WHAT ABOUT THE SZELETIAN LEAF POINT AS A FOSSILE DIRECTEUR?

• Authors: Mester Zsolt
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The Szeletian is widely accepted as an industry of the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in Central Europe, characterized by the production of leaf points and associated with Neanderthals. In 1953, F. Prošek has introduced the term Szeletian for describing an already existing archaeological unit in Central Europe, which had been defined relative to the Solutrean of Western Europe. He did not define the new unit but applied the fourfold model Hungarian scholars established to describe the development of the Solutrean in Hungary, based solely upon leaf point typology. Here, I argue that the “Szeletian leaf point,” which is thought to characterize this unit, is a typologically undefined tool. However, the analyses of bifacial and leaf-shaped tools from Moravian and Hungarian sites, during the last decade, revealed the existence of certain basic forms which are frequent as far as they could represent types or sub-types among “Szeletian leaf points.” For being considered as fossile directeur, these types have to have something specific by which they can be distinguished from other leaf point types, and they have to appear exclusively in the context of Szeletian assemblages. To clarify it needs further joint researches by concerned Central European scholars. Until we cannot demonstrate the existence of a specific type of leaf point linked strictly to the Szeletian, it seems to be better to not use the “Szeletian leaf point” as a typological term.

Keywords

EN

SOLUTREAN; SZELETIAN; TYPOLOGY; INDEX FOSSIL; LEAF-SHAPED TOOLS

• Publisher: Slovak Academy of Sciences, Archaeological Institute
• Journal: Študijné zvesti
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 68
• Issue: suppl. 2
• Pages: 49 - 62

Contributors

author

Mester Zsolt

• Institute of Archaeological Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University, Múzeum krt. 4/B HU – 1088 Budapest, Hungary

• https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5874-5935

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31577/szausav.2021.suppl.2.4