The Early Palaeolithic site Stránská Skála I near Brno (Czechoslovakia) - Valoch - 2013

On the north-western slope of Stránská skála, a Jurassic crag on the eastern fringes of the town of Brno, there is a denuded and rather accidental section, containing a rich fauna of vertebrates. In one layer of the upper part of the section stone implements were found. Deeper in the loess Matuyama-Brunhes palaeomagnetic boundary was detected. The Stránská skála was settled by the people of the Upper phase of Cromerian some 600,000 to 700,000 years ago, alongside with the fauna of the Upper Biharian Complex. The presence of these people is documented by finds of simple stone tolls made mostly of local hornstones and of split and modified animal bones. Four artifacts show micro-wear traces caused by their use. The radially situated grooves on the elephantid vertebra document probably the capacity of non-utilitarian activities of these people. The use of fire is documented by charred bone fragments and one cracked hornstone flake. Stránská skála is the oldest reliably dated and stratified campsite of Homo erectus in Moravia. This article is a reprint of a previously published article (Valoch K., 1987: Anthropologie (Brno) 25, 2: 125-142).

Keywords

Early Palaeolithic - Stone implements - Split animal bones - Documents of non-utilitarian activities - Upper Biharian vertebrate fauna - Matuyama-Brunhes boundary

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