The main two sensations of this year's digging season in Rudabánya are a carpal bone and a jaw with a complete row of teeth, augmented in August by the discovery of the remains of 25 hominoid apes. The carpal bone was from the Rudapithecus. "The Rudapithecus occupies a distinguished place as possibly being the common ancestor of the chimpanzee, the gorilla and humans, and based on the evidence it is claimed that he is the most likely candidate for the position," said palaeontologist, László Kordos, the director of the Hungarian Geological Institute and the leader of the digs.

The migration of our ape ancestors

Of the seven small bones that form the carpal, there are two that lead from the wrist to the thumb which are knitted together in humans, chimpanzees and gorillas - but not in orangutans and other apes. The knitted-together small carpal bone that has now been found constitutes additional material to aid understanding of the process of becoming human. However, there is a gap of close to seven million years in this process. Although there are finds from Africa showing hominoid development up to 14 million years ago "starting from scratch", the next finds are from only some seven million years ago. Altogether there are only a few difficult-to-interpret remains which prove that the ancestors of human beings also lived in the Dark Continent during this obscure period. There is no mystery attached to the blank period, since there is a geological reason for it: the area of East Africa, where the most research has been carried out, was formed during the blank period. The monumental forces of nature swept away the surface of the earth and buried any scattered bones under a new layer. Little trace remained to indicate where it would be worth digging several hundred meters into the ground.

Rudabánya represents a true pearl for palaeontologists. The narrow ravines of this swampy area swallowed up the cadavers like a natural carcass pit and thus preserved the bones. This exceptional situation has enabled Hungarian palaeontologists to voice their own theory. They maintain that the common ancestor of man and ape migrated from Africa to Europe and Asia while the two continents were still connected and then withdrew to the tropical climate of Africa before the "ice age" eight million years ago. This position is diametrically opposed to the prevailing view among international scientists, according to which our ape ancestor fell victim to the climate change and died out on the European continent:  Thus, it is not directly linked to the process of the human transition. The tiny pieces of bone that have now been found are exactly from the debated period and thus disprove extinction and support the return-to-Africa theory.

The other significant find is the lower jawbone of an Anapithecus with a full row of teeth, more precisely, a match for an upper jawbone discovered last year. This newly found skull fragment makes it possible to reconstruct the skull of what is surmised to be that of a hominoid ape. It is likely that this species became extinct. The two vegetarian hominoids with almost the same body size may have lived side by side, occupying different territory, with the Anapithecus tending to be nocturnal.

"It would be useful if we could find new localities that either pre-date or post-date the period of the finds unearthed so far in Rudabánya, so that we could better understand the process of the changes," said professor Kordos. He added that so far only the bones had been identified and that the bulk of the work is yet to come. The first step will be to make a statistical comparison between the recently unearthed bones and those of chimpanzees, gorillas and humans. This will be followed by more precise examinations, 3D pictures made with computed tomography and their analysis. The big questions - concerning why a common type of anatomy developed, which is connected to the role of the arms in walking - can only be answered after this.

Over the last twenty years, various international teams have carried out research in Rudabánya, essentially supported by foreign funding. However, none of the finds have been allowed out of Hungary and the significance of the site has meant that it has only been accessible to the highest ranking international authorities. At the same time the professor added, "I do not think that from a scientific point of view this would excite the Hungarian man in the street as a significant discovery or be of any special interest."

A museum under the ground

The bones of the ancient ape will be stored in a safe in the Geological Institute of Hungary. The remains of the prehistoric man of Vértesszőlős, known as Samu, are preserved in the Hungarian National Museum. A little care would not have gone amiss. In February of this year, an ungrateful "post-historic man" - who realised by coincidence that the keys to his flat also fitted the museum - violated what had been regarded as the last resting place of the prehistoric man by defiling and kicking the replicas of his bones into bits, and by scribbling the name of his favourite rock groups over the showcases - perhaps to provide something interesting to look at for others like himself.

Replicas of the Rudabánya finds can be seen from December next year at the planned Pannon Sea Museum. The gates of the underground museum should open in December next year. The construction work will commence this autumn in the square in front of the Ottó Herman Museum in Miskolc. Hungary is in the exceptional position of not only having unique ancient ape finds from the period when the Carpathian Basin was formed seven to eight million years ago, but also the almost intact in situ swamp citrus trees, which had remained where they were found two years ago. The ancient trees of Bükkábrány are unique in the world because they did not fossilise but instead remained almost undamaged as organic material sleeping away in a Cinderella dream beneath the mud avalanches which had destroyed them. The 30-40-meter tall trees met their end at the age of 3-400 years old. Half of the 18 trees that were found crumbled when they were lifted out. Of the trees that remained intact, five were taken to the Bükk National Park next to the Ipolytarnóc prehistoric man's footprint, and four were taken to the Miskolc Museum, where they are being conserved.

Conserved with sugar

Two of the trees will be soaked in a sugar solution for four to five years, then carefully dried under sand for a year. "Whoever drinks coffee with sugar and doesn't wash the cup will have experienced how solid the sugary water in the bottom of the cup can become in just one day and thus come to understand the essence of the conservation process we are using," said Ferenc Bánfalvy, the tree restorer. The method was successfully applied for example in the preservation of a timber castle in the Biskupin Museum in Poland. Permeating the cell walls, the sugar remains as a solidifying structure in the tree. According to the expert, "Sugar is cheaper than any other chemical; it does not have to be kept warm or heated like synthetic resin; it's environmentally friendly and the only real disadvantage is that it attracts a lot of wasps." Moreover, the process leaves open the possibility that in the future the sugar can be washed out and the trees preserved with some more modern technology. Thus far, the trees have been soaking in 20 tons of sugar solution and the same amount will be needed again. When there were still sugar factories in Hungary, they donated several tons of sugar and private individuals also contributed - there were some people who helped by giving a kilo of sugar to save the trees.

One tree was left untouched for posterity: it is kept under neutral water to protect it from drying out and its fibers from decomposing. The establishment of the planned museum has partly been based around the ancient trees of Bükkábrány.  By the time of the opening, the natural process of conservation of the trees in Miskolc will not have finished:  one tree, which up to that point had been preserved in sand, had to be sacrificed for the sake of the public by infusing it with synthetic resin. The smallest of the trees in Ipolytarnóc that are also being soaked in synthetic resin weighs three tons, so because of this and the risk that they could fall apart, it is out of the question that even one be taken to Miskolc.