There are very few settlements in Europe which can trace back their histories as long as Miskolc can.

Archaeological finds (called Bársonyházi clets) were uncovered in the downtown, proving for the first time the presence of prehistoric, primitive man in Hungary.
It happened in 1891, when, while making the foundation of a house, the builders dug out three typical flint-stone tools. The great Hungarian polymath of the turn of the century, Otto Herman, recognized them and identified them as working tools of ice-age man. Thanks to these 60-70 thousand years old finds, research into prehistoric times began in Miskolc and its surroundings. The main stream of the research concentrated on the Stone Age. The discovery of wonderfully shaped bay leaf-formed flint-stone spearheads and the bones of a cave-bear were the basis for what is recognized today as the "szeleta culture".

At the edge of the downtown (Mindszenti tér) a toolmaker workshop and on the Avas remains of flint-stone mines were uncovered. Based upon these finds, the settlement-centre of this culture could presumably have been in Miskolc, and the Avas might have been the source of flint-stone tools for the prehistoric peoples who used to live in the Bükk mountain area.
In Neolithic times (5500-2300 B.C.) Miskolc and its area were permanently inhabited. Variously decorated and beautifully shaped thin-walled pieces of pottery speak about the settlers' life in that time. Archaeologists dubbed these ribbon- or line-decorated potteries "bükki ceramics".
The Copper and Bronze Ages (2300-1200 B.C.) did not bring a significant change in the weapon and tool-making methods of the people of the bükki culture. To alloy bronze from copper they would have needed tin or antimony, which are very rare around here, so they had to keep using flint-stone and obsidian tools. The area of Miskolc was densely populated in the Bronze Age as well.