Placing of the second oldest red ochre mine in mainland Europe, Lovas, Hungary, to human, paleoenvironmental and paleobiogeographic context

Abstract

Although the 13.2–13.8 ky old Lovas red ochre mine, Central Transdanubia, Hungary is a very important Upper Palaeolithic archaeological site being the second oldest in mainland Europe, we have little knowledge of the conditions under which and how long the pits were cultivated and the post-mining sedimentation processes. The aim of the study was to study certain human circumstances of the mining activities, reveal the former ecological conditions which influenced the sedimentation processes and investigate how the changing climatic conditions led to the formation of the fossil macrofaunal assemblage of the archaeological site. The removal of ca. 25 m3 of pigment material from the pits was equivalent to a maximum of 8750–11042 transport occasions per person, although the pre-transport processing of the material could notably reduce the weight of the transportable pigment and the time demand. Based on the lower thermal comfort limit, mining activities could be performed predominantly in the summer months. In the relatively humid Bølling-Allerød period, the redeposition of the excavated barren material to the cavity could be rapid after the termination of the mining activity. In the Younger Dryas Stadial and the early Holocene, the recharge and covering of the former pits with sediment could be slow and it started to increase only in the mid-Holocene period. The modelling of the potential distribution range of five macrofaunal elements indicates that all the species occurred at the site in the Bølling-Allerød period in the wider environment of the Lovas red ochre mine. The reconstructed boreal forest biome in the time of cultivation of the mine can explain well the dominance of fossil elk bones found in the fossil assemblage.