Istállóskő revisited: the osseous artefacts from the lower layer

The Istállóskő cave is one of the classical Palaeolithic sites in Hungary, generally regarded as the only important Aurignacian locality in Hungary with two discrete culture bearing layers. The lower unit, characterised by the presence of split based points played a key role in several theories on the appearance of the Upper Palaeolithic in Europe, while in the upper layer some Mladeč or Olschewa type points were found. In this paper the author reviews the antler and ivory artefacts found in the lower layer stored in the Hungarian National Museum. The reconstruction of assemblage formation was rather complicated, but the high number of fragments, the occurrence of typical macrofracture patterns and the rejuvenated implements shed light to the human behaviour. Finally a few pieces with sufficient preservation allow us to point some details to the operational chain of the osseous tool production. All these aspects of the assemblage were determined by the topographic location of the cave, lying at a large relative height by the end of a long and deep valley, determining the nature of the human occupation of this locality. This raises the question of the comparability of the assemblages with other collections