Mackó Cave

Kis-kevélyi Cave is one of the caves in Hungary that are specially protected. It is located in the Pilis Mountains in the Danube–Ipoly National Park, in Csobánka. It is one of the best‑known caves of the Pilis Mountains. Archaeological and paleontological finds have been recovered from it. Its other, widespread name is Mackó Cave. The cave, which lies beside the marked tourist trail, is a popular excursion spot.

Description

On the north side of Kis‑Kevély, near the summit, at the edge of Csobánka, in a forest rock shelter, there is a huge natural and broken‑looking horizontal, east‑facing entrance that is 11.4 m wide and 5.1 m high. It can be reached via the tourist trail marked with a yellow stripe that runs from Pomáz to Pilisborosjenő. The easiest access is from the centre of Csobánka. Not far from the cave is a rest area at the Kevély‑nyergi tourist house, from which one can descend the yellow‑stripe tourist path to Kis‑kevélyi Cave.

In Triassic Dachstein limestone, an inactive spring cave formed in the direction defined by a tectonic fissure. Apart from a few small stalactite clusters and stalactite curtains, there are no other formations in the cave. The cave is 65 m long, with a vertical extent of 14 m, a horizontal extent of 44 m, a depth of 3 m and a height of 11 m. It is freely visitable, the entrance hall can be seen without equipment, in street clothing, and the interior can be explored with basic caving gear and the use of a light source.

There is another entrance, which, however, is blocked. This entrance opened above the current entrance. The cave begins with a large hall that narrows inward. This part extends to a short dome, and the dome ends in a small upper hall. The hall may have collapsed in the recent past, creating a second entrance. On the walls there are some anthropomorphic statues and finger‑like protrusions.

The cave also occurs in its literature under the names Csobánkai Cave (Kaán 1931), Bone Cave (Márton 1910), Dachstein limestone cave (Kárpát 1990), Dachstein limestone cave (Bertalan 1976), Dachstein limestone cave (Barcza, Thirring 1920), Dachstein limestone cave (Bertalan 1976), Kevély Cave (Barcza, Thirring 1920), Kiskevély Cave (Tompa 1935), Kiskevély Cave (Barcza, Thirring 1920), Kis‑Kevély Cave (Thirring 1900), Kiskevély Cave (Mottl 1939), Kiskevély Cave (Hillebrand 1913), Kis‑Kevélyi Cave (Mezei 1967), Kiskevély Mackó Cave (Thuróczy 1964), Mackó Cave (Schőnviszky 1937), Mackó Cave (Révai 1938), Mackó Cave (Láng 1953) and Máczka Cave (Moussong 1891). According to Géza Moussong the name Máczka lodging is one of the names of Cat Cave.

Archaeology, paleontology

The first person to find paleontological finds in the cave was Antal Koch during his 1868 research of the cave. He collected cave bear bones from soil excavated by treasure hunters. Jenő Hillebrand, while excavating on behalf of the Cave Research Committee, discovered many animal remains such as reindeer, horse, cave bear, woolly rhinoceros, elk, ancient cattle and hyena, as well as archaeological finds that prove that prehistoric humans also lived here. The cave was almost completely cleared and processed, a project supported by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Geology.

The size of the cave fill was in places deeper than six metres. Among the bone tools the most valuable were the pierced deer phalanx and the bar made of bird bone. Of the 145 stone tools found here, which can be assigned to the Pilisszántó culture, most are unretouched blades, but a few retouched blades, a drill, a scraper and a burin also came to light. This is one of those caves whose upper Pleistocene stratigraphic series contained very valuable paleontological and archaeological finds. During the stratigraphic clearing excavation László Vértes distinguished five defining layers in 1957. The yellow, lowest layer was sterile.

The finds of the brown layer above it are, according to Jenő Hillebrand, protosolutrean. There are researchers who consider that the early Solutrean culture and the Moustier culture were also present in the cave. Based on the 1957 excavation it is probable that the flakes and leaf scraper of the Solutrean culture were in the transitional layer above the brown layer containing Moustier scrapers. The tools of the later Stone Age were in two yellowish layers, but due to the lack of excavation records it cannot be determined how the tools identified by Jenő Hillebrand as belonging to the Magdaleni culture were arranged in them.

Hillebrand Jenő did not make finds from the uppermost Holocene layer, so almost exclusively the objects that testify to the later occupation of the cave are those collected by Sashegyi Sándor from the soil brought out of the cave entrance during the excavation from 1912 to 1914. A few bowl rims with round protrusions, or with a lip, belonging to the Ludanice group, and a fragment of a double-conical and a cylindrical-necked vessel. A fragment of a thick-walled vessel with vertical incised lines, a fragment of a spherical‑section bowl with triple protrusions under its rim, a ribbed pot rim, a fragment with incised lines, a wide strap‑handle and a fragment with a knobby surface and a protruding handle, are attributable to the Badeni culture. A small animal figurine fragment also probably belongs to this culture.

A finely incised, thin‑walled side fragment, a fragment with a recessed and a fluted rim belong to the late Bronze Age Urn‑field culture. A green‑glazed and a brown‑painted Roman‑period side fragment have also been found. Sashegyi Sándor also found Árpád‑period vessel fragments in it. An 11th‑century or 12th‑century gray side fragment decorated with a linear pattern, made of sandy material. The 13th‑century fragments are brown and brown‑gray, hand‑coiled, made of a mixture of sand and gravel. The white, sharply profiled rim, uniformly smoothed inside and out, vessel fragment dates to the late 13th century. The complete assemblage is housed in the Hungarian National Museum.