CHARAKTERYSTYKA ZABYTKÓW KRZEMIENNYCH Z WIELOKULTUROWEGO STANOWISKA ZAKRZÓW 8, GM. NIEPOŁOMICE
Journal Title: Studia i materiały do dziejów żup solnych w Polsce - Year 2017, Vol 0, Issue 32
Abstract
Excavations on the Zakrzów no. 8 site resulted in identification of flint artefacts associated with late Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age periods. The vast majority of the finds is, however, associated with the earlier Stone Age. Only a small fraction of the excavated material comes from the context of anthropogenic features, which allows for their reliable association with individual cultures present on the site. Identified on this basis were small inventories associated with the industries of early agrarian societies – in particular, of the Linear Pottery Culture and the Pleszów-Modlnica group – and the more Enedithic inventory of the Wyciąże-Złotniki group. Artefacts associated with earlier and later periods are present only in individual cases. With regard to the Palaeolithic period, these are artefacts associated with the Alleröd period, and the groups developing at that time who used arched backed blades. As for the Mesolithic period, the situation is much less clear, due to the uncharacteristic nature of the finds. A speculative guess could associate them with the Komornica culture. Only a small inventory dates to the Linear Pottery Culture. However, the finds are characteristic of the flintware of this group: strong preference for local raw materials (Jurassic flint from the Cracow area), and the uncovered single platform core for blades/flakes, with its natural cortex on the back side and preparation limited to the platform, is typical for the early agrarian societies of that period. Similar features have been noted on other archaeological sites associated with the Linear Pottery Culture in the region, e.g. The Nowa Huta-Krzesławice no. 41 site, or Zagórze no. 2 site. In terms of blanks, blade forms are dominant. Included among the tools are two oblique truncated blades, of which one features harvest sheen (serving as a blade of sickle assembly), whose presence is also characteristic of inventories dated to this period. These were found on numerous sites related to the period, apart from the aforementioned, also on sites Targowisko no. 10 and 11. The most numerous inventory from the site attributable to a single cultural group is associated with the Pleszów-Modlnica group. Again, the finds use predominantly local raw materials from the Cracow area, but also present are artefacts made of chocolate flint. Interestingly, the Cretaceous flint is found as well – this material was gaining some popularity among the groups of the Lengyel-Polgár circle. Similarly to the Linear Pottery Culture inventory, core exploitation was aimed at obtaining blades from single-faceted platforms. Other sites in the region associated with this group exhibit similar raw material selection and production processes, e.g. the Nowa Huta-Pleszów site or the Kraków Kurdwanów no. 9 site. The cores themselves are quite well represented, which gives an insight into their relatively long exploitation processes. This is thanks to the artefacts found in the Pleszów-Modlnica context coming from every stage of their processing. The raw materials were brought to the site most likely in the form of raw, or only preliminarily processed shards. No objects with the characteristics of a flintknapping workshops were found among the features associated with the Pleszów-Modlnica group. The typological structure of the group of tools is also typical – mainly scrappers and oblique truncated blades (including dihedral, sometimes featuring harvest sheen). It is worth highlighting the difference in the raw materials used – for the production of scrapers, the more massive blades and flakes were used, derived from the earlier stages of core exploitation; whereas the preferred material for truncated blades were the slenderer, regularly-shaped blades without cortex, obtainable during the later stages of reduction. Relatively numerous are also retouched blades. The remaining tool categories are decidedly marginal. Comparable typological structures of inventories were found on other sites associated with the Pleszów-Modlnica group, e.g. at the site of the settlement in Zagaje Stradowskie. Associated with the Wyciąże-Złotniki group are two selections of artefacts – first, as with the earlier described cases, through a culturally-homogeneous feature identified on the basis of ceramics, and second, identified from loose material on the basis of characteristics indicative of Chalcolithic industries. In terms of raw materials, the dominant type is the Jurassic flint from the Cracow area, especially of variety A, but other types are also present: Cretaceous flint, chocolate flint, and red radiolarite. The inventories of the Wyciąże-Złotniki group, dominated by locally obtained raw material, are known from other sites in the region as well, e.g. from the Nowa Huta-Wyciąże I site. Material excavated from the archaeological features is represented by – as with the earlier cases – artefacts depicting all stages of the production process, which suggests local production centres. The debitage category consists