LITHIC TECHNOLOGY OF MUJINA PEĆINA (original) (raw)
Related papers
Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology, 2017
A large and complex lithic collection from Pelješac, a peninsula on the eastern Adriatic seaboard of southern Croatia, provides extensive information about raw materials, formal typology, and technology of flaked stone artifacts from the Early Neolithic up to the Iron Age. Most of the evidence comes from two stratified sites: a cave named Spila and the hillfort of Grad, both located on the Nakovana Plateau. The most conspicuous characteristic of the Nakovana lithic collection is continuity, both in production technology and in the choice of raw material. Changes are manifest in frequencies of lithic artifact classes, rather than in kinds of lithic artifacts. Virtually all the lithics are made of cherts imported from the Gargano Peninsula, which testifies to persistent trans-Adriatic connections throughout post-Mesolithic prehistory. Prismatic blades were brought to Nakovana as finished products. They are present from the Early Neolithic, their frequencies peak during the Copper Age, and they disappear from the record soon after the transition to the Bronze Age. An ad hoc flake-production technology is present throughout the sequence, but its importance diminishes as the prismatic blade technology takes over. After the disappearance of prismatic blades, Bronze Age lithic assemblages consist mainly of flakes and expedient flake-based tools. While the Nakovana sites did not yield any Mesolithic finds, comparison with other eastern Adriatic sites indicates that raw material procurement patterns changed radically at the time of the transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic, which also coincided with the introduction of prismatic blade technology.
Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 30, 2017
A large and complex lithic collection from Pelješac, a peninsula on the eastern Adriatic seaboard of southern Croatia, provides extensive information about raw materials, formal typology, and technology of flaked stone artifacts from the Early Neolithic up to the Iron Age. Most of the evidence comes from two stratified sites: a cave named Spila and the hillfort of Grad, both located on the Nakovana Plateau. The most conspicuous characteristic of the Nakovana lithic collection is continuity, both in production technology and in the choice of raw material. Changes are manifest in frequencies of lithic artifact classes, rather than in kinds of lithic artifacts. Virtually all the lithics are made of cherts imported from the Gargano Peninsula, which testifies to persistent trans-Adriatic connections throughout post-Mesolithic prehistory. Prismatic blades were brought to Nakovana as finished products. They are present from the Early Neolithic, their frequencies peak during the Copper Age, and they disappear from the record soon after the transition to the Bronze Age. An ad hoc flake-production technology is present throughout the sequence, but its importance diminishes as the prismatic blade technology takes over. After the disappearance of prismatic blades, Bronze Age lithic assemblages consist mainly of flakes and expedient flake-based tools. While the Nakovana sites did not yield any Mesolithic finds, comparison with other eastern Adriatic sites indicates that raw material procurement patterns changed radically at the time of the transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic, which also coincided with the introduction of prismatic blade technology.
Quaternary International, 2017
This paper considers lithic raw material procurement of Epigravettian hunter-gatherers from Kopačina Cave on the island of Brač (Dalmatia, Croatia). The most significant group among the determined petrographic categories are different cherts, and a significantly smaller group of radiolarites. Cherts are both locally and regionally available, while radiolarites originate from more distant areas. Use of raw material that could have been procured within 20 km radius (local) and in the range of 20e50 km (regional) is predominant and very similar in all phases. Raw material that could have been procured from distances ranging from 20 to 50 km shows a gradual trend of increase in frequency from the earliest to the latest phase, while the raw material procured from distances greater than 50 km (extra-regional) has an obvious drop in frequency from the eldest to the youngest phase. Temporal trends in lithic raw material use suggest certain continuity during the whole Epigravettian sequence as well as change which shows itself in larger exploitation areas or more intensive long-distance contacts in earlier Epigravettian phases in Kopa cina than in the later ones, and possibly a higher degree of hunter-gatherers' mobility. Presence of radiolarites in Kopačina's Late Upper Paleolithic layers, as well as their potential outcrops suggest movements of hunter-gatherers deeper in east Adriatic continental hinterland where for now only a few traces of human settlements from Late Glacial have been found. Raw material of several found artifacts indicates possible contacts with the west Adriatic coast.
Navigating the Neolithic Adriatic
Recent research shows that the appearance of food production and the Neolithic in the Adriatic basin had a specifically maritime character. This paper discusses Neolithic navigation in terms of the challenges to seafaring posed by the Adriatic’s particular oceanographic qualities, and the role of mariners in the sudden appearance of Neolithic lifeways in and around the Adriatic.