FINDS OF PREHISTORIC HAMMERS WITH GROOVES AND NOTCHES FROM THE TERRITORY OF SLOVAKIA. CONTRIBUTION TO THE BEGINNINGS OF MINING AND EXPLOITATION OF NON-FERROUS METALS

• Authors: Bátora Jozef
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The study discusses finds of prehistoric stone hammers with grooves and notches from the territory of Slovakia, which are associated mostly with mining and exploitation of non-ferrous metals. More than 400 exemplars from 17 sites come from the territory of Slovakia. They can be classified into several basic types. Most of the above-mentioned hammers come directly from Špania Dolina, Piesky site, in central Slovakia. Another rather rich group comes from its nearby surroundings in the region of Banská Bystrica. As for the remaining 13 sites, mostly located in SW Slovakia, away from the areas of non-ferrous metals exploitation, only 14 hammers were obtained from them. To identify the function of hammers in this area, four of them were submitted for X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. It confirmed presence of traces of copper (Cu) on percussion ends on three exemplars. Obviously, some hammers – also outside the main area of copper ore exploitation in the central Slovak volcanic mountains were used in metallurgy. With regard to the fact that hammers were primarily designed for striking, it can be assumed that some of them were used as multifunctional tools. The petrographic analysis of the hammers from Špania Dolina-Piesky showed that they were mostly made from silicite, less frequently from andesite, granodiorite, amphibolite and migmatite. The use of hammers for copper exploitation in Slovakia as early as the Early Eneolithic, the Epi-Lengyel period, was confirmed by the discovery of a hammer with a groove and notch in a Ludanice group settlement feature in Banská Bystrica-Kremnička. Use of hammers in the Early Bronze Age is documented by the hammer in the Nitra culture male burial in Čachtice in the central Váh river basin and the exemplar uncovered in a Hatvan culture settlement feature in Šahy in the lower Ipeľ river basin.

Keywords

EN

SLOVAKIA; ENEOLITHIC; BRONZE AGE; STONE HAMMERS WITH GROOVES; NOTCHES; SPECTRAL ANALYSIS; PETROGRAPHIC ANALYSIS; MINING; METALLURGY

• Publisher: Slovak Academy of Sciences, Archaeological Institute
• Journal: Študijné zvesti
• Year: 2025
• Volume: 72
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 57 – 84

Contributors

author

Bátora Jozef

• Archeologický ústav SAV, v. v. i., Akademická 2, 949 21 Nitra, Slovak Republic

• https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7690-1628

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31577/szausav.2025.72.4