Markó, András

Hungarian National Museum

markoa@hnm.hu

Based on the technical literature the Cserhát Mts. is quite poor in traces of hydrothermal activity and raw materials. Since the 1980s however, a large number of archaeological localities of different ages and dozens of workshop sites were discovered and partly excavated in this territory. All of them yielded a characteristic siliceous rock type, covered by bluish and white patina layer and containing many inhomogeneities, fossil plant and mollusc remains. On the other hand single artefacts made of macroscopically similar raw material were identified in some assemblages excavated in a larger distance from the supposed outcrops. Another type of hydroquartzite and jasper were also used on the Cserhát sites.

The question was to identify the possible source/sources of the raw material types. During the field prospections outcrops of the raw materials were identified in the vicinity of Püspökhatvan and Galgagyörk; furthermore other sources may be supposed around Buják. The jasper may originate from gravel deposits of the Miocene age.