The population of the Lusatian culture inhabiting the Lublin area during the Bronze age and Early Iron age used various items made of flint and stone. The most spectacular finds include sickles and sickles inserts with surface retouch. Items made from flint and stone were used mainly as tools, but also as weapons, as well as prestige indicators. They also had symbolic function. These artefacts were probably produced on site at settlements and they were among the accessories of everyday life of the population living then. In the Early Iron age, in the valley of the Vistula River, local flint deposits were exploited. Flint knapping workshops were set up here. Extremly numerous flint artefacts were recorded at these workshops and they represent the so-called Kosin industry.
This paper publishes the materials from the Late Paleolithic and Mesolithic obtained through surface surveys, mainly pre-war, from the area situated to the north of the Holy Cross Mountains, between the Pilica and Vistula rivers. The materials come from the collection of the State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw and the Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum in Łódź. This analysis covers the cores and retouched tools. The catalogue contains 116 as yet unpublished collections, of which a fragment was mentioned in the archaeological literature. The artefacts are presented in tables I–XXIX. Additionally, data were collected in the catalogue about collections known from the archaeological literature as obtained from surface surveys and excavations. A number of archaeological sites which were discovered through Polish Archaeological Record (AZP) were also signalled. In the area under discussion, archaeological study, which was carried out since the beginning of the last century, focused on two issues: the study of outcrops and the prehistoric exploitation sites of chocolate flint, and the study of the complex of Final Paleolithic and Mesolithic settlement sites around the hematite mines known as Rydno, and situated near Skarżysko-Kamienna. Field studies before WW II were carried out primarily by S. Krukowski and I. and L. Sawicki. After the war, intensive excavations were carried out in the 50ties in Rydno on the initiative of S. Krukowski, and later, in the 70ties, excavations were directed by R. Schild, both in the sector with outcrops of chocolate flint and in Rydno itself. The flint materials under study, though they are of lesser scientific value than those obtained directly through excavations, complement the overall picture of the settlement in the discussed area. 21 Final Paleolithic and 43 Mesolithic collections were distinguished. Mixed material, from both these periods, occurred at 17 sites. 26 inventories were generally dated to the Final Paleolithic and Mesolithic, or only their close chronology was suggested. 9 collections comprising mostly individual artefacts were only generally ascribed to the Stone Age (Table 1). For the inventory from Dyszów 1, concentration 1 (Pl. V:9–25) a Final Magdalenian character was suggested due to the presence of the backed bladelet (Pl. V:23). In the mixed inventory from Bawaria, two arch-backed pieces were distinguished (Pl. III:3.4), which were probably connected with the arch-backed piece technocomplex, dated to the Late Alleröd and Younger Dryas. The individual arch-backed piece from Pakosław (Pl. XVII:18) should be associated with the same complex. Most of the analysed Final Paleolithic inventories is connected with the Swiderian Culture, dated generally to the second half of the Younger Dryas. In the collections from the sites in Barycz 2 (Pls. I:5–8, II:1–7), Radom (Pl. XXIV:1–5), Ryczywół (Pl. XXV:1–8) and Kuźnia (Pls. XII, XIII) the tanged and willow-leaf Masovian points, which are the central tools of this culture, occur in a broader, typical context of opposed platform cores for blades or end--scrapers and burins, which are similar in style to those found in the Swiderian Culture. Sparse collections containing individual Masovian points come from the sites in: Lisów (Pl. XI:24), Teofilów (Pl. XXVIII:3) and Dębiny (Pl. V:3–6). In Dębiny, beside the Masovian point, also a big Lyngby point was found. Individual Masovian