CONTRIBUTION TO THE MESOLITHIC IN THE SLOVAK CARPATHIANS

• Authors: Valde-Nowak Pawel , Sojak Marian
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This report evaluates the Middle Stone Age penetration in the area of Northern Slovakia from the point of view of past research as well as in the light of results of two test excavations on the southern slope of the Tatra Mountains. Information's about the Mesolithic settlements in Slovakia are random. They are related mainly to areas of southern edge of the Carpathians in the vicinity of upper Hornad river basin and Danube river plain. In this context assumption concerning the existence of Mesolithic also in northern Slovakia, specifically at the foot of the Tatra Mountains, should be remembered. In August 2007 the small scale excavation took place on two sites, selected for testing after repeated previous surveys, situated about 2.5 km north-west from the city centre of Spisska Bela. The first one is destroyed as a result of multi-annual, deeply ploughed and drainage works. The second one produced small inventory in the stratigraphic position. Among tools trapezium and middle part of unidentified microliths should be exposed, both made of Cracow-Jurassic flint. Also the first data concerning Mesolithic settlement in the northern zone of the Tatra Mountains are remembered in the paper. They were described from Middle Beskydy Range. Some elements of Chojnice-Pienki or Janislawice culture are discussed in the text. Two excavated Slovakian sites are evidence of human residence of late Mesolithic groups in the sub-Tatra area during the Atlantic period. Attention should be paid to the immediate proximity of the described Mesolithic sites, situated not far from the village of early Neolithic Linear Pottery Culture (Linearbandkeramik) from the music note phase and Bukk culture and the Spisska Bela 'Kahlenberg' position. We can expose the lack of the oldest phase of band pottery culture in the Poprad Valley and upper Hornad basin. The mountainous territories of Western Carpathians are non questionable domain of the Mesolithic man at least from the beginning of Atlanticum. The good orientation in local beds of silica rocks - radiolarite, Mikuszowice hornstone suggests, that Mesolithic groups in this zone existed not only episodically.

Keywords

EN

CARPATHIANS; CHIPPED STONE INDUSTRIES; EXCAVATIONS; MESOLITHIC; NORTHERN SLOVAKIA; RAW MATERIALS; SETTLEMENTS

Discipline

• ARCHAEOLOGY: ARCHAEOLOGY

• Publisher: Slovak Academy of Sciences, Archaeological Institute
• Journal: Slovenská archeológia (Slovak Archaeology)
• Year: 2010
• Volume: 58
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 1-12
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Valde-Nowak Pawel

author

Sojak Marian

• Prof. dr. hab. Pawel Valde-Nowak, Jagiellonian University, Institute of Archaeology, Golebia 11, PL-31-007 Krakow, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

11SKAAAA09441