The Upper Palaeolithic in the Dunazug Mountains (Transdanubia, Hungary): A case study from Kiskevély Cave near Csobánka

Abstract The objective of this paper is to enhance our understanding on the Upper Palaeolithic chronology and archaeological taxonomy of the Carpathian Basin based on the sites of the Dunazug Mountains (Western Hungary, Transdanubia). At the onset of the 20th century, both the cave and open-air sites of the region were attributed to the ‘Magdalenian’ corresponding to the late Pleistocene. From the 1960's the lithic assemblages of the cave sites were grouped together under the term ‘Pilisszántó culture’ which encompassed Late Glacial industries in Hungary. Following the abandonment of the term ‘Pilisszántó culture’, both the cave sites and the open-air Pilismarót site cluster were integrated into the Epigravettian phase. As a result, the sites in the Dunazug Mountains were not only considered contemporaneous but also thought to be integral components of the same hunter-gatherer annual cycle. This conclusion was drawn from the presumed similarities in the lithic industries and the observed differences in the faunal remains. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed the lithic assemblage from Kiskevély Cave near Csobánka. Our study revealed that the tool types from the cave differ from those previously published from open-air sites. The high proportion of armatures, characteristic of the Late Gravettian in Eastern Central Europe, indicates that the site was occupied by hunter-gatherers prior to the Last Glacial Maximum. These findings suggest that the area was not exclusively inhabited by Epigravettian groups, suggesting a more complex pattern of hunter-gatherer presence and landscape use in the region during the Upper Palaeolithic.