mostly of flakes, but the discovered tools were made predominantly on blades. The forms are indicative of mainly Neolithic industries (scrapers, truncated blades, retouched blades). Similar typological structure of tools can be found on other sites of the Wyciąże-Złotniki group in the region, e.g. the Nowa Huta-Pleszów site or the Modlnica no. 5 site. The second category of artefacts associated with the Wyciąże-Złotniki group comes from outside the archaeological features; yet, was identified and attributed to this group on the basis of distinctive typological and dimensional features of Chalcolithic tools. The most important finds in the tool category include partially polished flint axes (perhaps imported), as well as burins, retouched blades, a truncated blade and scrapers made on massive blade blanks – the use of such blanks is again typical for the associated period. Also identified were unworked blades with macrolithic characteristics, dimensionally attributable to Chalcolithic inventories. In case of material from outside the archaeological features, only approximate data could be obtained. Generally speaking, the material was deemed Neolithic, once artefacts dating to earlier and later periods had been excluded. Again, due to the lack of a clear context, the analysis may be only illustrative in nature. With regard to raw material, the decidedly dominant form is the Jurassic flint from the Cracow area, but with visible inclusions of other raw materials, often from relatively distant sources, such as chocolate flint, Świeciechów flint, obsidian, or radiolarite. The unearthed artefacts illustrate all stages of the flintknapping process. Numerous among them are lithic cores, of which the largest fraction are forms with singlefaceted platforms used for blade production, and with preparation limited to the platform surface, typical of the Neolithic period. The variability apparent in the cores represents the various stages of the exploitation (reduction) process. Here, again, the vast majority of debitage consists of blades – their fraction is especially high among blanks, on which tools would be made. This category is dominated by scrapers and truncated blades (including oblique, often dihedral, with visible harvest sheen). Relatively well-represented are also burins, whose popularity grew alongside the development of groups in the Lengyel-Polgár circle. Unfortunately, inventories attributed to individual Neolithic groups from the site, other than the Pleszów-Modlnica group, are too sparsely populated to allow for a robust characterisation. However, they do exhibit some common features. In terms of raw materials, Jurassic flint from the Cracow area is decidedly dominant, likely as a result of the proximity of its source. Chocolate flint forms a small but significant addition to the inventory. Another raw material suggestive of quite farreaching contacts is obsidian. Its likely source is the area of present-day eastern Slovakian border and north-eastern Hungary. In all cases, the industry was based on blades obtained from single platform cores, with preparation work generally limited to the platform. In the process of exploitation, the cores took on forms of blade/flake and finally flake only, with multiple directional changes, all the way to the vestigial, amorphous forms. Such cores could be reused as hammers. All inventories have relatively high proportion of tools. However, the overall structure of finds also suggests local flintware production, as indicated by artefacts coming from nearly every stage of the production process. The raw materials were most likely brought to the site as small concretions, perhaps after some preliminary processing. No features or deposits with characteristics of workshops were found. However, this might be due to the stratigraphic situation of the site (most artefacts came from the secondary context of a run-off stratum). Distinct from the typologically and dimensionally similar inventories of the Linear Pottery Culture and the Pleszów-Modlnica group are the finds associated with the Wyciąże-Złotniki group. These finds show characteristics attributable to the Chalcolithic breakthrough, such as the switch to macrolithic blade blanks or the presence of partially polished flint axes. Once again, the low numbers of finds in the inventory precludes reliable technological and typological analysis. An interesting feature of the Neolithic inventory are the reused late Palaeolithic artefacts. This group includes one fully arched backed blade and, probably, three shafted points. All of the artefacts show signs on harvest sheen from the secondary use in sickle assemblies, which must have taken place during the Neolithic period. The blades additionally feature secondary oblique truncation on their dorsal faces. The general characteristics of inventories from the site fit well with finds from other sites in the region. The typological profile of tools is related to standard activities of agrarian societies, such as harvesting (truncated blades used in sickle assemblies) or hide working (usually associated with scrapers).
Authors and Affiliations
Jarosław Fraś, Katarzyna Lajs
Keywords
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