Sobkowiak-Tabaka I., Kufel-Diakowska B. 2019. The shining piece of the puzzle - evidence of plant use in the Late Palaeolithic (original) (raw)
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2013
Bifacially worked leafpoints are often treated as a kind of “index fossil” for MP/UP transitional industries in Central Europe. In some cases, their presence determines if a given inventory is assigned to a leafpoint industry. For the last 50 years, research has established the oldest leafpoints in Central and Southern Europe. As a result, a few dozen sites can be recently ascribed as leafpoint assemblages older than transitional Szeletian or Jerzmanowician assemblages. This article was designed as a point in the ongoing debate on the legitimacy of treating leafpoints as the main culture indicator of such assemblages. It challenges the notion that the tools called “leafpoints” in the whole of Central and Southern Europe illustrate a similar tool concept, in terms of their technology. In total, 17 collections of leafpoints from 8 countries were analysed by a scar pattern analysis in order to reconstruct the chaîne opératoire. The results show that the analysed artefacts are not coherent from the perspective of the technology, and one can distinguish at least few different techno-functional concepts of tools. On the basis of the analyses, the manuscript presents a technological definition of the leafpoint as a tool which has two symmetrical edges converging at the tip; both edges were treated in the same way in the course of knapping; the tool is symmetrical and was made to be such.
2019
Studies on the treatment and use of plants in the Mesolithic are difficult due to the small number of sources. However, they are important because it was one of the basic branches of the economy of the early Holocene community. This article presents the results of use-wear and experimental studies aimed at the interpretation of the function of the so-called curved knives. These tools are associated with the treatment of silica plants, but their actual function is not fully understood. The research was based on a collection of 66 products of this type from five sites in central Poland and is one of the first published research on tools of this kind from this part of Europe. As a result of microscopic analysis, eight types of curved knives were distinguished. In order to identify the plant species, the knives were used on an experimental programme based on the results of palynological studies carried out at site 6 in Ludowice, an economically specialised site. As a result of the traceological analyses, a number of correlations between artefacts and experimental tools have been identified that can provide an important step towards interpreting the actual function of the curved knives. At the same time, the large discrepancies in the traces resulting from the processing of different species of silica plants were documented and the probable use of many of their species in the European Mesolithic was suggested.
This paper presents the results of use-wear analysis of a flint inventory from the Late Glacial open-air site Targowisko 10, located ca. 30 km east of Cracow, S Poland. The site represents a temporary camp of Upper Palaeolithic hunters from the 15th millennium BP, whose activities were related to hunting horse and reindeer, as well as obtaining local flint from the nearby outcrop. A few concentrations of stone artefacts associated with the reduction of flint nodules and 5 hearths were discovered at the site within a clear spatial structure. The Palaeolithic assemblage consists of 4708 stone artefacts, mostly made of flint, and the remains of steppetundra animals: horse and reindeer. Based on spatial analysis of flint tools of particular function, unused artefacts and refitted objects we determined activities performed at the site and spots, where tools and wastes had been discarded. Clear spatial distribution of the structures and intensively worn tools enabled us to draw conclusion...
Quaternary International, 2014
Bifacially worked leafpoints are often treated as a kind of "index fossil" for MP/UP transitional industries in Central Europe. In some cases, their presence determines if a given inventory is assigned to a leafpoint industry. For the last 50 years, research has established the oldest leafpoints in Central and Southern Europe. As a result, a few dozen sites can be recently ascribed as leafpoint assemblages older than transitional Szeletian or Jerzmanowician assemblages. This article was designed as a point in the ongoing debate on the legitimacy of treating leafpoints as the main culture indicator of such assemblages. It challenges the notion that the tools called "leafpoints" in the whole of Central and Southern Europe illustrate a similar tool concept, in terms of their technology. In total, 17 collections of leafpoints from 8 countries were analysed by a scar pattern analysis in order to reconstruct the chaîne opératoire. The results show that the analysed artefacts are not coherent from the perspective of the technology, and one can distinguish at least few different techno-functional concepts of tools. On the basis of the analyses, the manuscript presents a technological definition of the leafpoint as a tool which has two symmetrical edges converging at the tip; both edges were treated in the same way in the course of knapping; the tool is symmetrical and was made to be such.
2015
Bifacially worked leafpoints are often treated as a kind of "index fossil" for MP/UP transitional industries in Central Europe. In some cases, their presence determines if a given inventory is assigned to a leafpoint industry. For the last 50 years, research has established the oldest leafpoints in Central and Southern Europe. As a result, a few dozen sites can be recently ascribed as leafpoint assemblages older than transitional Szeletian or Jerzmanowician assemblages. This article was designed as a point in the ongoing debate on the legitimacy of treating leafpoints as the main culture indicator of such assemblages. It challenges the notion that the tools called "leafpoints" in the whole of Central and Southern Europe illustrate a similar tool concept, in terms of their technology. In total, 17 collections of leafpoints from 8 countries were analysed by a scar pattern analysis in order to reconstruct the chaîne opératoire. The results show that the analysed artefacts are not coherent from the perspective of the technology, and one can distinguish at least few different techno-functional concepts of tools. On the basis of the analyses, the manuscript presents a technological definition of the leafpoint as a tool which has two symmetrical edges converging at the tip; both edges were treated in the same way in the course of knapping; the tool is symmetrical and was made to be such.
