In memoriam Jacques Tixier (1925–2018)

On 3rd April 2018, the world-famous scholar Jacques Tixier died at the age of 93. He was the last one of the three great French prehistorians who made fundamental imprints on prehistoric archaeology after World War 2

From bedrock to alluvium: Considerations on human-lithic resource interaction

Although lithic raw material provenience studies in Hungarian archaeology have started in the late 1970s, little attention has been paid to the methods prehistoric people with which acquired these raw materials for tool production. With our palaeoethnological approach, we investigate the relationship between human groups and the world surrounding them, aiming to recognize which environmental factors played a role in their lithic raw material economy and tool production. Prehistoric people weighed a range of such factors against each other when deciding about the utilization of a lithic raw material source. The occurrence-source-archaeological site (OSA) model presented in our article helps to describe the interaction between siliceous rock resources and humans. Any place where stone suitable for knapping can be found is considered to be an occurrence. If the lithic raw material from an occurrence is found in the archaeological material, we call it a source, as it was utilized by humans. All places where remains of human activity are found are usually considered archaeological sites. Siliceous rock occurrences are considered raw material sources with a long history prior to human interaction, travelling from the original bedrock to alluvial deposits, due to the geologic-geomorphologic processes of formation, transformation, and transport. The characteristics, of these occurrences, including location, determine not only the distance of transportation but also the quality and condition of the blocks available. Based on these assumptions our research has two aims: to locate lithic raw material occurrences available for prehistoric people and to recognize their decisions about extraction. For the first one, we mapped occurrences of several siliceous rocks in the region. To reconstruct lithic raw material utilization and preferences, we conducted a techno-economic analysis. We studied two areas and their characteristic lithic raw materials in northern Hungary: limnosilicite from the foothills of the Mátra mountain range (Mátraalja), and Buda hornstone or chert from the Buda Hills. The utilization of both materials is documented at archaeological sites of several prehistoric periods. Both rocks occur in the study areas at several locations that can be considered prehistoric extraction sites. According to Turq’s source area typology, allochthonous sources are not present, but primary and secondary autochthonous as well as sub-allochthonous types have been identified in both areas. However, the exploitation of primary autochthonous limnosilicites could not be demonstrated in the Mátraalja. At the moment, the exploitation of secondary autochthonous and sub-allochthonous sources can be hypothesized for all concerned prehistoric periods

Visszatekintés a Magyar Régészet folyóirat első tíz évére

Hajlamosak vagyunk antropomorfizálni, emberi léptékben szemlélni és értelmezni a világot. Ez természetes, hiszen az ember életútja a legközvetlenebbül ismert és megtapasztalt jelenség számunkra, a kézenfekvő referencia, minden bizonnyal már ősidők óta. A múltbeli civilizációk életciklusait (kialakulás–felemelkedés–virágkor–hanyatlás) is könnyebb volt az emberélet (születés–fiatalkor–felnőttkor–öregkor) analógiájában leírni, ahogyan azt régi tudományos munkákban is olvashatjuk. Sajátos módon az emberélet dinamikája – közelítőleg – az évtizedekhez igazodik, emiatt tulajdonítunk egyfajta jelentőséget a kerek születésnapoknak. Ezek pedig alkalmat teremtenek, hogy visszatekintsünk a mögöttünk hagyott évtized eredményeire, ami segíthet megfogalmazni az előttünk álló évtized feladatait is

Looking back on the first ten years of the journal Hungarian Archaeology

We tend to anthropomorphize, that is, to view and interpret the world on a human scale. This is natural since one’s path of life is their most direct experience and most obvious reference since ancient times. The life cycles of past civilizations (genesis, growth, golden age, decline) were also easier to consider analogous to human life (birth, youth, adulthood, old age), as we can read in former scientific works. Peculiarly, human dynamics are – approximately – aligned with a decadal pattern, which is why we attach a certain importance to “big 0” birthdays. And these occasions provide an opportunity to look back at the achievements of the decade we have left behind, which may help to determine the challenges of the decade ahead

The first in situ Old Stone Age assemblage from the Rába Valley, Northwestern Hungary

Due to the construction of the M86 motorway, intensive quarrying activity started at several locations of the Rába Valley in Northwestern Hungary. This undertaking provided the discovery of a new archaeological site near the village of Páli in August 2014. During the rescue excavation, a rich lithic assemblage was unearthed, suggesting a human occupation related to the Epipalaeolithic–Early Mesolithic period. It is the first in situ site preceding the Neolithic in the region.</p

