Alena Sefcakova | Slovak National Museum (original) (raw)
Papers by Alena Sefcakova
Zborník Slovenského národného múzea CXVIII, Archeológia 34 , 2024
The Gravettian figurine of a woman from Moravany nad Váhom – Podkovica (district Piešťany) is a r... more The Gravettian figurine of a woman from Moravany nad Váhom – Podkovica (district Piešťany) is a rare artistic expression of a person from the Upper Palaeolithic not only in Slovakia but also in Europe and the world. Archaeologist Juraj Bárta played a significant role in its rediscovery and return to Slovakia. Although farmer Štefan Hulman-Petrech found the Venus before 1930, its existence remained unknown in former Czechoslovakia until 1958. Before World War II, and also during it, German archaeologist Lothar Friedrich Zotz participated in archaeological research in Moravany nad Váhom. He did not discover the famous Moravany Venus, but it came into his hands through the factory owner Bernhard Germann. Additionally, in 1943 L. Zotz found another sculpture at the nearby site
of Moravany nad Váhom – Lopata, which could also be a statue of a woman. The circumstances of the find were never published. It is interesting not only to remember but also to explain the stories of the Venus from Podkovica and the statuette from Lopata.
Solving Stone Age puzzles: From artefacts and sites towards archaeological interpretations,The Dolní Věstonice Studies Vol. 26, 2024
Gravettian female figurine-anthropogenically modified eolith from Trenčianske Bohuslavice in Slov... more Gravettian female figurine-anthropogenically modified eolith from Trenčianske Bohuslavice in Slovakia 14 Zdeněk Farkaš Anthropomorphic Statuette of the Lengyel culture from Dlhá 15 Yuri E. Demidenko, Béla Rácz Lithic raw material sources and their exploitations during the Paleolithic in Transcarpathia (Ukraine): A newly proposed approach analysis 16 Katalin T. Biró The fly in the soup-problems in provenancing long distance items 17 Martin Sabol, Csaba Tóth, Martin Vlačiky Late Pleistocene mammal fauna from the travertine quarry in Santovka-Malinovec (Southern Slovakia) 18 Miriam Nývltová Fišáková Paleoecology and the migration of animals from Gravettian sites in the Middle Danube 19 Zdeňka Nerudová What do some findings of fauna indicate: Notes on the survival of mammoths and woolly rhinos at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum 20 Adrián Nemergut, Martin Novák "…instead of conclusion". Commemoration of the Ľubomíra Kaminská life anniversary Bibliography of Ľ. Kaminská
Zborník slovenského národného múzea CXVI, Archeológia 32 , 2022
In 2017, in Závod (district of Malacky) during forestry works a destroyed Germanic burial ground ... more In 2017, in Závod (district of Malacky) during forestry works a destroyed Germanic burial ground dated to the Roman period was found. On the basis of topographical data and composition of finds, it is possible, to identify this burial ground with that mentioned by E. Beninger. The numerous imports from Roman provinces, from areas north of the Carpathian mountains and Elbe area region, show intensive multiregional contacts held by the local community. There is an ongoing discussion whether this is a proof of extensive trade, cultural influence or ethnic transfers. e burial ground dates back to a period comprised between the last third of the 1st century and the 4th century.
Zborník slovenského národného múzea CXVI, Archeológia 32, 2022
A wall charcoal sign from Iron Age in the Číkova diera cave, in the Slovak Karst area. Phenomena ... more A wall charcoal sign from Iron Age in the Číkova diera cave, in the Slovak Karst area. Phenomena like charcoal abrasion marks from torches, simple drawings or signs on the walls of Slovak caves were noticed already at the beginning of the 20th century; and, of course, archaeologists and other researchers have paid attention to them even later. In previous years, the walls of several caves were studied, notably in the Slovak Karst area. In certain cases, they have found charcoal traces and – amongst them – one with the shape of a simple sign even in the Číkova diera cave. Despite the very subtle charcoal layer, it has been possible to date the drawing through a special method focused on extremely small samples in the ANSTO laboratory in Australia (the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation). The result of dating brings us back to Iron Age – or more specifically to the Early La Tène Period (according to calibration median), by confirming that the cave was back then visited by humans, despite the fact that no archaeological finds were discovered.
