The middle to upper paleolithic transition in the Bukk Mountain region of central Europe

This thesis reports on the issue of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in Central Europe, and focuses on the archeological evidence from Middle and early Upper Paleolithic sites in northeast Hungary and east Slovakia. Unlike most approaches to this issue in this part of the Old World, less emphasis is placed on typological comparisons between sites. Rather, other data sets not commonly used to examine the issue of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition are used to investigate the question of human behavioral changes at this time. These data sets include lithic raw material transfers, lithic edge wear analysis, and settlement patterns.;Based on typological, technological and raw material analyses of Middle and early Upper Paleolithic assemblages from the Bukk Mountains of northeast Hungary, it is argued that the data do not support models of acculturation or gradual cultural evolution during the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in this region. Szeletian assemblages, which date to approximately 40,000 years ago and which are currently accepted as "transitional" links between the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, are interpreted here as specialized activity variants of a local early Upper Paleolithic Aurignacian adaptation. A model of early Upper Paleolithic subsistence and settlement practices in northeast Hungary and east Slovakia is presented.