Preliminary report on the excavation at Andornaktálya-Marinka in 2018

Andornaktálya-Marinka is among the several Palaeolithic archaeological sites in the region of Eger, on the foothills of the Bükk Mountains, North-Eastern Hungary. It is situated on the top of a 234 m high elevation located between the villages Andornaktálya and Ostoros. The site was discovered in 2014 by Ferenc Cserpák. Surface collections yielded by several field surveys show two kinds of archaeological material: one is signified mostly by a bifacial-like industry made of quartz porphyry (metarhyolite), while the other one is abundant in blade-like pieces made of Silesian erratic flint. The main aim of the excavation carried out in summer 2018 was to obtain stratigraphic information about the position of the industries, as well as to characterize the quaternary sediments covering the hilltop. The artefacts unearthed in the five trenches occurred in a depth of 60 to 80 cm in a brown chernozem-like layer

The knapped stone assemblage from Boldogkőváralja in the light of a new statistical evaluation

One of the most famous knapped stone assemblages, the 566 intact blades found in a large vessel at BoldogkőváraljaTekeres-patak, dated to the Bükk culture (5200–5000 BC) has been at the forefront of the research for decades. Our intention was three-fold when we decided to reevaluate this fnd. First, with the publication of the conjoining workshop material, we wanted to draw more attention to the whole assemblage and not just only to the depot. Second, the deliberate selection of the artefacts found in the jar has been suggested since the 1960s, which, in our opinion, can be tested by deep statistical analysis. Third, when Vértes applied parametric and non-parametric statistical analyses on knapped stone assemblages, he ventured into a brand new branch of archaeological investigation, not just in Hungary. Unfortunately, the pioneering attempts of Vértes were not followed for many decades. Our results suggest that the intact blades of the depot difered from each other signifcantly by their butt preparation because the pieces with dihedral butts are signifcantly wider than the others. On contrary, the length and the thickness of unbroken blades are homogenous, irrespective of preparation techniques. Concerning the diferent butt types across the whole assemblage, blades with plain butts are the most numerous in the depot and the workshops, but other, more thorough preparation occurred at a decreased rate in the workshops. At the same time, the diferent preparation types are evenly distributed in the four workshops, there are no signifcant diferences between them

Keretrendszer anomáliák detektálásához CDR adatokban

A fejlett országokban az emberek többsége rendelkezik már telefonnal. Telefonálhívást kezdeményeznek vagy fogadnak, üzenetet írnak vagy fogadnak, illetve felkapcsolódnak az interntre. Ezeket az eseményeket a telekommunikációs szolgáltatók naplózzák, illetve időbélyeggel és geográfiai hely információval látják el. Ezeket CDR-nek, azaz Call Detail Record nak nevezzük. A dolgozat keretében egy olyan program készült el, ami képes feldolgozni ezeket az adatokat és anomáliákat keresni benne

Nyomelem speciáció oldószer mentes mikroextrakciós módszerekkel = Application of solvent free microextraction methods for trace element speciation

Az összes krómtartalom meghatározására tengervízből izotóp hígításos nagyfelbontású induktiv csatolású plazma-ionizációs tömegspektrometriás módszert dolgoztunk ki, melynél a mintabevitelt GC elválasztás után közvetlenül oldottuk meg TFAs derivatizációval. A módszert továbbfejlesztve összevetettük a hatásfokokat ECD EI-MS és ICP-Ms detektálásnál.Megállapítottuk, hogy A metilhigany és etilhigany vegyületek eltérően viselkednek mikrohullámú besugárzás hatására, mely nagy mértékben befolyásolhatja a speciációs meghatározásukat. Lúgos feltárás és fenilezési rekció kidolgozásával SPME-GC-AFS módszert dolgoztunk ki halminták higanyspecieszeinek meghatározására. | For the determination of total chromium concentration in seawater an isotope dilution sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry method was developed, wher for the sample introduction a GC method after TFA derivatization was used. The efficiency of the method was compared using ECD, EI-MS and ICP-MS detection. The degradation behaviour of methylmercury and ethylmercury under microwave irradiation was invesigated, where the effect of irradiation will change the detectability of species. An SPME-GC-AFS determination of methyladet mercury compunds was developed after alkaline sample degradation and phenylation derivatization