Istállós-kői Cave

Istállós-kői Cave is one of the four caves in Hungary that provide a reliable and essential archaeological find complex. The other three are Diósgyőrtapolcai Cave, Pes-kő Cave and Szeleta Cave. It is one of Hungary's specially protected caves. Currently it is the country's most visited prehistoric human cave.

Description

Istállós-kői Cave opens on the side of Istállós-kő, the second highest mountain of the Bükk region at 959 metres, at an altitude of 546 metres above sea level, in the Bükk National Park, in a specially protected area, in a forest, above the Szalajka valley. A marked, serpentine tourist path leads to the entrance from near the Szalajka spring. The cave’s location and name are shown on tourist maps.

The huge, triangular entrance was formed along a geological fault line. Behind it is a single spacious chamber. It is a 57‑metre‑long inactive spring cave formed in Triassic limestone. Its horizontal extent is 46 metres. The unsealed cave is freely accessible, and no lamp is needed for viewing.

The mountain received its name from the cave. Istállós-kő is a mountain on which there is a stable, and that stable is the cave. In 1976 the cave was first mentioned in literature as Istállós-kői Cave. The cave appears in literature under the names Istállós-kő Cave (Takácsné, Eszterhás, Juhász, Kraus 1989), Istállóskő Cave (Ringer 1989), Istállóskői Cave (Dely 1970), Istállóskői cave (Bogsch 1940), Istállós-kői Prehistoric Human Cave (Regős, Ringer 2003) and Prehistoric Human Cave (Dely 1970).

Archaeological description

In a 2.5‑metre‑thick fill two Stone Age settlement levels were separated. The lower C‑14 date is about 36 000 years, the upper about 30 000 years. From the former, remains of Neanderthal man (Homo neanderthalensis) were recovered; from the latter, remains of Cro‑Magnon man (Homo sapiens).

A sterile loess layer was deposited from an archaeological point of view.

Below the loess, from a dark‑brown limestone debris layer, artifacts of the Aurignac‑II culture were recovered.

Below the limestone debris level several archaeologically sterile layers were uncovered, showing signs of washing and water flow.

In the light‑brown, fine limestone debris clay layer beneath these, archaeological finds characteristic of the Aurignac‑I culture were uncovered, including several hearths, numerous tools and weapons, charcoal and animal bone remains.

From the uppermost, yellowish, Pleistocene layer, i.e., the layer of earlier excavations, a few tools of the very young Bükk culture were recovered.

Other excavations have shown that the Bükk culture settlement was at the present site of Szilvásvárad, therefore it is assumed that the cave was not a dwelling but could have been a sacrificial site. Among the later period finds, the early Iron Age Kyjatice culture remains deserve mention. Most of the finds can be seen in Szilvásvárad, in the Orbán House.

The Aurignacian culture

The remains of one of the most significant Central European cultures of the Cro‑Magnon man, the Aurignacian culture, have been found in Hungary only on the western side of the central Bükk region, in the Istállós‑kői Cave and the Pes‑kő Cave. The discovered artifacts demonstrate two clearly distinguishable developmental phases of the Aurignacian culture. In addition to low‑quality stone tools, amulets made of bone and mammoth ivory were recovered, which rank among the world’s oldest jewelry, as well as a three‑hole bone flute. A flute made from a cave bear bone, capable of producing five tones, is unique worldwide. The lifestyle of the hunters here resembled that of the people known from the Škocjan Cave. Their most important weapons were the bone spear and the bow.

Paleontological description

In the Pleistocene, large game such as reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), cave bear (Ursus spelaeus), ancient bison (Bison priscus?), woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), cave lion (Panthera spelaea), wolf, cave hyena and ibex represented the fauna. The significance of the Istállós‑kői Cave is increased by the fact that the fauna recovered from the Pleistocene layers, comprising 66 species, is the richest among European Aurignacian excavations. From its microfauna three new mammal species and 20 new bird species were described.

Research History

Its first description, in Elek Fényes's geographical dictionary published in 1851, noted that a thousand pigs could easily fit inside it. In 1912 the first trial excavation was led by Jenő Hillebrand. In addition to stone tools and pottery fragments, the clavicle of a three‑year‑old child was also found. In the 1921 issue of Turisták Lapja it was published that Jenő Hillebrand reported on the Szilvás Cave excavation in the 1919 Barrow Research. By 1925 Hillebrand and his team had returned to the site five times, where they found further stone tools and bone tools. The work was continued in 1927 by Andor Saád and Géza Megay. At that time, in a hearth pit among the Bük culture pottery fragments, they also found jewelry made from sea shells and the broken and charred bones of twenty‑seven young people. The more than two hundred bones are a unique evidence of ritual cannibalism.

In the book published in 1932, titled *The Aggtelek Karst Cave and Its Surroundings*, in the section about the caves of the Bükk Mountains, it is mentioned that the Istállóskői Cave is located near Szilvásvárad. Based on the hearth remains examined during excavations, it has been determined that the prehistoric man also ate humans. The description was written based on six publications. The parts dealing with Istállós-kői Cave in the 1931 edition of the book *Nature Conservation and Natural Monuments*, which appeared in 1932, are repeated. Mária Győrffyné Mottl excavated the cave in 1938. According to the paper published in *Cave World* in 1939 and written by Ottokár Kadić, the regular excavations carried out in the Bükk Mountains in Szeleta Cave, Balla Cave, Herman Ottó Cave, Kecske Hole, Three‑Passage Cave, Istállós‑kői Cave, Büdös‑pest, and Puskaporosi‑kőfülke yielded so much prehistoric and early archaeological material that it would fill an entire museum hall.