Acta Rer. Natur. Mus. Nat. Slov., 2021
Prehistoric charcoal drawings in the Silická Ľadnica Cave (Slovakia, Central Europe). Silická Ľad... more Prehistoric charcoal drawings in the Silická Ľadnica Cave (Slovakia, Central Europe). Silická Ľadnica Cave (Szilicei jegesbarlang, cadastral territory Silica, district Rožňava, 495 m a.s.l., length 2300m, depth 117m, fluviokarst-corrosive-collapsed, ice filling) is located on the Silická plain 2km west of the Silica village. Silická Ľadnica represents the lowest-situated classic ice cave above 50 degrees north latitude of the mild climate zone. In 1982, its territory was declared a National Natural Monument and since 1995 it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Archaeological finds from the cave come from the Paleolithic (uncertain), Neolithic, Bronze, Hallstatt, La Tène periods and even from the Middle Ages. The first exploratory archaeological research was carried out in 1932-1933 by J. Böhm of the Czechoslovak State Archaeological Institute in Prague. He made two probes and managed to discover thick cultural layers from different periods, such as the Neolithic (Bükk culture) ceramics and other artefacts. He highlighted the ancient charcoal lines from pine tree torches in the back section of the cave and traces of prehistoric tools in the clay. At present, the speleologist J. Stankovič reminded again the traces of black lines on the Silická Ľadnica cave walls from which six samples were taken in 2009 and 2012. Dating was successful only in two of them-No. 5(2) and 6(1). Sample 5(2) was taken from the carbon lines which look like an anterior part of an animal. According to the dating, the drawing comes from the transition period Late Bronze Age/Halstatt. Sample 6(1) was taken a few meters to the left from Sample 5(2) and comes from a carbon sketch found on the giant boulder which blocks the entrance to the area behind the Dome. The sketch looks like a simple human figure and according to the dating is older and dates back to the Bronze Age. The dating of charcoal drawings/signs in Silická Ľadnica points to the use of this method of communication in our territory in the prehistoric and protohistoric periods. Along with this, it complements and clarifies the archaeological information on the use of the cave, especially at the interface of the Middle and Early Bronze Ages, and the Late Bronze Age and Hallstatt period. Both samples come from the cave wall in the back part of the Archaeological Dome. Inside this area, a passage leads deeper to the Silica-Gombasec cave system. Maybe that´s why there are ancient signs. Drawing 6(1) could be an ancient designation of a clay mining site.
Quaternary International, 2021
In Central Europe, only a few caves with ancient drawings on the walls are known. During the past... more In Central Europe, only a few caves with ancient drawings on the walls are known. During the past years, simple lines and sketches made of charcoal or smearing traces from torches are found mainly in less accessible locations in some caves of the Slovak Karst. Previous attempts to date these findings were unsuccessful since the painted layers were too thin to allow sampling and enable routine AMS dating. Now the application of the small mass radiocarbon accelerator mass-spectrometry (AMS) technique developed at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) made possible successful 14C determinations for a set of cave drawings and markings from the Slovak Karst. This research confirmed the prehistoric/protohistoric nature of the drawings/sketches in Cikova ˇ Diera, Silicka Ladnica, Ardovska and Domica Caves. Moreover, this research widens the scope for prehistoric rock art dating, one of the major constrains in rock art studies.
Studia Archaeologica Slovaca Mediaevealia , 1999
ABSTRACT
Zborník Slovenského Národného Múzea CXIV, Archeológia 30, 2020
In Most pri Bratislave (Senec district) in south-western Slovakia, an early medieval settlement w... more In Most pri Bratislave (Senec district) in south-western Slovakia, an early medieval settlement with Slav sites was discovered. Among other items, a small collection of animal osteological remains also originates from here. The finds, most likely remains of food, were analysed and evaluated in their overall context. Seven types of animals were identified, of which the greatest share belong to cattle (cows), following by sheep/goats and swine. One-off fragments belong to a horse, dog,
deer and mussel. The greatest number of remains come from what is probably cult site 14, where a significant part is made up of fragments of the skull of an ox.
Bratislava. Zborník Múzea mesta Bratislavy, 2019
Thanks to the aerial survey, the site “Pri vodárni” was found as early as 1998 and verified by th... more Thanks to the aerial survey, the site “Pri vodárni” was found as early as 1998 and verified by the traditional research. Foundations of building were visible, the additional research attributed them to settlement buildings of the Roman period. The original place name “Tehelný hon” featuring on the old maps was adopted by new construction of a residential quarter in 2010 — 2018. Progressive research helped to establish that it used to be a polycultural locality comprising three periods of the Bronze Age, 2nd — 4th centuries of the Roman period, Early Middle Ages and modern times. The paper was written due to the find of the 5th tomb in this site from the Roman period. The tomb was analysed in relation to the building of a family house on Ľudmila Kraskovská Street. It was 200 cm long and 54 — 64 cm wide and located 50cm under the surface. The buried person was laid into a brick tomb made of tegulae, Roman roofing material. The pieces above the upper part of the chest were missing, the tomb was robbed. The buried person was laying flat on her back with the head oriented northward and feet southward stretched with her arms folded at the right angle, the right one placed on top of the left one (Annexe 4 — tomb 5). The skeleton was not complete, the ribs were missing as well as the vertebrae, wrists, phalanges and lower parts of the feet. It is obvious that the tomb was robbed as early as the Ancient period. According to the findings of Alena Šefčáková, it was a woman that died quite young (at the age of 20 — 29 years). In direct line with her left hand, there was a simple cross, a bronze ring. Robbers either lost it or they simply were not interested in it. The object remains in the care of Milan Sedlár, MMB restorer who described the preserving activities. The most interesting findings of this research are represented by three sites with brick tombs on Tehelný hon (Annexe 5). The tombs are rather distant from each other (240 m, 200 m). The first brick tomb to be found was the one in 1998 destroyed by a modern building already in 1992 and thus the skeleton was not preserved, just tegulae. Therefore the author marked it as tomb nº 1. The group of three tombs analysed in 2010 was located in the middle of the road, today’s Ján Dekan Street. The tomb from Ľudmila Kraskovská Street, which is the aim of this paper, was uncovered as the last one. As for their age, we date these tombs to the 3rd construction period of the castellum when Gerulata saw exceptional construction activities. It is represented by a smaller almost square-like castel enclosed with a massive stone fortification wall. Its remains were uncovered in Bergl site (the premises of the Museum of the Ancient Gerulata, the wall nº 12), under the parish granary and are probably located in the cellar of the house, plot nº 31. (Annexe 10). For the sake of the dating of the castellum establishment, we have the terminus post quem — Aurelian coin from the layer related to the construction of the fortification wall in the locality nº 10. Similar reduced castellum for ala miliaria was identified by Hungarian colleagues in nearby Arrabona (Győr) where a 150 by 150 m fortress was identified. Also a technically very advanced structure of a house with hypocaustum was dated to this period — it is situated by Via Carnuntina as well, but rather closer to the castellum. In the researched period, Gerulata had three burial places — Ib, III, IV. The site on Tehelný hon (burial place 7 ?) is the 4th one used for burying dead in that period. New tombs on Tehelný hon have not been related to the burial place I yet. We are also hesitant to consider it a burial place. We do not know how many tombs are located here altogether because the research has never been ordered on the whole lot. The tombs are located very far from each other, they are dated to the 3rd — 4th century. However, they represent a very high level of burying.
