Provenance of polished stone tools from the Baradla Cave, Aggtelek, North-Hungary

The Baradla Cave has been an open and used natural cavity since ancient times. 20 pieces of polished stone tools of various raw materials were revealed from the cave site, which were analysed using non-destructive methods. Source areas were identified for those raw material types which have detailed mineralogical and rock chemistry data available. The main raw material types are blueschist and contact metabasite, defined as a close and a distant raw material, respectively. The latter was widely known for its excellent mechanical properties. In addition, subordinate greenschist-amphibolite, serpentinite, sandstone, limestone, basalt litho-typed polished implements were also identified from the Cave, but their source area can be determined only tentatively from the available analyses and previous publication data.