Gravettian occupation of the Beckov Gate in Western Slovakia as viewed from the interdisciplinary research of the Tren  cianske Bohuslavice-Pod Tureckom site Martin Vla  ciky a, b, * , Tomá  s Michalík c , Miriam Nývltová Fi  sáková d , Daniel Nývlt e , Martina Moravcová a , Miroslav Králík f , Ji  rí Kovanda g , Katarína Péková h , Antonín P  richystal b , Alena Dohnalová b a State Geological Institute of Dionýz  Stúr, Mlynská dolina 1, 817 04 Bratislava 11, Slovak Republic b Department of Geological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlá rská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic c Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava, Gondova 2, 818 01 Bratislava, Slovak Republic d Institute of Archaeology in Brno, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i., Královopolská 147, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic e Czech Geological Survey, Leitnerova 22, 658 69 Brno, Czech Republic f Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Sciences, Masaryk University, Vina rská 5, 60 200 Brno, Czech Republic g Dobropolská 26, 102 00 Praha 10, Czech Republic h Podzáhradná 3, 821 06 Bratislava, Slovak Republic article info Article history: Available online xxx abstract Tren cianske Bohuslavice-Pod Tureckom is one of the most important Gravettian open-air sites in the Slovak Republic. It is situated in Western Slovakia, in the middle course of the Váh River, in the area with abundant Upper Palaeolithic settlement. Systematic archaeological research was conducted by Juraj Bárta in 1981e1986, when 478 m 2 of the site was investigated. A small (2 m 2 ) amount of revisory research conducted in 2008 had an interdisciplinary character, including detailed sedimentological, stable isotope, seasonality, fired clay pellets, lithic raw materials, pollen and malacofaunal analyses. Stable isotope analyses were used for the first time in Palaeolithic research in Slovakia. Three Gravettian occupational levels in superposition were discovered at depths of 25e35 cm (layer I e w27 ka), 55e75 cm (layer II e w28 ka) and of 85e125 cm (layer III e 29.5 ka). The results of most analyses were similar to those obtained from other Gravettian sites in the Middle Danube region. The analyses of sediment and mal- acofauna indicated cooling in the studied time intervals, Stable isotope analyses indicated the mosaic character of the Gravettian palaeoenvironment. Floral and faunal analyses agreed well with the dates of all three cultural layers, which represent rather colder stadial than warmer interstadial conditions. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Tren cianske Bohuslavice-Pod Tureckom represents one of the most important Upper Palaeolithic sites in Slovakia (Figs. 1 and 2). The first systematic archaeological research was conducted by Juraj Bárta (Archaeological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences) in 1981e 1986, when 478 m 2 of the site was studied (Bárta, 1988). During the investigation of Bárta, the research area was divided into three workplaces e A, B and C (Fig. 3). Both the findings of the lithic industry and radiocarbon dating results placed the site into the Willendorf-Kostenkian phase of the Gravettian (Verpoorte, 2002; Svoboda, 2006;  Zaár, 2007). Additional research by the Monuments Board of the Slovak Republic was conducted at the locality in September 2008. The main goal of this new research was to complete Bárta’s work at this locality (which has never been published as a whole) with new results, obtained with modern methods. The research was aimed interdisciplinarily, focusing on getting the most information from the smallest (2 m 2 ) area. The first and most important goal was to obtain uncontaminated palaeontological material for isotope analyses ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr isotope ratio to determine migration patterns of hunted game and 13 C/ 12 C and 15 N/ 14 N ratios to determine the diet and thus the palaeoecology of reindeer and mammoth). These analyses were used for the first time in Palaeolithic research in Slovakia. Other aims of the research were detailed sedimentolog- ical, malacozoological, palynological, seasonality, lithic raw * Corresponding author. State Geological Institute of Dionýz  Stúr, Mlynská dolina 1, 817 04 Bratislava 11, Slovak Republic. E-mail addresses: martin.vlaciky@gmail.com (M. Vla ciky), tomas.michalik@ gmail.com (T. Michalík), miriam@iabrno.cz (M. Nývltová Fi sáková), daniel.nyvlt@ geology.cz (D. Nývlt), martina.moravcova@geology.sk (M. Moravcová), kralik@sci. muni.cz (M. Králík), pekova.k@gmail.com (K. Péková), prichy@sci.muni.cz (A. P richystal), alena16@seznam.cz (A. Dohnalová). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Quaternary International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint 1040-6182/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2011.09.004 Quaternary International xxx (2011) 1e20 Please cite this article in press as: Vla ciky, M., et al., Gravettian occupation of the Beckov Gate in Western Slovakia as viewed from the inter- disciplinary research of the Tren cianske Bohuslavice-Pod Tureckom site, Quaternary International (2011), doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2011.09.004