Szeletian or not Szeletian. Bifacial industries from three open-air Middle Palaeolithic sites from the Cserhát Mountains (Northern Hungary).

Abstract

During the last 15 years, three Middle Palaeolithic open-air sites were excavated in the Cserhát Mountains (Northern Hungary), lying at the northern periphery of the Great Hungarian Plain. The context was similar at each locality: the lithics were excavated from loess-like reddish or yellowish sediment from a depth of 50 – 100 cm beneath of the recent surface level. Bifacially worked leaf-shaped points and knives associated with sidescrapers and endscrapers made on flakes were found at all sites but in different ratio. For the time being, the chronology of the assemblages is not clear enough, but the typological and technological attributes of the assemblages show few if any Upper Palaeolithic traits. In the present paper, the characteristics of the bifacially manufactured and leaf-shaped implements from the sites will be compared with an emphasis on their raw material types.