Catalog of Principal Sites
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Appendix A Catalog of Principal Sites BALCAROVA CAVE (OSTROV U MACOCHY, FIGURE 7.1, NUMBER 24) The most important Magdalenian cave site of the Suchy zleb valley (northern part ofthe Moravian karst), opens onto the valley by an imposing 5.7-m-high entrance, at the altitude of 460 m above sea level. The excavation was carried out rather carefully by Knies (1900, 1901b), who sieved the whole volume of excavated sediments to get a large number of microfauna! remains. Knies observed four accumulations of finds clustered around dark charcoal lenses, interpreted by him to be hearths. Apart from the microfauna, he recorded a large number of birds (about 12,000 bones) and a higher representation of polar fox (Musil, 1958). The composition of the other game, dominated by reindeer and hare and accompanied by cave bear, mammoth, hyena, rhinoceros, horse, aurochs, wolf, and beaver, led to the assumption of a relatively earlier Magdalenian date compared to the dates of the other caves. The lithic industry is composed of the four main groups: endscrapers, burins (and their combinations), various backed blades, and borers (Valoch, 1960c). The exceptional pointed backed blades may, together with some short endscrapers, represent a Late Paleolithic compo nent. The bone industry is represented by awls and fragments of sagaies, some of them decorated (in a zigzag-pattern with short double lines). At a depth of 0.3 m in the "diluvial clay," next to hearth 2, Knies recorded a fragment of human mandible and, by hearth 3, two human incisors. Later literature threw doubts on the Pleistocene age of these finds; it should be recalled, however, that similar conclusions were made at that time even about Mladec and Pfedmosti. The specimen is actually lost, and modern analysis is impossible. 205 206 APPENDIX A BOHUNICE-CERVENY KOPEC (BRNO, FIGURE 4.1, NUMBER 2; FIGURE 5.1, NUMBER 4) The Cerveny kopec (Red Hill) in Brno-Bohunice comprises the most complete sequence of Pleistocene fluvial sediments, loess, and paleosoils (PK I-XII) in Central Europe (Kukla, 1975; Figure 2.3). Isolated traces of human presence (possible artifacts) were found in a paleosoil several cycles earlier than the Matuyama-Brunhes boundary (preliminary mention in Svoboda et al., 1994: Figure 27), in another paleosoil related to the Matuyma-Brunhes boundary (PK X: Valoch, 1977a), and in a Middle Pleistocene paleosoil numbered PKVa (Klima, 1963a). The main occupation of this important site, however, dates to the time of the final Early Wurmian pleniglacial and the beginning interpleniglacial (Figure 9 .1). The lithic industry is representative of a specific Levallosian-leptolithic culture, named the Bohunician. 1 t 2 l ll I I 3 [[ ,. JIT[rrr I'..: h--.._ - 4 4a ~ ~~~- -_.-=>"" I f1 5 ~ r ...... ~ - 6 ====-=--===--~ .c:. "'\.. Figure 9.1. Bohunice: Upper part of the :::::>' f, I - section in the Cerveny kopec brickyard, ' showing the interpleniglacial soil com 1m plex with Bohunician layers (4-4a) and charcoal (black dots); excavations, 1985. CATALOG OF PRINCIPAL SITES 207 According to K. Valoch (1976a), the industry and the charcoals were located at the base of an interpleniglacial soil complex (layers 3, 4). As the radiocarbon dates (before 40,000 B.P.) are slightly earlier than the supposed date of the first interpleni glacial pedogenesis, this location may be due to the effect of the later pedogenesis on the loessic substrate. Later stratigraphic observations (Svoboda and Svobodova, 1985: Figure 2, Table II) unearthed a horizon of removed loessic earth with charcoals dated as late as 36,000 B.P., also predating the first soil. Pollen analysis indicates a cold tundra, with a dominance of Salix. The industry (Valoch, 1976a, 1982c) is primarily composed of Levalloisian leptolithic technologies using chert from Stranska skala (about 7 km distant). Some of the bifacialleaf-points and typical sidescrapers are made of homstones of Krumlovsky les chert and Cretaceous chert. These were available from secondary sources (river gravels) in the immediate vicinity of the site (Pfichystal, 1987), or by transport from primary sources in the Bofitov and Krumlov exploitation areas. Smaller specialized workshops (Valoch, 1974a) document that even the foreign materials were worked directly at the site. Observations of this kind and the various possibilities of their interpretation have evoked interesting discussions with M. Oliva (1981a, 1984b) on the homogeneity of these assemblages. The Levalloisian points, simple sidescrapers, notches, and denticulates are the most common types. Simple burins are more frequently found than endscrapers. The endscrapers are flat, often made on wide flakes. Thick Aurignacioid forms of en dscrapers are exceptional, as are an atypical Chatelperron-type point and a Quinson type point. An early anthropological find, in context to Pleistocene fauna, should be located