The upper paleolithic finds from the Mladeč cave

Abstract

In spite of the early date of excavations and the unique importance of the Mladeč archaeological locality, the archaeological material found during the first field campaign was not published until 40 years later (Szombathy, 1925). A complete list of the material was published only 67 years after the last exploration of intact Upper Pleistocene sediments (Oliva, 1989; 1993a, b). This rather peculiar situation was caused by the unsystematic course of the research as well as by the fact that the finds were deposited in three museums in two countries. Furthermore, some objects from amateur excavations or random finds have been lost, without ever having been mentioned in the archaeological literature. Other complications were caused by the mergence of collections of the former hunting museum of the Dukes of Liechtenstein in Úsov with those of the museum in Litovel, and finally by the integration of the two collections to form the Regional museum in Olomouc. This disconsonant state is naturally connected with an utter lack of documentation, causing frequent confusions in the literature. In this paper, I shall try to summarize the available information, correlate the individual sources and overhaul the existing finds. © 2006 Springer-Verlag/Wien. All rights are reserved.