LITHIC INVENTORY
Lithic inventory studies will focus on the raw material used, technology and typological and functional description of the lithic assemblages. We aim to create a database of the technological and typological features of the assemblages under the same methodology. This will make the assemblages statistically comparable and provide significant results. Our prime method is a technological reading of the knapped stone artefacts. Based on this analysis, we will gain data regarding raw material procurement strategy, technical knapping knowledge, reduction sequences, tool types, influence of raw material on the technological process, and thus the complete lithic economy. Additionally, the data collected for the raw material used on different sites will give us information about hunter-gatherer group mobility and inter-regional contacts.
We will also include refitting studies. They are useful for a better understanding of the technology and intra-site spatial analyses, as well as to understand both anthropogenic and post-depositional processes that formed the cultural layers.
Lithic tool type classification will pay special attention to armatures which are indispensable components of hunting weapons and thus connected to hunting techniques and prey species.
TEAM: Jarosław Wilczyński, Marc Händel, Norbert Buchinger, Martin Novak, György Lengyel.
Refitted flint core
Jaksice II
TRACEOLOGY
Use-wear analysis of lithic artefacts will be performed via microscopic analysis at the Laboratory of Archaeometry and Archaeological Conservation, Institute of Archaeology, University of Wrocław. Traces will be analysed with the use of a stereomicroscope. Polish, edge rounding and striations will be identified under a metallographic microscope.
Use-wear analysis will be carried out for some of the retouched tools, especially armatures, and aim at determining their function and identification of potential adhesives related to hafting. The experimental collection gathered in the Lab was used as the reference materials. This will help to interpret site function and intra-site spatial organization.
TEAM: Bernadeta Kufel-Diakowska.
Kraków Spadzista - fragment of a mammoth’s rib with an embedded flint blade
Kraków Spadzista - shouldered point with impact trace.