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2026-03-03 14:31:36   •   ID: 2406

Gudenushöhle: The earliest Paleolithic in Austria?

Plate 1 © C.Stadler/Bwag
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The Gudenushöhle (Table 1) near Krems / Lower Austria was already introduced into the Blog some years ago-see here: 1506 and here: 2299

The flat bifacial quartz tool (3,8x2,5x0,4 cm) shown in Figure 1-4 fits well in the material known from old excavations and could designed as a "Faustkeilblatt" from the well known local Middle Paleolithic (KMG).

Similar quartz artifacts are known from Breuils and Obermayer's 1908 monograph and can be found in collections at the Krems Museum, the monastery of Göttweig, and museums in Horn and Eggenburg.

The Gudenus cave was largely cleared of its sediments by 1884 without modern separation of layers, making subsequent attempts by any researcher to clarify its dating and stratigraphy extremely difficult.

I was therefore thrilled by Archeopress's announcement of Robert Bednarik's new monograph on the Gudenushöhle, due to be published in 2022, and hoped that it would provide significant new insights.

After all, Bednarik was the last person to conduct controlled excavations of the remaining volume of the cave fill, which was very limited, between 1963 and 1966. However, Austrian prehistorians assume that this work was carried out by an Autodidact without a license and without independent control.

Reading the text, I became increasingly disconcerted, and finally quite irritated, by Bednarik's numerous shortcomings.

Among other things, Bednarik makes the following assumptions in the monograph:

(1) He assumes the presence of four Palaeolithic occupation levels: Magdalenian, Micoquian (KMG), Mousterian and Middle Acheulean ('the oldest occupation of Austria').

(2) A "Middle Acheulean lithic typology" of several rolled bifaces, together with palynological data from a limited volume of the original cave infill, should prove an occupation event during MIS 7 or earlier.

It is frustrating enough that, in 2022, an archaeologist is attempting to estimate the age of a stone tool based on its typology.

This is reminiscent of Mortillet's concept of the fossil directeur, which has proven highly problematic, especially for the Early and Middle Palaeolithic.

Additionally, it is disturbing to use a few amygdaloid and elongated hand axes to classify a small handaxe ensemble as a "Middle Acheulean," a term that is neither defined nor widely understood.

What really baffles me, however, is that the author is unaware that such bifaces were widespread in Central Europe during MIS 4 and 3, for example at Zwolen, Salzgitter and Lichtenberg, and that their presence at Gudenushöhle would obviously align with the Wurmian KMG occupation of the cave.

Finally, it should be noted that meaningful microstratigraphic pollen analysis for reconstructing climate changes over a period of more than 100 thousand years cannot be performed without considering a representative macrostratigraphy due to obvious sampling errors.

Even high-resolution pollen data are of limited value if no absolute dating method has been used.

The shortcomings I have described show that Bednariks publication would hardly have survived a peer review process.

In this respect, it was wise of him to write an entire book without independent verification of his results....

Sadly enough for the interested reader the Monograph of 1908 still remains the Gold Standard.

The original paper is provided by the excellent Dons Map site (last external link).

Suggested Reading:

Robert Bednarik: Gudenus Cave: The Earliest Humans of Austria. Archeopress; 2022

F. Brandtner, and F. Zaabusch: Neuere Paläolithikfunde aus der Umgebung von Eggenburg. N.-0. Arm. Austr. Heft 5; 1950

P.L. Hacker, P.L. Die Gudenus-Höhle, eine Renthierstation im niederösterreichischen Kremsthale. Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien, 1884

J. Strobl & H. Obermaier: Die Aurignacien-Station von Krems (Nieder-Österreich). Jahrbuch für Altertumskunde 3: 129 – 148; 1909

Obermaier, H. & Breuil, H., Die Gudenushöhle in Niederösterreich, Mitt. der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft, Bd. XXXVIII, Wien, 1908

Ch. Neugebauer-Maresch: Altsteinzeit im Osten Österreichs, Wiss. Schriftenreihe Niederösterreich 95/96/97, St. Pölten-Wien 1993

Ch. Neugebauer-Maresch: Menschen der Eiszeit im Waldviertel in F. Steininger: Erdgeschichte des Waldviertels, Schriftenreihe des Waldviertler Heimatbundes 38, 1999, 101–112 (1996).

Hartmann H. & W., Die Höhlen Niederösterreichs, Bd. 3, Wissenschaftliches Beiheft zur Zeitschrift “Die Höhle”, Nr. 30, Wien, 1985, 331ff.

Mayer, A al. Die Höhlen der Dürrleiten bei Hartenstein, Höhlenkundliche Mitteilungen, 38. Jg., H.5, Wien, 1982, 129ff.

Menghin, O., Kleine Beiträge zur Kenntnis des diluvialen Menschen in Österreich, Nachlese zur Gudenushöhle in Niederösterreich, Wr. Prähist. Zschr. 1. Jg., Wien, 1914, 250ff.

Szombathy, J., Untersuchung von Höhlen im Kremstale bei Hartenstein, Niederösterreich, Mitt. der K.K. Zentralkomm. f. Denkmalpflege, 3.Folge, Bd.XII, Nr. 9, Wien, 1913, 135f.

Trommel, H., Höhlen in Niederösterreich, Wissenschaftl. Schriftenreihe Niederösterreich, Nr 35/36, Wien, 1978, 18f.

Winkler, E.-M., Paläolithische Stein- und Knochenartefakte aus dem Bereich der Gudenushöhle in Nöhagen, Niederösterreich, Fundberichte aus Österreich, Bd. 26/1987, Wien, 1988, 173ff.

Provenance: Friedrich Bachmaier (NHM) Legacy



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