First Open-Air Mousterian Site in the Mátra Mountains (North Hungary): Preliminary Results from Szurdokpüspöki-Lapos-tanya

Abstract

The recently documented open-air site of Szurdokpüspöki-Lapos-tanya in the Western Mátra Mountains represents an occurrence of the Middle Palaeolithic Mousterian industry in the North Hungarian Range. The site was identified in the 1980s by László Tóth, an agronomist from Pásztó, and visited again by the authors in November 2024. The total assemblage comprises 679 lithic artefacts made almost exclusively of limnic silicites, most likely of local origin. Technological analysis indicates a predominantly non-Levallois core reduction strategy, with debitage dominated by direct percussion with a hard hammer and only limited evidence of bifacial reduction. The toolkit accounts for 30% of the assemblage, an exceptionally high proportion for open-air sites. It is rich in side-scrapers and retouched flakes; typologically, it closely resembles the Mousterian industries of Subalyuk Cave in the Bükk Mountains. However, the frequency of Quina-type side-scrapers is lower than in the assemblage of Layer 11 of said cave. Overall, patination patterns suggest multiple phases of occupation, while the presence of a single radiolarite side-scraper of probable Carpathian origin indicates rare long-distance raw-material exchange. The high proportion of ad hoc tools, together with the proximity of raw material sources, may suggest a repeatedly used lithic workshop site or a short-term camp. This discovery extends the known distribution of Mousterian sites in Hungary and highlights the importance of open-air sites for reconstructing Neanderthal settlement and land-use strategies in northern Hungary.