites for ...processing of radiolarite (Nemšová, Zamarovce) or short-term cave camps (the Dzeravá skala cave near Plavecký Mikuláš, the Slaninová cave near the village of Háj). Trenčianske Bohuslavice, dated to 26–25/24 ka BP, is a rather important site. The Late Gravettian (24–20 ka BP) involves a thick network of sites in the Váh and Nitra river regions and in Eastern Slovakia, around the Zemplín Hills. The shouldered points horizon is named after its typical tool. The group of tools comprises frequent retouched blades and retouched pointed blades. Burins usually prevail over end-scrapers. The number of backed tools varies. In the Váh region, larger concentrations of settlement are documented, confirmed also by radiometric dating in the region of Moravany nad Váhom and Trenčín, in the Nitra river region and the town of Nitra, in Cejkov and Kašov in Eastern Slovakia. Smaller groups of Gravettian hunters with high mobility often founded multiple settlements. Imports of Polish raw materials in Slovak sites document the connection of the Váh and Nitra river regions with the territory of the Upper Vistula river. Inventories of individual sites are different in terms of used raw materials and tool typology. Future investigation and new analyses of lithic inventories might confirm the assumption that the Late Gravettian in Slovakia consisted of several independent facies.
The Epigravettian (20–17 ka BP) production used local raw materials: radiolarite in Western Slovakia and obsidian in Eastern Slovakia. End-scrapers on short blades and flakes prevail over burins. Aurignacoidal elements also occur and there are backed tools. The number of microbladelets with microretouch increases.
The way in which modern humans first entered Europe has been a recent focus of Upper Paleolithic research. A leading theory posits that the Danube served as a conduit for migration from Southeastern ...into Central and Western Europe. However, a challenge to this has been the scarcity of Early Upper Paleolithic sites along the Middle Danube (Carpathian) Basin. Though several sites with Early Upper Paleolithic features (Szeletian, Aurignacian) are known from surface prospections, few have been archeologically investigated in detail.
Here, our aim is to elucidate this long-standing deficiency by evaluating two unknown and three known sites from the northern Carpathian Basin in Hungary and Slovakia through a series of “keyhole” excavations. The objectives were to see if in situ stratified material still existed and to characterize the sites’ archeological assemblages and sedimentological contexts. To do this, field observations supplemented by granulometry were employed to determine if the surrounding sedimentary matrix was eolian loess and/or if it had been mixed with underlying older deposits.
The results indicate that the lithics represent Early Upper Paleolithic assemblages that experienced post-depositional mixing. However, two sites (Seňa I, Nagyréde 1) showed more nuanced site formation processes and may contain in situ artifacts warranting further exploration. These studies highlight the importance of including sedimentological research into archeological investigations, because the paucity of sites may not simply mean a lack of human occupation, but can indicate a dynamic geomorphological evolution of the Pleistocene landscape that may have erased past traces of human settlements through insufficient sedimentation. The results provide new insights into the Early Upper Paleolithic settlement and the sedimentary dynamics of the Carpathian Basin ultimately leading to a greater understanding of the early modern human settlement patterns in Europe.
The poplar-shaped leaf point is a distinctive Szeletian artefact, designated a Moravany-Dlhá-type point, after the eponymous site. Several points of this type are also known from the site of ...Trenčianske Teplice near Trenčín, Slovakia. This article deals with the technological-typological evaluation of the lithic industry from Trenčianske Teplice based on Bárta's collections and our own investigation in 2009. Artefacts mostly made of radiolarite include Middle and Upper Palaeolithic tools. Neither the site's stratigraphy, nor dating have contributed to solving the Szeletian's chronological position in Slovakia. Chronologically Moravany-Dlhá is identified as younger than the Moravian Szeletian, the classical/Early Szeletian from the Szeleta Cave, and probably younger than the Lower Austrian sites dated to the earliest interpleniglacial oscillations GIS 12–GIS 11. According to recent radiometric dating of the site, the Moravany-Dlhá facies followed the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption and the beginning of cold Heinrich Event 4.
An unstratified random find of a silicite arrowhead was found in the cadastre of the village of Bystré. It has a leaf-like shape with a rounded and narrowed base. The flat retouch covering the whole ...tool was made using the pressure technique. On the basis of an analogy with a similar find from fortified settlement II at Nižná Myšľa, we place it in the Otomani-Füzesabony culture from the Early/Middle Bronze Age.
The northern Carpathian Basin has important geological, paleoenvironmental, and archeological records that are key to our understanding of the first modern human occupation of Europe. However, the ...nature and timing of hominin settlements in the region during the Late Pleistocene remain poorly understood. New fieldwork at Seňa I, Slovakia, has identified the only known stratified open-air Aurignacian site in the region and assigned the assemblage to at least 33.5 ± 2.4 ka ago through infrared-stimulated luminescence dating. Additionally, new archeological and geoscientific data are presented. This paper discusses the Seňa I findings in the context of the regional archeological record and shows how they contribute to the establishment of clear time constraints for the Aurignacian in eastern central Europe.
PDF