in the area of Cerveny kopec Hill (Bmo I: Makowsky, 1888, 1890, 1899a,b). It is actually lost, and its Pleistocene age cannot be confirmed. BORSICE (FIGURE 6.1, NUMBER 8) This open-air site in the Moravia River valley (Skutil, l940b; Hruby, 1951) was excavated by B. Klima (1965b), who discovered an ashy cultural layer of the Gravet tian age at the base of the last loess cover, with a part of a mammoth bone accumula tion. Associated is a rich Aurignacian and Gravettian lithic industry, mostly from the surface. Similar finds continue in the adjacent district of Buchlovice. BRNO (FIGURE 6.1, NUMBER 13) Brnoll In 1891, A. Makowsky salvaged the remains of an important human burial during engineering works at Francouzska Street in Bmo (Bmo II: Makowsky, 1892; Jelinek et al., 1959; Chapter 3). The associated artifacts (a male statue of ivory, decorative objects of ivory and shells, and two pierced siltstone disks with analogies in Pavlov 208 APPENDIX A and Pfedmosti) suggest a Gravettian age, even if the site is located outside the Gravettian territory. Makowsky (1892:76) described his discovery in the following way: At a depth of 4.5 m, a red-colored loess appeared, in which there was a mammoth tusk as thick as a human arm, but so wet and fragile that it fell during separation into innumerable fragments. Below the tusk lay a completely preserved mammoth shoulder bone, and next to it a human skull, on which, unfortunately, one of the workers stepped, pressed it, damaged a part of the mandible, and destroyed a part of it. In the red-colored loess around the skull, there were numerous scattered mollusk shells (Dentalia), of which we have collected 600 pieces. Furthermore, we have found rhinoceros ribs up to l m long, which fell into pieces during the separation, and, finally, a number of small, partly broken circular objects, and an object of ivory, fragmented into several pieces, which, originally, we considered a part of a tusk, but which later appeared to be a highly interesting idol. Brno III (Zabovtesky) In 1927, K. Absolon (1929; Absolon et al., 1933) recorded another human burial from Bmo-Zabovfesky (Bmo III). He reported that "the female skeleton was deposited in the sand of the lower A-terrace during its sedimentation, covered by ochre and by Miocene silts" (Absolon et al., 1933:19). It is clear today that a modem human burial cannot be contemporary with the mentioned terrace, which is certainly earlier, and that the body must have been deposited in a sort of pit. Cultural relationships to the Gravettian are less clear than in the case of Bmo II, and are based only on analogies in the cranial morphology and the ritual (the use of a burial pit and the coverage of ocher). BYCf SKALA CAVE (HABRUVKA, FIGURE 7.1, NUMBER 16) The cave of Byci skala (the Bull Rock) is the largest cave site in the central part of the Moravian karst. It represents a fossil issue cave of the jedovnicky Brook (at 306 m above sea level), which, before reaching Byci skala, flows through an extensive system of caves from Rudice. This cave was the first Paleolithic locality investigated in Moravia. As early as in 186 7-1871, ]. Wankel (187la) made his trenches here. In subsequent years, it was studied by A. Makowsky, J. Knies. M. Kfiz, F Cupik, and R. Czizek. The research was concluded in 1936-1938 by K. Absolon. In 1983-1985, ]. Svoboda and L. Seitl investigated the Barova Cave, situated about 40 m above the entrance of Byci skala (346 m above sea level), whose lowest floors belong to the system of the same subterranean brook. The Paleolithic settlement in Byci skala is situated in the so-called southern prong of the main cave corridor. The section in this area with two Paleolithic layers, as published by K. Absolon (1945a) and other investigators, called for several interpreta tions. Whereas the upper position belongs unambiguously to the Magdalenian, the CATALOG OF PRINCIPAL SITES 209 lower one was determined to be Mousterian (Bayer, 1925), Preaurignacian (Absolon, 1945a; Valoch, 1966b), or a workshop facies of the Magdalenian (Sobczyk, 1984). With respect to the overall situation and from the technological point of view, the third interpretation appears to be the most probable (cf. the similar situation at Pekarna), even if an earlier cultural component may be admixed. In the upper Magdalenian layer, the most spectacular finds are numerous schist pebbles and hammerstones with ornamental and sometimes figural engravings (Wankel, 1882, 1884; Valoch, 1961a, 1978a; Svoboda, 1987g). Recently, Oliva (personal communication, 1995) expressed a belief in the existence of an animal drawing, possibly Magdalenian, on the wall of the southern Prong. In the Barova Cave, at the interface of the late glacial and the Holocene, three periods of forest spreading were documented, the second of which can be archaeo logically included in the Bolling (Magdalenian) and the third in the Allerod (Epi magdalenian: Seitl et al., 1986; Svobodova, 1992).