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The site of Bohunice represents the type-site for the Bohunician, a Moravian variant of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transitional period. The specific industry, based on a mixture of both Middle and Upper Paleolithic features, was created either by local Neanderthals or the first anatomically modern humans, who in that time started to penetrate the European continent. Another Bohunician site was excavated at Stránská skála, some 7 km to the east of Bohunice. Analogous industies were excavated in Kulichivka, Ukraine, and Boker Tachtit in the Negev Desert, Israel.
The
rescue excavation of the site of Bohunice “Kejbaly” was necessitated by the
building of a new superstore and the ensuing widening of Kameničky Street over
the location of Valoch’s locality IV. The
present research is being conducted as a collaboration between the Institute of
Archaeology of the ASCR, and the Department of Anthropology, University of
Minnesota, USA, during July and August of 2002.
The
main goals of the research were to apply precise methods of excavation to the
recovery of artifactual and geological data, as these were lacking at the time
of the original discovery of the site, as well as to obtain more material for 14C
dating of the Bohunician industry. In
addition to 14C dating,
optically stimulated luminescence dating of the site will be pursued in
collaboration with Dr. Daniel Richter of the Instituto Tecnológico e Nuclear,
Portugal. In order to preserve the
greatest amount of information from the portion of the Bohunice site destined
for destruction, excavation included three dimensional proveniencing (using a
computer-aided infrared theodolite & EDM) of lithics, charcoal, manuports,
ochre, etc. as well as geological horizons (upper and lower paleosol boundaries). In addition to evaluating the site formation processes at
Bohunice, the three dimensional recording of artifacts will also allow the
analysis of the spatial distribution (both horizontal and vertical) of
particular raw material, technological, and typological features of the lithic
industry.
Extensive
wet sieving of the sediments was conducted in order to recover the smallest
remains of artifact production. With
this level of artifact recovery, it is hoped that the re-excavation of the
Bohunician type-site will resolve both the issue of the homogeneity of the
Bohunician industry across Moravia as well as the issue of the relationship
between the Bohunician and the Szeletian, an industry contemporaneous with the
later half of the Bohunician period and well known for its foliate points (small
bifacial leaf points). Integral to
both of these issues is the question, did the creators of the Bohunician also
produce foliate points? To date, no
excavated Bohunician assemblage, such as at Stránská skála, has produced
either a foliate point or the tiny bifacial thinning flakes removed during the
foliate production sequence. Foliate
points in Bohunician contexts have only come from surface sites of potentially
mixed Szeletian-Bohunician horizons and notably from the initial rescue
excavation of the type-site of Bohunice. As
the original collection from Bohunice was acquired by an amateur archaeologist
without the use of collection protocols, the tiny production debris needed to
demonstrate the on-site production of foliate points at Bohunice are missing.
Thus, the present excavation of Bohunice offers a wonderful opportunity
to address both the homogeneity of the Bohunician industry and its relationship
to the Szeletian.
History
of the Red Hill Area
Paleolithic
occupation was documented on several spots within the territory of Red Hill, an
elevation on the western margin of the Brno Basin. Isolated artifacts had been reported from Kohn’s Brickyard
since the end of the 19th century.
Josef Skutil also reported finds of probably EUP lithics from the
territory of Brno’s central cemetery as early as 1936.
The most important site, however, is Bohunice “Kejbaly” and its
vicinity, which were surveyed by Karel Valoch during loess exploitation and the
building of a panel factory and new houses between 1962-1973 (completely
published in: Valoch, K. 1976: Die altsteinzeitliche Fundstelle in Brno-Bohunice,
Studie AÚ ČSAV IV/1).
Locality IV of the Bohunice site, which is the center of our interest,
was excavated by K. Valoch during 1977-1981
(Valoch, K. 1982: Neue paläolitische Funde von Brno-Bohunice, ČMM, Sci.soc.
67, 31-48).
Figures:
General view of the 2002
excavation in Bohunice. On the
skyline is the Stránská skála site.
The 2002 excavation - trench A.
Stratigraphy, lower and
upper paleosol.
Artifacts: endscrapers,
Levallois point, leaf point,
other leaf point