Stones - current Stone Age research in Northern Europe, 2023
Traditionally, the Stone Age of Northern Europe has been studied employing typological approaches to formal tool types. Focus has been on establishing typologies and chronologies on national or regional geographical scales. In this paper, we take a new approach, mapping variation in lithic technological practice by identifying the development of methods and concepts for blade blank production at a transregional level and in a long-term perspective. Until now, there have been few attempts to describe the methods for blade production in detail, and compile them in a long-term perspective within a wider geographical context. We present a detailed description of blade production methods from the Final Palaeolithic to the Middle Mesolithic (10 900-7000 cal. BCE) in Scandinavia and Northwest Germany based on a compilation and technological analysis of 52 excavated sites. Our studies reveal a common technological development in this area. The development during this time-span is initially characterised by continuity, followed by modification and finally introduction of a new technology and the disappearance of the old. The results contrast previous typologically based conclusions, and provide new insights that can form a more solid foundation for future understanding of interaction dynamics and the culture-historical development of the Stone Age of Northern Europe.
The Middle Palaeolithic artefact from the Dąbrowa Tarnowska 37 sit
ACTA ARCHAEOLOGICA CARPATHICA, 2018
Abstract: The paper discusses the discovery of a single lithic artefact from the Dąbrowa Tarnowska 37 site. The lithic, based on its technological and typological characteristics, can be associated with the Middle Palaeolithic. This is an important find due to the fact that, in the area of the Sandomierz Basin, settlement of that period is confirmed by only a few single finds discovered exclusively in the eastern and central parts of the basin. The lithic has been defined as a Levallois point, although a different interpretation, such as its being a by-product of Levallois core shaping, can not be excluded. It was made of Jurassic flint of undetermined provenance, probably originating from moraines. Precise dating of the find is not possible. It was been found on the surface of fluvioglacial deposit of South Polish glaciation (Elsterian) age. The chronological framework of this glaciation preceded the well-proven use of Levallois techniques in the south of Poland (Biśnik cave, Ciemna cave, Kraków Zwierzyniec 1).
Plant macroremains from an early Neolithic site in eastern Kuyavia, central Poland
The study examined plant remains from the Smólsk 2/10 site, situated on the border of two different landscapes and preserving traces of Neolithic occupation from several cultures: Early Linear Pottery culture (LBK, ca 5300–5200 cal. BC to ca 5000 cal. BC), Stroke Band Pottery culture (SBP, ca 4700–4400 cal. BC), the Brześć Kujawski group of Lengyel culture (BKG, ca 4500–4000/3900 cal. BC), Funnel Beaker culture (TRB, ca 3950–3380 BC), and also some features of the Lusatian culture (Hallstatt C, ca 970–790 cal. BC). Mostly hulled wheat remains (Triticum monococcum, T. dicoccum) were found in the LBK, SBP, and BKG cultures; they were completely absent in younger cultures (TRB, Lusatian), where barley remains appeared. Among other plants the most numerous were remains of small-grain grasses (mostly cf. Hierochloë type), feather grass (Stipa sp.), wild buckwheat (Fallopia convolvulus), and goosefoot (Chenopodium album type), but the plant remains are relatively scarce. The archaeobotanical data obtained from the site supplement data from neighbouring Osłonki to the west and Wolica Nowa to the northwest. The differences between those microregions are reflected mostly in the earlier appearance of feather grass (Stipa sp.) in the Smólsk area as well as the higher quantity of crop chaff remains in the Osłonki area, but their random occurrence, along with the fragmentariness of the archaeological data, must be taken into account. However, intentional introduction of feather grass by the first Neolithic settlers in eastern Kuyavia cannot be excluded. The relatively high proportion of small-grain grasses, usually interpreted as traces of fodder, together with the scarcity of crop remains at the Wolica Nowa site, suggests that the site was connected more with animal husbandry than with agriculture. On the other hand, the small-grain grasses at Smólsk are represented mainly by a large number of non-weedy grass (cf. Hierochloë type) grains from the crop sample, which cannot be explained in a simple way. A comparison of the anthracological data from the Osłonki and Smólsk microregions reveals differences in woodland management and differences between the local environments. Pine wood was more accessible at Smólsk than at Osłonki, due to local landscape characteristics.