Bečov IV - A Settlement Area of Middle Palaeolithic Man in North-West Bohemia

dr. J. Fridrich, DrSc. (PK 01 PO 40 PP 07) 2001-2003

This project aims to evaluate landscape use in the Middle Pleistocene (Middle Palaeolithic) period alone the banks of the palaeo-Ohře (Eger) in an areas of some 1000 x 500 m. This locality. Known as Bečov IV (Most district) has been known since the 1960´s, and is the largest Acheulian site in the Czech Republic. Due to intensive recultivation, the site is threatened to a fundamental degree, and there is a very real danger thet it will be lost to archaeological research. The Archaeology section of the project consists of a detailed collection of chipped stone industry, its documentation and typological/morphological evaluation. The Geology section includes prtrographic analyses of the raw materials and of the geological structures in the settlement area, a statistical analysis of the data recovered, and also a settlement-geographical evaluation of the area´s situation. The outputs of the project will include a finds report, a chipped stone industry database, and studies in the professional press. After completion of the project, application wiil be made for a publication grant that should enable the processing of all of the above into a monograph.