Globalisation of Stone Tools and Beginnings of Mechanical Processing of Polymers

Based on research on influence of rubber and plastics on globalization, an interesting question arose: can we define the first globalization way of material culture? Manufacturing of first stone tools can be seen at the site of Gona, Ethiopia (dated to 2,6 million years ago), followed by several sites including the evidence from West Turkana in Kenya (2,74 - 1.94 million years ago), Olduvai in Tanzania and Sterkfontain in South Africa (2 - 1,6 million years ago). The products found at the sites were simple stone choppers, chopping tools and flakes. We used synthesiological approach and combined the knowledge from archaeology, production technology and the field of polymers in order to approach the interesting question relating to the aforementioned finds: for which purpose these tools were used? Firstly, the manufactured stone tools were used for procedures such as breaking of the natural polymers: e.g. crushing of the larger bones in order to obtain the marrow, and for butchering of animals.globalisation, Stone tools Road, mechanical processing, natural polymers

Az Istállós-kői-barlang ásatásának folytatása és a Bükki Aurignaci kérdése = Continuation of Excavating Istállós-kő Cave and Problem of Bükk Aurignacian

A T046892 OTKA pályázat kutatási programja keretében 2004-2005-ben sikerült tovább folytatni az Istállós-kői-barlang, 2005-2006-ban pedig a Herman Otto-barlang revíziós ásatását elvégezni. A program keretében lehetőség nyílt a teljes Bükki-Aurignacien kultúra techno-tipológiai és komplex rétegtani-őskörnyezettani, kronológiai és paleoetnológiai feldolgozására. Szerencsés módon William Davies (University of Southampton) és Marcel Otte (Universite de Liege) C14 programjával együttműködve, több új radiometrikus kormeghatározást elvégezni a Bükki-Aurignacien kultúrával kapcsolatban. Így sor került a különleges jelentőségű Miskolc-Tapolcai-kőfülke Aurignacien koponyaleletének C14 kormeghatározására is. Az eredményeket több konferencián és publikációban mutattuk be. | The number T46892 research program funded by the OTKA, included further excavations and revisions of two main sites: the Istallós-kő (2004-2005) and the Otto Herman Cave (2005-2006). The detailed research program on the Aurignacien Culture in the Bükk Mountains, involved processing all the available data; such as the techno-tipological and the complex stratigraphical-paleoenvironmental, the chronological and the paleoethnological. Working closely with other research programs led by William Davies (University of Southampton) and Marcel Otte (Universite de Liege) we were able to perform many new C14 radiometric dating. Among others, the extremely significant one was done on the occipital bone found in Miskolc-Tapolca's Rockshelter. We have presented the results and conclusions in many conferences and in publications

Hunter-gatherers across the great Adriatic-Po region during the Last Glacial Maximum: Environmental and cultural dynamics

During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 30 to 16.5 ka ago), the Great Adriatic-Po Region (GAPR) was deeply affected by the spread of glaciers from the Alps to the southern foreland and by the dropping of the sea level to ~ -120 m amsl. The combination of these two events triggered the aggradation of the Great Po Plain (GPP), a vast flat area between the Alpine chain, the Italian Peninsula and the north-western Balkan Peninsula, physically and ecologically featured through a range of palaeogeographic and palaeoecological conditions. The low-elevated Prealpine sectors and the Alpine foothills supported more extensive forest stands, due to increased orographic rainfall. These were open boreal forests which persisted throughout the LGM, while open woodlands, steppes, semideserts and wetlands occupied the lowlands. A complex ecogradient, including both an Alpine and a continental timberline, is documented by the fossil records at the NE Alpine border, with a larch-pine forest-steppe belt, in contact with steppes and loess areas extending in the plain, on the dry extreme of the gradient. Still, edaphic wetlands occupied the waterlogged silty soils in the lowlands. Other areas, marked by active geodynamic processes, supported semideserts, i.e. grooves of xerophytic herbs and shrubs. Enhanced aridity and the development of deflation areas, prompted the accretion of loess cover at the northern and southern margins of the GPP. Fauna recorded the gradual disappearance of mammoth, woolly rhino and giant deer, together with cave bear. Gravettian and Epigravettian hunter-gatherer groups inhabited the GPP, although their presence and settlement dynamics at the margins and across this region has long been questioned. As a matter of fact, a handful of archaeological sites composes a patchy record of the peopling of the plain itself. At the northern rim of the GAPR, characterized by a well-developed karst region, several caves and rock shelters record the presence of hunters of bisons and horses at the margins of the GPP and ibexes and cave bears in some hilly landscapes. Nonetheless, evidence of contacts across this area is provided by the exploitation of chert sources and by stylistic and technical similarities in the lithic industries. The work resumes the currently available multidisciplinary data and adds new petroarchaeological evidence for reconstructing the settlement dynamics of the Gravettian - Epigravettian hunter-gatherers in this vast region up to the early Late Glacial, when the Prealpine and the Apennine foothills, along with the Dinarids, were persistently settled