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 2020
Western Europe underwent a major sociocultural and economic transformation from Late Antiquity to... more Western Europe underwent a major sociocultural and economic transformation from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. This so-called Migration Period is characterized by invasions of various western and eastern non-Romanized peoples, as well as by nomadic Huns. The Frankish state was the only Germanic state to successfully survive this period. Nevertheless, the arrival of unknown populations could have influenced the autochthonous Frankish population. Biological contacts between them are strongly reflected phenotypically in head/skull dimensions. The aim of this craniometric analysis of the Merovingian cemetery at Norroy-le-Veneur (NV), present-day France, is to contribute to an understanding of population changes during the Migration Period. The NV data were compared, using univariate statistical analysis adapted to the state of preservation of the skulls without the use of imputation techniques, with the current database of European burials. Intersexual and interpopulation differences were tested by bootstrap two-sample t test applied to winsorized measurements, indices and their z scores. Overall, NV is similar in terms of skull shape to the other Merovingian cemeteries. Males have significantly longer ultradolichocephalic skulls than dolichocephalic females and greater biauricular width. NV is significantly different to burials in present-day Hungary, its individuals having significantly longer skulls, wider faces and wider skulls in the biauricular region. The NV individuals have significantly higher values of biauricular width than people from burials in Austria and Czechia-Bohemia and lower length-width index values than individuals from burials in Moravia (skulls are longer). The different shape of the skulls from Hungarian territory in the Early Middle Ages is due to the arrival of the Huns and Near-Eastern Sarmat-Alan populations, characterized by shorter and wider skulls, in the Carpathian Basin. The results suggest that they probably did not interfere too much genotypically in western European regions and did not significantly affect the Germanic Franks.
Acta Rerum Naturalium Musei Nationalis Slovaci Bratislava, 2019
Chronologicky a utilitárne neidentifikované intencionálne zásahy na kamenných monolitoch v extrav... more Chronologicky a utilitárne neidentifikované intencionálne zásahy na kamenných monolitoch v extraviláne Bratislavy. V severovýchodnej časti Mestských lesov Bratislavy a v urbárskych lesoch severne od Rače sa nachádza niekoľko balvanov monolitného typu, na ktorých je niekoľko druhov intencionálnych zásahov: 1) záseky pravouhlého, nepravidelného alebo lineárneho typu, 2) longitudinálne priehlbiny na takmer vodorovnom povrchu kameňa, 3) úpravy povrchu kameňa do podoby ľudskej tváre. Z geomorfologického hľadiska ide o súčasti granodioritového výstupu bratislavského žulového masívu. Do polovice roku 2019 sme zistili zásahy uvedených typov na týchto lokalitách vyznačených na Obr. 1: 1) Severozápadná časť lesa označená na turistickej mape Bratislavy ako Gašparské. V severnej časti tejto lokality vyčnieva zo svahu približne trojmetrový žulový monolit, ktorý nazývame podľa jeho tvaru Ihlan. Na jeho takmer kolmej severnej stene sú vytesané tri pravouhlé priehlbiny nedosahujúce bočné okraje balvana. Obdobie ich vzniku, ani účel sa nepodarilo zistiť, za najpravdepodobnejší pokladáme ich kultový či obradný účel.
