A UNIQUE RAW MATERIAL FROM EARLY UPPER PALAEOLITHIC LAYERS IN THE POD HRADEM CAVE (MORAVIAN KARST, CZECH REPUBLIC) - INTERPRETATIVE PROBLEMS

The Pod hradem Cave in the Moravian Karst is a very significant Palaeolithic site because of the way in which the preserved stratigraphic sequence documents both the geological and cultural development of the karstic area during the Weichselian Interpleniglacial. Research of the cave has yielded a small but interesting collection of lithic chipped artefacts, which fall within the period from the Middle/Upper Palaeolithic transition to the Gravettian. In the Moravian Karst archaeological relics from this period are rather sporadic, and the Pod hradem Cave is the only one cave where modern interdisciplinary research can be applied. The lithic chipped industry has been classified over time, as Szeletian, Aurignacian and Gravettian. Petrographic analysis of the stone implements performed by the authors during a revision of the finds has brought some unexpected results. They proved that finds from stratigraphically separated horizons were made of the same kind of porcelanite coming from the Kuneticka hora Hill near Pardubice, the use of which in the Moravian Palaeolithic had not been determined before, except for the youngest (Epigravettian) occupation in Stranska skala IV near Brno. This corroborates a connection between populations living in the Moravian Karst and the region of Eastern Bohemia, but the nature of the contact cannot be specified for now. The fact that the same phenomenon appears in different cultural horizons is also difficult to explain.