Vértesszőlős

The Vértesszőlős Prehistoric Settlement or Paleolithic pre‑human settlement is the exhibition site of the Hungarian National Museum in Vértesszőlős. During excavations carried out at this place between 1963 and 1968, archaeologist László Vértes uncovered the site of a Paleolithic pre‑human (Homo erectus (seu sapiens) paleohungaricus), the pre‑human skull bone fragment, its tools and prehistoric animal traces. The excavation is of outstanding significance because it was the first such complex find assemblage in Central Europe. Today it can be visited as a carefully designed exhibition site.

Environmental overview

Vértesszőlős village is located in Komárom‑Esztergom county, 2 km northwest of Tatabánya, in the Little Hungarian Plain, at the foot of the Gerecse, in the valley of the Által River. Written sources mention it for the first time in 1244 as a village inhabited by royal vinclerks. Today, because of the proximity of the county seat, Tatabánya, it has a suburban character, and the majority of its population works in Tatabánya. The 1st main road and the Budapest – Komárom – Győr railway main line pass through the inner part of the settlement. Number of inhabitants: 2 747 /2004./

Several limestone quarries are located near Vértesszőlős, in which freshwater limestone (tufa, travertine) was mined. This limestone layer is the result of the most recent geothermal activity, which arose due to geological faults along the Gerecse dolomite ridge.

On the site of one of these tufa quarries in Vértesszőlős, geographer Márton Pécsi discovered a stone layer containing prehistoric remains in 1962, on the basis of which the Hungarian National Museum and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences initiated excavations in the quarry.

During the successful excavations led by László Vértes between 1963 and 1968, several stratified cultural layers of a Lower Paleolithic (approximately 350,000 years old) pre‑human settlement were uncovered, where a pre‑human (Homo erectus seu sapiens paleohungaricus: "Sámuel") cervical vertebra, two child femurs, many stone tools (flaked pebble tools: “choppert”), hearths, ancient animal bones, fossilized ancient animal tracks in hardened mud, and later a prehistoric human footprint were found.

Since 1968 the site of the former finds has been called “Vértesszőlős Prehistoric Settlement”, the exhibition site of the Hungarian National Museum, set in a nicely arranged, landscaped environment. The artifact assemblage protected by shelter buildings is presented as an open‑air museum. The 38‑hectare, fenced area of the prehistoric settlement has been listed as a nature reserve since 1976.

Geological history of the region

The cultural layers of the Vértesszőlős settlement lie on the 5th terrace of the Által River, which was deposited during the cold wave of the Mindel glaciation. It is not clearly established whether it was during the first or the second wave. River terraces form when, during glacial periods, the river’s discharge and transport energy decrease, so it can no longer carry its sediment and spreads the gravel terrace.

In the following warm, rainy period, when water increased again, the river cut deeply into its own sediment. It continued deeper with a considerable “step”. Another glaciation followed: now it spread its terrace one “step” deeper, and this process repeated through several glacial‑interglacial cycles. Thus the river terraces appear as very wide steps lying one beneath the other. The uppermost visible one is the oldest, and the lowest is the youngest.

From the cracks of the background mountains (Gerecse) lime-rich karst water seeped, and it always emerged at the edge of the mountain range, at the edge of the deepest river valley, on the floodplain. At the edge of the terrace – the same happened at Vértesszőlős, Tata, and many other places as well. The springs are relatively warm and high in lime content. They broke through, and in the basins they formed, the lime deposited, turned into mud, solidified into lime tufa, and soon became travertine cones.

From these cones the lime water bursts out and flows downwards, forming ever newer basins. In the meantime the now extinct spring depression became a low-walled, fairly wide basin. At the edge of the basin the lime tufa remained, which then also provided some protection to humans. Lime tufa terraces and limestone pads formed quickly. And these are roughly contemporaneous with the river terrace.

In the basins and on the shores of the springs a great many plants grew. Tree leaves also fell into the water: these springs and their surroundings were more like swamps. The lime solution built up layer after layer – lime mud, limestone, lime mud – full of various plants, with impressions of tree leaves. (From them the current climate can be precisely determined.)

Settlement of the first humans

In the basins that remained dry at times, humans settled, and then the freshwater limestone covered the waste, the finely broken animal bones, the small hearth. Occasionally loess settled on the habitation levels – the basins filled up – the humans had long disappeared, and the several‑meter‑thick lime tufa finally filled the entire settlement.

In the stratigraphic sequence of the Vértesszőlős settlement, travertine alternates from bottom to top with interbedded loess, marl, and clay layers. From an archaeological point of view, the cultural layers and the settlement areas are interesting. The lower cultural layer lies in basins surrounded by natural limestone cliffs. One period is “missing”, then two upper cultural layers follow.

The Vértesszőlős site lies between 8–10 m thick freshwater limestone layers and actually consists of several interconnected or related settlement areas – habitation spots. These “spots”, i.e., settlement levels, vary in thickness and size.

It is not known exactly how much time was omitted and how long the “break” in the settlement lasted. The entire settlement’s period of occupation lasted from the warm interval between the two glacial periods of the last glaciation to the second glacial period. Perhaps not even 30 thousand years passed between the lower and upper camp sites. The tools and the culture do not show significant change. It is possible that the descendants of the same small population returned several times.

Direct precedents

(Pécsi Márton)