Acta Rerum Naturalium Musei Nationalis Slovaci Bratislava, 2019
Human Paleomigration. People have been colonizing new territories not only now, but their journey... more Human Paleomigration. People have been colonizing new territories not only now, but their journeys date back to the distant past. Like other animals, our species was looking for places that supported its viability, reproduction and where it felt safe. Our living conditions are mainly affected by climate. Over the long past, the climate has changed, and with it also the natural environment, which had forced people to search for new territories suitable for survival. Fossils and DNA analyses prove that our ancestors undoubtedly come from Africa, from the place with the most suitable conditions for their origin. The remaining territories were apparently inhabited in several time waves, and it is possible that some populations have also returned. The expansion of hominins into the world is a confirmation that they have been able to adapt to different types of environments. It seems that their first migration from Africa could have occurred even earlier than two million years ago and perhaps habilines or even the australopithecines had already wandered. The second, apparently greater migration of hominins, the ancestors of the Neanderthals, from Africa took place 800 to 300,000 years ago. In Europe, a group of hominins called Homo neanderthalensis, which lived about 400-40,000 years ago, was formed from the Homo heidelbergensis family. At the same time, Homo sapiens appeared quite independently in Africa. For the third time, Homo sapiens sapiens migrated from Africa more than 200,000 years ago. According to DNA analysis, it originated in Africa and is also the ancestor of all non-African ethnicities. Its origin can be derived from Homo heidelbergensis. However, it cannot be ruled out that rather than being a single migration, several waves of modern humans have continuously migrated from Africa, for variety of reasons, some of which waves may not have survived, and thus have not transferred their genes to the future generations. On the other hand, new species of man could also have originated by various new combinations of DNA. key words: Paleolithic migrations, human adaptation, new species of man, climate and evolution, Hominins Úvod Človek osídľuje nové územia nielen teraz, ale jeho cesty siahajú až do ďalekej minulosti. V súčasnosti prijímame zväčša bez námietok, že sme súčasťou živočíšnej ríše. Celkom dobre a racionálne znie charakteristika nášho vlastného druhu: človek rozumný (Homo sapiens) je biosociálna bytosť, ktorá vznikla ako produkt dlhého biologického a sociálneho vývoja-antroposociogenézy (napr. Herrmann 1983). Vlastný biologický vývoj človeka alebo evolučný proces hominidov si už teraz nevysvetľujeme ako pokračovanie rôznych vývojových stupňov od najjednoduchších k zložitejším, ale vlastne ide o tzv. sériu
Studia Archaeologica et Mediaevalia Tomus XII, 2019
Over the past ten years, a number of exploration projects took place in Slovakia including effort... more Over the past ten years, a number of exploration projects took place in Slovakia including efforts to date the drawings, markings and torch smears, mostly in the caves in the Slovak karst area and among other things in Ardovská Cave. Of those, in 2006 one attempt produced unexpectedly old Pleistocene age. The outstanding data had to be confirmed, so a number of samples taken in caves were dated recently including the repeat of the mentioned sample. In 2016 the dating of the charcoal smears on the wall confirmed the prehistoric age, although not the Pleistocene antiquity. The new and unique data originate in a much later period, but they confirm numerous phases of prehistoric settlement in the cave – Late Bronze, Halstatt, Latène and Old Roman culture.
Svet Orientu včera a dnes, 2019
People have been colonizing new territories not only now, but their journeys date back to the dis... more People have been colonizing new territories not only now, but their journeys date back to the distant past. Like other animals, our species was looking for places that supported its viability, reproduction and where it felt safe. Our living conditions are mainly affected by climate. Over the long past, the climate has changed, and with it also the natural environment, which had forced people to search for new territories suitable for survival.
Early Bronze Age burial site in Šoporňa. During the course of prior research, 14 inhumation grave... more Early Bronze Age burial site in Šoporňa. During the course of prior research, 14 inhumation graves were uncovered in Šoporňa in western Slovakia, on the left bank terrace of the river Váh. With the exception of one grave, they had been the object of secondary opening in prehistoric times and as a result, parts of clothing, offerings and the skeletal remains of the bodies were found at different degrees of violation. The result of the analyses is the classification of the artefacts placed in the graves among the bearers of Únětice culture and the interpretation of the cattle, sheep/goat and dog bones as food. The gender of the buried people was determined based on the way in which the body was laid out, by anthropological analysis and DNA analysis. In two of the buried people, DNA analysis showed first-degree kinship; the anthropological analysis ascertained a bad state of health in several individuals. The period of death of two individuals was determined by radio carbon dating to the interval between 1980 and 1860 B.C.E.
The incomplete cranium discovered at the Zlaty´kůň site in the Bohemian Karst is a rare piece of ... more The incomplete cranium discovered at the Zlaty´kůň site in the Bohemian Karst is a rare piece of skeletal evidence of human presence in Central Europe during the Late Glacial period. The relative position of cranial fragments was restored and missing parts of the cranium were virtually reconstructed using mirroring and the Thin-plate splines algorithm. The reconstruction allowed us to collect principal cranial measurements, revise a previous unfounded sex assignment and explore the specimen's morphological affinity. Visual assessment could not reliably provide a sexual diagnosis, as such methods have been developed on modern populations. Using a population-specific approach developed on cra-nial measurements collected from the literature on reliably sexed European Upper Palaeo-lithic specimens, linear discriminant analysis confirmed previous assignment to the female sex. However, caution is necessary with regard to the fact that it was assessed from the skull. The Zlaty´kůň specimen clearly falls within the range of Upper Palaeolithic cranio-metric variation. Despite the shift in cranial variation that accompanied the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the Zlaty´kůň skull exhibits a morphological affinity with the pre-LGM population. Several interpretations are proposed with regard to the complex population processes that occurred after the LGM in Europe.
