Bronz Cave

Bronz Cave is among the specially protected caves of Hungary. It is located in the Danube–Ipoly National Park. Interesting Holocene animal bones and Bronze Age human bones have been discovered there. From one of the deposits, a huge Bison priscus skull has been determined to be Upper Pleistocene.

Description

On the gently sloping mountainside to the east of the inner area of Nagykovácsi, in a forest, there is a natural, circular, almost vertical, slope‑aligned entrance measuring 1.7 × 2.1 m. It opens about 40 m from a road. In front of the entrance there is a large dead‑end passage. The cave is branching and multi‑level. It formed in Triassic Dachstein limestone, at the boundary of limestone and thick breccia, due to corrosion. Inside it can be seen a stalactite, a spherical column, a finger‑joint, a hieroglyph, a seed‑mirror and calcite draperies. In the passages there are formed draperies, flowstones, straw stalactites, stalactite flags, stalactite streams, stalactite encrustations, micro‑tufa and wind‑blown borsstone. Denevians and stalagmites also occur in the cave. Its horizontal extent is about 30 m. The unrestricted cave can be visited with a permit and the use of rope‑technical equipment. 25 m of rope is required for the tour, which is facilitated by fixed anchors placed in the cave.

Many Holocene animal bones and a few Bronze Age human bones were found in the fill. Homo sapiens, Bison priscus, elk, gray wolf, brown bear, mute swan and whooper swan bones emerged from it, as well as a black, probably 9th‑century pottery fragment and it is conceivable that most of the domestic animal bones also date from this period. The age of the pottery fragment was determined by archaeologists of the Hungarian National Museum, the bones were examined by Mihály Gasparik, a staff member of the Hungarian Natural History Museum. The human bones are dated to the 9th century and to around AD 1000. The wild‑animal bones are Holocene. According to István Vörös, a staff member of the Hungarian National Museum, the massive Bison priscus skull is, based on the curvature of the horns and other signs, 100 000 years old, i.e. Upper Pleistocene.

In 1994 the cave was named Bronz Cave. It received its name because of the Bronze Age human bones that were found. In the literature the cave also occurs under the names Bronz barlang (Takács, Gigler), Bronz Barlang (Takács, Gigler), Cseresznyés‑erdei‑sziklaüreg (Bertalan, Schőnviszky 1976), Cseresznyés erdei sziklaüreg (Takács, Gigler), Cseresznyéserdei sziklaüreg (Bertalan 1944) and Cseresznyéskerti‑üreg (BEAC 1991).

Research History

According to the description published in the 1944 issue of Turisták Lapja, the Cseresznyéserdei rock cavity is located on the Nagykovácsi border, in the estate forest D kilometres from Nagykovács, about 300 m east‑west from the 424 m elevation point and at an altitude of about 400 m above sea level. A 1.5 m deep rock cleft opens towards D. The narrow cave, about 6 m long, developed in Dachstein limestone and was a favored den of foxes. In the Hungarian speleological bibliography compiled by Károly Bertalan and László Schőnviszky and published in 1976, the cave name index mentions the cave in the Buda Mountains under the name Cseresznyés‑erdei‑sziklaüreg. The name index lists one publication that deals with the cave.

In the manuscript titled *Caves of Hungary*, completed in 1976, it is written that the rock cavity of Cherry Forest in Nagykovácsi, located in the Buda Hills, lies about 300 m from the 424 m MP at D towards ÉÉNy. It opens from a 1.5 m deep pit towards D and its entrance can only be seen from close up. The narrow cavity is about 6 m long. According to the elders, the whole of Nagykovácsi would fit inside. It may have become blocked. The part of the manuscript concerning the cave was written based on a literary work. In the national cave list of the book *Caves of Hungary* published in 1984, the cave in the Buda Mountains appears under the name Cherry Forest rock cavity. Associated with the list, the geographical location of the caves of the Danube‑Upland Mountains is shown on a 1:500 000 scale map, indicating the cave’s geographical position.

In 1989 Sándor Tóth drew a 1:30 000 scale site map on which he marked the location of the cave. In the same year he prepared a draft of the cave floor‑plan map and a longitudinal section map draft. The map drafts illustrate the cave at about 1:100 scale. Around 1990, for safety reasons, wire protective netting was placed on two sides around the entrance shaft. In 1991 the BEAC Cave Research Group drew the cave length‑section map draft, according to which the cave is 7 m deep. In 1992 a lower jaw of *Homo sapiens* was found in the cavity.

In November 1993 the FTSK Cave Exploration Department began removing the approximately 2 m deep cave debris. On 16 January 1994, after the department removed an 8 m thick, 15 m³ fill, it reached the upper part of the Bison Hall. The cave became 40 m long and 14 m deep. Human bones were discovered in the hall, which were examined by László Kordos. According to the examination, the bones may be from the Bronze Age. In 1993 or 1994 a wire‑rope system was built to make the work efficient and safe. In February 1994 Zsolt Zsólyomi drew the cave floor‑plan map. In March 1994 Attila Nyerges drew the cave longitudinal section map sketch, which shows the cave to be 14 m deep.

In November 1995 József Kertai, using ground‑penetrating radar and georadiesthesia, identified a continuation of the cave of about 400 m, of which he surveyed and drew the first 100 m in detail. He determined that the cave does not continue from the former endpoint, but from the side of the Bison Hall, at a depth of 16 m, heading in a 90° direction. The passage continues under two nearby boulders and turns to about 30° after roughly 80 m. Here the traversable part likely ends due to a collapse, but it continues again 2–3 m further. Very close to the Bronze Cave he found another similarly long cave, which runs about 270° in the opposite direction. In 1996 the cave exploration continued by excavation. Between 7 September and 16 September 1996, eight Homo sapiens bones, elk bones and Bison priscus bones were also discovered.