ELŐZETES JELENTÉS A NAGYTEVEL-TEVEL-HEGYI KOVABÁNYA ÁSATÁSÁNAK EREDMÉNYEIRŐL
PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE EXCAVATIONS OF THE NAGYTEVEL FLINT MINE

Summary/Abstract: Nagytevel is a small village in West-Central Transdanubia close to the city of Pápa (Fig. 1). It is situated along the north-western fringes of the Bakony Mountains facing the Kisalföld (Little Hungarian Plain). To the south of the village centre we find the Tevel hill, a calcareous block mountain within the Northern Bakony. It is built up of Upper Senonian limestone with large siliceous nodules. This locality is the only source of flint in the strict sense within Hungary and probably also within the Carpathian Basin. This flint became known during the geological mapping of the area. Fortunately, the mapping geologist, Dániel Bihari had a good eye for archaeology. He collected some worked flakes from the W3 sandy sediments around the outcrop. In course of the systematic field survey of prehistoric lithic raw materials in the early 1980-ies by the Hungarian Geological Institute several surveys were made in the area, though at that time it was difficult to access because Tevel hill was a military ground for Russian troops. After 1989, the environs of Tevel hill became accessible. During the research of the exploitation areas in the Bakony Mountains we paid regular visits to the site. From 2000 onwards, the investigation of the Tevel quarry became more topical as we were excavating the Neolithic settlement at Kup, some 10 kms to the south of the flint outcrop where about half of the chipped stone artefacts were made of Tevel flint. Kup was known to have the most spectacular conical cores, made naturally of Tevel flint in Transdanubia. Results of the Kup excavations were published in a preliminary study as well as a local exhibition. The next step in the analysis of the quarry was a geodetic survey and analysis of archaeological distribution data followed by an analysis of the Bakony workshop districts.

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