Anna FARKAS-PETŐ¹, Tünde HORVÁTH², István PAPP¹ & Péter KOVÁCS-PÁLFFY^3
1Department of Mineralogy and Geology, University of Debrecen, H-4032, Debrecen, Egyetem tér 1., Hungary, e-mail: farkasanna74@freemail.hu
²Archaeological Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H-1014 Budapest, Úri u. 49., Hungary, e-mail: valdemar@archeo.mta.hu
³Hungarian Geological and Geophysical Institute, H- 1143 Budapest, Stefánia út 14., Hungary, e-mail: kovacs.palffy.peter@gmail.com

ARCHAEOMETRIC INVESTIGATION OF THE STONE TOOLS OF THE VATYA CULTURE (PEST COUNTY, HUNGARY)

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With the analysis of the middle Bronze Age (2000–1350 BC) Vatya culture findings in Pest county (Central Hungary) comprising of more than 400 polished stone tools and instrument tools this is the first archaeometric study with such scale in Hungary. In order to characterize petrographically the raw-material of the stone tools macroscopic and microscopic stone analyses were made together with mineralogical and geochemical analyses. In the course of the work a new digital database the Archaeometric Stone Tool Database was established. Based on the results, the material of the instrument stones is mainly sandstone and quartzite that were easy to collect from their source areas. Local volcanics, mostly amphibole containing andesite variations dominated among the material of the polished stone tools. Ophiolites (metamorphic basic rocks, serpentinized basic and ultrabasic rocks) were the raw-material of stone axes that indicate either more distant travels for raw-material or exchange import.