In this study the formation of the polygenetic High Tatra granitoid magma is discussed. Felsic and mafic magma mixing and mingling processes occurred in all magma batches composing the pluton and are documented by the typical textural assemblages, which include: mafic microgranular enclaves (MME), mafic clots, felsic clots, quartz-plagioclase-titanite ocelli, biotite-quartz ocelli, poikilitic plagioclase crystals, chemically zoned K-feldspar phenocrysts with inclusion zones and calcic spikes in zoned plagioclase. Geochemical modelling indicates the predominance of the felsic component in subsequent magma batches, however, the mantle origin of the admixed magma input is suggested on the basis of geochemical and Rb-Sr, Sm-Nd and Pb isotopic data. Magma mixing is considered to be a first-order magmatic process, causing the magma diversification. The cumulate formation and the squeezing of remnant melt by filter pressing points to fractional crystallization acting as a second-order magmatic process.
The authors draw on their experience and past mountain landscape studies to describe an emerging collaborative research project designed to conduct advanced field studies and generate (and test) archaeological landscape models of past hunter-gatherer populations as well as pastoralist and early farming community seasonal transhumance migrations between lowland river valleys of Poland’s Podhale Basin and high altitude forests and meadows its adjacent High Tatra Mountains.
At the end of 2018, when the Hučivá Cave (Hučivá diera, Rausch Keller) was explored in Tatranská Lomnica, profile deposits in rear areas of the cave were found disturbed by an amateur excavation. One stone artefact was first found in back-dirt clay-layer material at the excavation pit, later joined by four more specimens from the cleaned pit profile. The Typological analysis of the artefacts shows, that their closest parallels are found in inventories of the Magdalenian culture. Hučivá is the only cave in the whole Tatras with documented prehistoric settlement and the only Slovak cave with evidence of the Magdalenian culture. The discovery provides new information concerning subsistence strategies of late Pleistocene hunters in High Tatra Mountain landscapes. In light of this discovery, the possibility of seasonal movements along the northern slopes of this mountains range to the east and then south, through the mountain passes to the upper Spiš region should now be considered.