ANCIENT CAVE TOWN

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3970, 14 October 1930, Page 2

ANCIENT CAVE TOWN

FORTY THOUSAND YEARS OLD Near the town of Esztergom, the seat of the Prince-Primates of Hungary, a cave town has been excavated which, according to the experts, dates 40,000 years back. The first prehistoric cave was discovered about twenty years ago, and was called the Jankovich Cave, after the then Minister of Education. But the war and the Communist rule prevented the excavation being continued. The ex-Minister, Mela Jankovich, has now subscribed a substantial sum for the resumption of the work, and Professor Istvan Gaal, from the National Museum, has gone to Bajot, where the Jankovich Cave is situated, to superintend the work. The new excavations, for which the miners of Dorog—the poorest community of workers in all Hungary—have been employed, show important results. Ten other caves have been discovered in the neighbourhood of the Jankovich Cave, most of them communicating with each other. The second cave, which is being cleared, appears to consist of a hall about sixty yards wide, and skeletons of cave bears, snow woodcocks, and animals resembling Arctic foxes, all from the ice period, have been unearthed. The larger bones of these animals have been split their full length and roasted, which points to the cavemen enjoying marrow. In the first cave beautifully carved and engraved hone implements, of which few examples have been found in Europe, have been discovered, and some of them have already been sentt to the' Budapest National Museum. A museum containing duplicates of the implements will shortly be arranged in Baiot itself, which is a favourite resort of tourists interested in archaeology.