Klimagewalten - Treibende Kraft der Evolution (Hrsg. Harald Meller und Thomas Puttkammer), 2017
Annales Musei Nationalis Slovaci, Zborník SNM Archeológia 27, CXI 2017, 2017
Preklad do nemeckého a anglického jazyka/translation into English and German languages: REELS, s.... more Preklad do nemeckého a anglického jazyka/translation into English and German languages: REELS, s. r. o., Stephanie Sta en a autori Publikácia je recenzovaná/publication is reviewed Gra cká úprava /Graphic design Marianna Lázničková, Erika Mészárosová Tlač/Print: Bittner print s.r.o Vydalo/Published by: Slovenské národné múzeum-Archeologické múzeum, Bratislava 2017 Náklad/Numbers of the copies: 350 kusov © Slovenské národné múzeum-Archeologické múzeum/Slovak National Museum-Archaeological Museum 2017
Zborník Slovenského národného múzea CXVIII, Archeológia 34 , 2024
The Gravettian figurine of a woman from Moravany nad Váhom – Podkovica (district Piešťany) is a r... more The Gravettian figurine of a woman from Moravany nad Váhom – Podkovica (district Piešťany) is a rare artistic expression of a person from the Upper Palaeolithic not only in Slovakia but also in Europe and the world. Archaeologist Juraj Bárta played a significant role in its rediscovery and return to Slovakia. Although farmer Štefan Hulman-Petrech found the Venus before 1930, its existence remained unknown in former Czechoslovakia until 1958. Before World War II, and also during it, German archaeologist Lothar Friedrich Zotz participated in archaeological research in Moravany nad Váhom. He did not discover the famous Moravany Venus, but it came into his hands through the factory owner Bernhard Germann. Additionally, in 1943 L. Zotz found another sculpture at the nearby site
of Moravany nad Váhom – Lopata, which could also be a statue of a woman. The circumstances of the find were never published. It is interesting not only to remember but also to explain the stories of the Venus from Podkovica and the statuette from Lopata.
Solving Stone Age puzzles: From artefacts and sites towards archaeological interpretations,The Dolní Věstonice Studies Vol. 26, 2024
Gravettian female figurine-anthropogenically modified eolith from Trenčianske Bohuslavice in Slov... more Gravettian female figurine-anthropogenically modified eolith from Trenčianske Bohuslavice in Slovakia 14 Zdeněk Farkaš Anthropomorphic Statuette of the Lengyel culture from Dlhá 15 Yuri E. Demidenko, Béla Rácz Lithic raw material sources and their exploitations during the Paleolithic in Transcarpathia (Ukraine): A newly proposed approach analysis 16 Katalin T. Biró The fly in the soup-problems in provenancing long distance items 17 Martin Sabol, Csaba Tóth, Martin Vlačiky Late Pleistocene mammal fauna from the travertine quarry in Santovka-Malinovec (Southern Slovakia) 18 Miriam Nývltová Fišáková Paleoecology and the migration of animals from Gravettian sites in the Middle Danube 19 Zdeňka Nerudová What do some findings of fauna indicate: Notes on the survival of mammoths and woolly rhinos at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum 20 Adrián Nemergut, Martin Novák "…instead of conclusion". Commemoration of the Ľubomíra Kaminská life anniversary Bibliography of Ľ. Kaminská
Zborník slovenského národného múzea CXVI, Archeológia 32 , 2022
In 2017, in Závod (district of Malacky) during forestry works a destroyed Germanic burial ground ... more In 2017, in Závod (district of Malacky) during forestry works a destroyed Germanic burial ground dated to the Roman period was found. On the basis of topographical data and composition of finds, it is possible, to identify this burial ground with that mentioned by E. Beninger. The numerous imports from Roman provinces, from areas north of the Carpathian mountains and Elbe area region, show intensive multiregional contacts held by the local community. There is an ongoing discussion whether this is a proof of extensive trade, cultural influence or ethnic transfers. e burial ground dates back to a period comprised between the last third of the 1st century and the 4th century.
Zborník slovenského národného múzea CXVI, Archeológia 32, 2022
A wall charcoal sign from Iron Age in the Číkova diera cave, in the Slovak Karst area. Phenomena ... more A wall charcoal sign from Iron Age in the Číkova diera cave, in the Slovak Karst area. Phenomena like charcoal abrasion marks from torches, simple drawings or signs on the walls of Slovak caves were noticed already at the beginning of the 20th century; and, of course, archaeologists and other researchers have paid attention to them even later. In previous years, the walls of several caves were studied, notably in the Slovak Karst area. In certain cases, they have found charcoal traces and – amongst them – one with the shape of a simple sign even in the Číkova diera cave. Despite the very subtle charcoal layer, it has been possible to date the drawing through a special method focused on extremely small samples in the ANSTO laboratory in Australia (the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation). The result of dating brings us back to Iron Age – or more specifically to the Early La Tène Period (according to calibration median), by confirming that the cave was back then visited by humans, despite the fact that no archaeological finds were discovered.
Acta Rer. Natur. Mus. Nat. Slov., 2021
Prehistoric charcoal drawings in the Silická Ľadnica Cave (Slovakia, Central Europe). Silická Ľad... more Prehistoric charcoal drawings in the Silická Ľadnica Cave (Slovakia, Central Europe). Silická Ľadnica Cave (Szilicei jegesbarlang, cadastral territory Silica, district Rožňava, 495 m a.s.l., length 2300m, depth 117m, fluviokarst-corrosive-collapsed, ice filling) is located on the Silická plain 2km west of the Silica village. Silická Ľadnica represents the lowest-situated classic ice cave above 50 degrees north latitude of the mild climate zone. In 1982, its territory was declared a National Natural Monument and since 1995 it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Archaeological finds from the cave come from the Paleolithic (uncertain), Neolithic, Bronze, Hallstatt, La Tène periods and even from the Middle Ages. The first exploratory archaeological research was carried out in 1932-1933 by J. Böhm of the Czechoslovak State Archaeological Institute in Prague. He made two probes and managed to discover thick cultural layers from different periods, such as the Neolithic (Bükk culture) ceramics and other artefacts. He highlighted the ancient charcoal lines from pine tree torches in the back section of the cave and traces of prehistoric tools in the clay. At present, the speleologist J. Stankovič reminded again the traces of black lines on the Silická Ľadnica cave walls from which six samples were taken in 2009 and 2012. Dating was successful only in two of them-No. 5(2) and 6(1). Sample 5(2) was taken from the carbon lines which look like an anterior part of an animal. According to the dating, the drawing comes from the transition period Late Bronze Age/Halstatt. Sample 6(1) was taken a few meters to the left from Sample 5(2) and comes from a carbon sketch found on the giant boulder which blocks the entrance to the area behind the Dome. The sketch looks like a simple human figure and according to the dating is older and dates back to the Bronze Age. The dating of charcoal drawings/signs in Silická Ľadnica points to the use of this method of communication in our territory in the prehistoric and protohistoric periods. Along with this, it complements and clarifies the archaeological information on the use of the cave, especially at the interface of the Middle and Early Bronze Ages, and the Late Bronze Age and Hallstatt period. Both samples come from the cave wall in the back part of the Archaeological Dome. Inside this area, a passage leads deeper to the Silica-Gombasec cave system. Maybe that´s why there are ancient signs. Drawing 6(1) could be an ancient designation of a clay mining site.
