Peskő Cave

Pes-kő Cave is one of the caves in Hungary that are under heightened protection. It is located in the Bükki National Park. It is one of the four caves in Hungary that provide a secure and fundamental archaeological find assemblage. The other three are the Diósgyőrtapolcai Cave, the Istállós-kői Cave and the Szeleta Cave. Fossil remains have also been found in it.

Description

On the Bükk plateau, on the southern edge of the Nagy plateau, in Pes-kő, west of the summit, in a highly protected area, at a hard-to-reach location, at an altitude of 752 metres above sea level, its eight‑metre‑high and two‑metre‑wide entrance opens.

Two tectonic fault lines, which are parallel to each other, define the location of the cavity. It formed in middle Triassic limestone, in the Bükk Plateau Limestone Formation. The passage, on average 12 metres high, was once a spring. The Directorate of the Bükki National Park oversees the cave, which is open to the public.

In 1977 the cave was first called Pes-kő Cave in the literature. In the literature it also occurs under the names Pes-kő Cave (Éhik 1914), Peskő Cave (Vértes 1965), Peskőbarlang (Bajnok 1923), Pes-kő Cave (Takácsné, Eszterhás, Juhász, Kraus 1989), Peskő Cave (Ringer 1989), Peskői Cave (Bertalan 1976), Peskői Cave (Polgárdy 1941), Pes-kői Bone Cave and Peskő Hole (Hazslinszky 1999).

Archaeology, Paleontology

From its fill came tools of the Aurignacian culture of the Upper Paleolithic human, tools belonging to the Neolithic Bükk culture and tools belonging to the Bronze Age Kyjatice culture, as well as bones of Pleistocene animals. It is presumed that a cave bear bone, about 400 years old and mostly from adult specimens, entered the cave as hunting prey.

During Hillebrand Jenő's trial excavation, fossil bone remains from 24 animal species were recovered and identified. From the finds of the excavation led by Kadić Ottokár, Mottl Mária compiled a list of 61 taxa, of the bird and mammal species determined from the four layers of the cave. In addition to collecting rich Paleolithic material, Vértes László also conducted thorough sedimentological and mineralogical studies. He made paleo‑climatic conclusions and radiometric dating of the bone samples was carried out in the Netherlands. As a result of the excavations, there are hardly any well‑identifiable, processable stratigraphic sequences at the site.

The peculiarity of the archaeological material is that the Aurignacian culture assemblage in Hungary has been recovered only from the Istállós‑kői Cave and the Pes‑kő Cave.

Rib bone, besides the Pes‑kő Cave, has been recovered from seven Hungarian caves so far: from the Király‑kúti‑zsomboly, the Lengyel Cave, the Pilisszántó‑kőfülke, the Puskaporos‑kőfülke, the Remete Cave, the Remete‑hegyi‑kőfülke and the Suba‑lyuk.

Research History

The first description of the Pes‑kő Cave appeared in 1851 in the book by Fényes Elek. According to the description, “A notable peak on the border is the Peskő, on whose rock face hawks breed, and beneath it there is a cave occupying about 145 square rods.” In 1911 Hillebrand Jenő was drawn to the cavity by the forest official Roskó Pál. They inspected the site, and in 1912 a three‑day trial excavation was carried out in the cave with the support of the Cave Research Committee of the Hungarian Geological Society and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In 1913 Éhik Gyula continued the excavation work on behalf of the Hungarian Royal Geological Institute. Éhik Gyula drew a sketch plan map of the cave and a sketch longitudinal section map, based on which the cave is 33.72 m long. Both map sketches depict the cave at a scale of 1:400. These were the first maps presenting the cave. Éhik Gyula’s work was assisted by Kormos Tivadar.

At the request of the Ministry of Agriculture, the cave was mapped in 1929 by Ottó Kadić. 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 Peskő Cave is located near Répáshuta, beneath the summit of Pes-kő mountain. Many cultural artifacts and a rich fossil fauna were discovered in its fill layers. The description was written based on four publications. The parts dealing with Pes-kő Cave from the 1931 edition of the book *Nature Conservation and Natural Monuments*, which appeared in 1932, are repeated there. The largest excavation work is also attributed to Ottó Kadić. He carried this out in 1934 with his colleagues at the request of the Hungarian Royal Institute of Geology, and then in 1939–1940 on behalf of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. These two excavations were conducted over 200 m².

In the Hungarian Tourist Encyclopedia published in 1941, the cave has its own entry. According to the publication, the Peskő Cave is located in the Bükk Mountains, at the foot of the massive collapse of Pes-kő. The cave leads into a 32 m long hall through its spacious entrance. During the exploration of the cave, besides the rich fauna of ancient animals, the bone tools of Aurignacian prehistoric humans were also seen in daylight. On the left wall of the cave there is a soot trace, which is thickly baked in and proves the prehistoric fire pit. In the 1942 edition of Országjárás it was mentioned that the Pes-kő Cave is the large cave located under Pes-kő and one of the notable caves of the Bükk Mountains. The 1955 stratigraphic identification excavation was directed by László Vértes. In the 1968 publication Karst and Cave it was stated that László Vértes became the head of the Prehistoric Collection of the Hungarian National Museum in 1951 and thereafter directed new excavations with modern methods at classic Paleolithic sites, e.g., the Pes-kő Cave.