Quaternary International, 2021
In Central Europe, only a few caves with ancient drawings on the walls are known. During the past... more In Central Europe, only a few caves with ancient drawings on the walls are known. During the past years, simple lines and sketches made of charcoal or smearing traces from torches are found mainly in less accessible locations in some caves of the Slovak Karst. Previous attempts to date these findings were unsuccessful since the painted layers were too thin to allow sampling and enable routine AMS dating. Now the application of the small mass radiocarbon accelerator mass-spectrometry (AMS) technique developed at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) made possible successful 14C determinations for a set of cave drawings and markings from the Slovak Karst. This research confirmed the prehistoric/protohistoric nature of the drawings/sketches in Cikova ˇ Diera, Silicka Ladnica, Ardovska and Domica Caves. Moreover, this research widens the scope for prehistoric rock art dating, one of the major constrains in rock art studies.
Studia Archaeologica Slovaca Mediaevealia , 1999
ABSTRACT
Zborník Slovenského Národného Múzea CXIV, Archeológia 30, 2020
In Most pri Bratislave (Senec district) in south-western Slovakia, an early medieval settlement w... more In Most pri Bratislave (Senec district) in south-western Slovakia, an early medieval settlement with Slav sites was discovered. Among other items, a small collection of animal osteological remains also originates from here. The finds, most likely remains of food, were analysed and evaluated in their overall context. Seven types of animals were identified, of which the greatest share belong to cattle (cows), following by sheep/goats and swine. One-off fragments belong to a horse, dog,
deer and mussel. The greatest number of remains come from what is probably cult site 14, where a significant part is made up of fragments of the skull of an ox.
Bratislava. Zborník Múzea mesta Bratislavy, 2019
Thanks to the aerial survey, the site “Pri vodárni” was found as early as 1998 and verified by th... more Thanks to the aerial survey, the site “Pri vodárni” was found as early as 1998 and verified by the traditional research. Foundations of building were visible, the additional research attributed them to settlement buildings of the Roman period. The original place name “Tehelný hon” featuring on the old maps was adopted by new construction of a residential quarter in 2010 — 2018. Progressive research helped to establish that it used to be a polycultural locality comprising three periods of the Bronze Age, 2nd — 4th centuries of the Roman period, Early Middle Ages and modern times. The paper was written due to the find of the 5th tomb in this site from the Roman period. The tomb was analysed in relation to the building of a family house on Ľudmila Kraskovská Street. It was 200 cm long and 54 — 64 cm wide and located 50cm under the surface. The buried person was laid into a brick tomb made of tegulae, Roman roofing material. The pieces above the upper part of the chest were missing, the tomb was robbed. The buried person was laying flat on her back with the head oriented northward and feet southward stretched with her arms folded at the right angle, the right one placed on top of the left one (Annexe 4 — tomb 5). The skeleton was not complete, the ribs were missing as well as the vertebrae, wrists, phalanges and lower parts of the feet. It is obvious that the tomb was robbed as early as the Ancient period. According to the findings of Alena Šefčáková, it was a woman that died quite young (at the age of 20 — 29 years). In direct line with her left hand, there was a simple cross, a bronze ring. Robbers either lost it or they simply were not interested in it. The object remains in the care of Milan Sedlár, MMB restorer who described the preserving activities. The most interesting findings of this research are represented by three sites with brick tombs on Tehelný hon (Annexe 5). The tombs are rather distant from each other (240 m, 200 m). The first brick tomb to be found was the one in 1998 destroyed by a modern building already in 1992 and thus the skeleton was not preserved, just tegulae. Therefore the author marked it as tomb nº 1. The group of three tombs analysed in 2010 was located in the middle of the road, today’s Ján Dekan Street. The tomb from Ľudmila Kraskovská Street, which is the aim of this paper, was uncovered as the last one. As for their age, we date these tombs to the 3rd construction period of the castellum when Gerulata saw exceptional construction activities. It is represented by a smaller almost square-like castel enclosed with a massive stone fortification wall. Its remains were uncovered in Bergl site (the premises of the Museum of the Ancient Gerulata, the wall nº 12), under the parish granary and are probably located in the cellar of the house, plot nº 31. (Annexe 10). For the sake of the dating of the castellum establishment, we have the terminus post quem — Aurelian coin from the layer related to the construction of the fortification wall in the locality nº 10. Similar reduced castellum for ala miliaria was identified by Hungarian colleagues in nearby Arrabona (Győr) where a 150 by 150 m fortress was identified. Also a technically very advanced structure of a house with hypocaustum was dated to this period — it is situated by Via Carnuntina as well, but rather closer to the castellum. In the researched period, Gerulata had three burial places — Ib, III, IV. The site on Tehelný hon (burial place 7 ?) is the 4th one used for burying dead in that period. New tombs on Tehelný hon have not been related to the burial place I yet. We are also hesitant to consider it a burial place. We do not know how many tombs are located here altogether because the research has never been ordered on the whole lot. The tombs are located very far from each other, they are dated to the 3rd — 4th century. However, they represent a very high level of burying.
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 2020
Western Europe underwent a major sociocultural and economic transformation from Late Antiquity to... more Western Europe underwent a major sociocultural and economic transformation from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. This so-called Migration Period is characterized by invasions of various western and eastern non-Romanized peoples, as well as by nomadic Huns. The Frankish state was the only Germanic state to successfully survive this period. Nevertheless, the arrival of unknown populations could have influenced the autochthonous Frankish population. Biological contacts between them are strongly reflected phenotypically in head/skull dimensions. The aim of this craniometric analysis of the Merovingian cemetery at Norroy-le-Veneur (NV), present-day France, is to contribute to an understanding of population changes during the Migration Period. The NV data were compared, using univariate statistical analysis adapted to the state of preservation of the skulls without the use of imputation techniques, with the current database of European burials. Intersexual and interpopulation differences were tested by bootstrap two-sample t test applied to winsorized measurements, indices and their z scores. Overall, NV is similar in terms of skull shape to the other Merovingian cemeteries. Males have significantly longer ultradolichocephalic skulls than dolichocephalic females and greater biauricular width. NV is significantly different to burials in present-day Hungary, its individuals having significantly longer skulls, wider faces and wider skulls in the biauricular region. The NV individuals have significantly higher values of biauricular width than people from burials in Austria and Czechia-Bohemia and lower length-width index values than individuals from burials in Moravia (skulls are longer). The different shape of the skulls from Hungarian territory in the Early Middle Ages is due to the arrival of the Huns and Near-Eastern Sarmat-Alan populations, characterized by shorter and wider skulls, in the Carpathian Basin. The results suggest that they probably did not interfere too much genotypically in western European regions and did not significantly affect the Germanic Franks.
Acta Rerum Naturalium Musei Nationalis Slovaci Bratislava, 2019
Chronologicky a utilitárne neidentifikované intencionálne zásahy na kamenných monolitoch v extrav... more Chronologicky a utilitárne neidentifikované intencionálne zásahy na kamenných monolitoch v extraviláne Bratislavy. V severovýchodnej časti Mestských lesov Bratislavy a v urbárskych lesoch severne od Rače sa nachádza niekoľko balvanov monolitného typu, na ktorých je niekoľko druhov intencionálnych zásahov: 1) záseky pravouhlého, nepravidelného alebo lineárneho typu, 2) longitudinálne priehlbiny na takmer vodorovnom povrchu kameňa, 3) úpravy povrchu kameňa do podoby ľudskej tváre. Z geomorfologického hľadiska ide o súčasti granodioritového výstupu bratislavského žulového masívu. Do polovice roku 2019 sme zistili zásahy uvedených typov na týchto lokalitách vyznačených na Obr. 1: 1) Severozápadná časť lesa označená na turistickej mape Bratislavy ako Gašparské. V severnej časti tejto lokality vyčnieva zo svahu približne trojmetrový žulový monolit, ktorý nazývame podľa jeho tvaru Ihlan. Na jeho takmer kolmej severnej stene sú vytesané tri pravouhlé priehlbiny nedosahujúce bočné okraje balvana. Obdobie ich vzniku, ani účel sa nepodarilo zistiť, za najpravdepodobnejší pokladáme ich kultový či obradný účel.
Acta Rerum Naturalium Musei Nationalis Slovaci Bratislava, 2019
Human Paleomigration. People have been colonizing new territories not only now, but their journey... more Human Paleomigration. People have been colonizing new territories not only now, but their journeys date back to the distant past. Like other animals, our species was looking for places that supported its viability, reproduction and where it felt safe. Our living conditions are mainly affected by climate. Over the long past, the climate has changed, and with it also the natural environment, which had forced people to search for new territories suitable for survival. Fossils and DNA analyses prove that our ancestors undoubtedly come from Africa, from the place with the most suitable conditions for their origin. The remaining territories were apparently inhabited in several time waves, and it is possible that some populations have also returned. The expansion of hominins into the world is a confirmation that they have been able to adapt to different types of environments. It seems that their first migration from Africa could have occurred even earlier than two million years ago and perhaps habilines or even the australopithecines had already wandered. The second, apparently greater migration of hominins, the ancestors of the Neanderthals, from Africa took place 800 to 300,000 years ago. In Europe, a group of hominins called Homo neanderthalensis, which lived about 400-40,000 years ago, was formed from the Homo heidelbergensis family. At the same time, Homo sapiens appeared quite independently in Africa. For the third time, Homo sapiens sapiens migrated from Africa more than 200,000 years ago. According to DNA analysis, it originated in Africa and is also the ancestor of all non-African ethnicities. Its origin can be derived from Homo heidelbergensis. However, it cannot be ruled out that rather than being a single migration, several waves of modern humans have continuously migrated from Africa, for variety of reasons, some of which waves may not have survived, and thus have not transferred their genes to the future generations. On the other hand, new species of man could also have originated by various new combinations of DNA. key words: Paleolithic migrations, human adaptation, new species of man, climate and evolution, Hominins Úvod Človek osídľuje nové územia nielen teraz, ale jeho cesty siahajú až do ďalekej minulosti. V súčasnosti prijímame zväčša bez námietok, že sme súčasťou živočíšnej ríše. Celkom dobre a racionálne znie charakteristika nášho vlastného druhu: človek rozumný (Homo sapiens) je biosociálna bytosť, ktorá vznikla ako produkt dlhého biologického a sociálneho vývoja-antroposociogenézy (napr. Herrmann 1983). Vlastný biologický vývoj človeka alebo evolučný proces hominidov si už teraz nevysvetľujeme ako pokračovanie rôznych vývojových stupňov od najjednoduchších k zložitejším, ale vlastne ide o tzv. sériu
Studia Archaeologica et Mediaevalia Tomus XII, 2019
Over the past ten years, a number of exploration projects took place in Slovakia including effort... more Over the past ten years, a number of exploration projects took place in Slovakia including efforts to date the drawings, markings and torch smears, mostly in the caves in the Slovak karst area and among other things in Ardovská Cave. Of those, in 2006 one attempt produced unexpectedly old Pleistocene age. The outstanding data had to be confirmed, so a number of samples taken in caves were dated recently including the repeat of the mentioned sample. In 2016 the dating of the charcoal smears on the wall confirmed the prehistoric age, although not the Pleistocene antiquity. The new and unique data originate in a much later period, but they confirm numerous phases of prehistoric settlement in the cave – Late Bronze, Halstatt, Latène and Old Roman culture.
Svet Orientu včera a dnes, 2019
People have been colonizing new territories not only now, but their journeys date back to the dis... more People have been colonizing new territories not only now, but their journeys date back to the distant past. Like other animals, our species was looking for places that supported its viability, reproduction and where it felt safe. Our living conditions are mainly affected by climate. Over the long past, the climate has changed, and with it also the natural environment, which had forced people to search for new territories suitable for survival.
Early Bronze Age burial site in Šoporňa. During the course of prior research, 14 inhumation grave... more Early Bronze Age burial site in Šoporňa. During the course of prior research, 14 inhumation graves were uncovered in Šoporňa in western Slovakia, on the left bank terrace of the river Váh. With the exception of one grave, they had been the object of secondary opening in prehistoric times and as a result, parts of clothing, offerings and the skeletal remains of the bodies were found at different degrees of violation. The result of the analyses is the classification of the artefacts placed in the graves among the bearers of Únětice culture and the interpretation of the cattle, sheep/goat and dog bones as food. The gender of the buried people was determined based on the way in which the body was laid out, by anthropological analysis and DNA analysis. In two of the buried people, DNA analysis showed first-degree kinship; the anthropological analysis ascertained a bad state of health in several individuals. The period of death of two individuals was determined by radio carbon dating to the interval between 1980 and 1860 B.C.E.
The incomplete cranium discovered at the Zlaty´kůň site in the Bohemian Karst is a rare piece of ... more The incomplete cranium discovered at the Zlaty´kůň site in the Bohemian Karst is a rare piece of skeletal evidence of human presence in Central Europe during the Late Glacial period. The relative position of cranial fragments was restored and missing parts of the cranium were virtually reconstructed using mirroring and the Thin-plate splines algorithm. The reconstruction allowed us to collect principal cranial measurements, revise a previous unfounded sex assignment and explore the specimen's morphological affinity. Visual assessment could not reliably provide a sexual diagnosis, as such methods have been developed on modern populations. Using a population-specific approach developed on cra-nial measurements collected from the literature on reliably sexed European Upper Palaeo-lithic specimens, linear discriminant analysis confirmed previous assignment to the female sex. However, caution is necessary with regard to the fact that it was assessed from the skull. The Zlaty´kůň specimen clearly falls within the range of Upper Palaeolithic cranio-metric variation. Despite the shift in cranial variation that accompanied the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the Zlaty´kůň skull exhibits a morphological affinity with the pre-LGM population. Several interpretations are proposed with regard to the complex population processes that occurred after the LGM in Europe.
Klimagewalten - Treibende Kraft der Evolution (Hrsg. Harald Meller und Thomas Puttkammer), 2017
Annales Musei Nationalis Slovaci, Zborník SNM Archeológia 27, CXI 2017, 2017
Preklad do nemeckého a anglického jazyka/translation into English and German languages: REELS, s.... more Preklad do nemeckého a anglického jazyka/translation into English and German languages: REELS, s. r. o., Stephanie Sta en a autori Publikácia je recenzovaná/publication is reviewed Gra cká úprava /Graphic design Marianna Lázničková, Erika Mészárosová Tlač/Print: Bittner print s.r.o Vydalo/Published by: Slovenské národné múzeum-Archeologické múzeum, Bratislava 2017 Náklad/Numbers of the copies: 350 kusov © Slovenské národné múzeum-Archeologické múzeum/Slovak National Museum-Archaeological Museum 2017