points were also found in the mixed collections from the sites in: Przepaść (Pl. XIX:28), Pyszna Górka (Pl. XXII:30) and Przedbórz (Pl. XIX:22). At the site in Myślakowice, a point of the Hintersee type occurred (Pl. XVI:13), which is rare in Swiderian assemblages. With the latter assemblages one should also associate the finds from the sites in Barycz 1 (Pl. I:1–4), Huta Książek (Pl. IX:16.17), Sielpia Wielka 3 (Pl. XXVI:1–3) and Suchodółka (Pl. XXVIII:1.2) which contained slim opposed platform cores for blades and individual end-scrapers and burins. In the mixed inventory from the site in Marcinków 2, there was a Grensk shouldered point (Pl. XV:3) rarely occurring at Swiderian sites of the north-eastern and central-eastern Poland. Among the numerous Mesolithic inventories, two collections: Bobki 2 (Pl. III:16–26) and Bobki 3 (Pl. III:27–37) were recognised as older, non-trapezoid assemblages of the Komornica Culture due to the presence of a few forms from the basic component of this culture. A group of Komornica artefacts occurred also at the site in Ponikwa, concentration 3 (Pl. XVIII:38.39.43–55). Elements of the younger Komornica Culture or of the Chojnice-Pieńki Culture can be distinguished in the sparse group of armatures at the site in Pakosław (Pl. XVII:18–24.27–30). The affiliation with the Janisławice Culture was suggested only for the inventory from the site in Pyszna Górka (Pl. XXIII:9–33). Janisławice points occurred also in mixed collections from the sites in Gapinin 2 (Pl. VII:19), Gaworzyn (Pl. IX:6–8), Kozia Wola (Pl.X:32) and in the Mesolithic inventory at Bobki (Pl. IV:5). The core exploitation type which is close to the one in the Janisławice Culture is represented also by the single-platform cores for blades with a flaking surface on the narrower side from the sites Sielpia Wielka 2 (Pl. XXV:32), and Przepaść (Pl. XIX:25.26). The group of Mesolithic inventories, in which scrapers and trapezes dominate, while end-scrapers are absent or few and far between, was characterised as assemblages of the Late Mesolithic. These are: Kazanów (Pl. IX:18–33), Końskie (Pl. X:19–25), Ponikwa 1 (Pl. XVIII:6–29), Pyszna Górka (Pl. XXI:1–45) and Trupień (Pl. XXIX:1–10). The analysis of the types of flint raw materials in the discussed collections of the Final Paleolithic and Mesolithic complements the general picture known on the basis of materials from the archaeological excavations (Table 2). The northern footslopes of the Holy Cross Mountains is an area at which chocolate flint dominates in assemblages. It was obtained in numerous exploitation points at the territory of its outcrops extending along the south-east axis from the vicinity of Guzów to the Kamienna valley. Among the Final Paleolithic inventories (161 items with determined the raw material) the share of different types of flint was the following: chocolate flint is 89,4%, Baltic erratic flint 5,6%, Cretaceous flint 3,6%, and Świeciechów flint 1,2%. In the river bend of the Kamienna, and in its outlet to the Vistula river, at the area of Cretaceous flint outcrops, more numerous items of this raw material occur. Among the materials from the Mesolithic (685 items with determined raw material), 61,0% of the items are made of chocolate flint, 27,4% of Baltic flint, 5,8% of Świeciechów flint, 2,3% of Jurassic flint, 1,9% of Cretaceous flint, and 0,7% of banded flint. In the Mesolithic inventories from sites situated in the basin of the Kamienna and Vistula rivers, the role of the leading flint complementing the inventories is taken by Świeciechów flint over from Baltic flint. The Final Paleolithic and Mesolithic sites are situated mostly in river valleys of the region (Fig.2). The concentration of sites is particularly visible in the area of the cities of Końskie and Radoszyce, in the area which is geographically varied: numerous streams, sands and sand dunes. The comparison of the available data suggests, that almost all sites in this area are located on dune terraces of rivers. The concentration of traces of settlements also takes place in areas of occurrence of attractive raw materials, obtained in the Final Paleolithic and Mesolithic, that is, at the territory of outcrops of chocolate flint and hematite at Rydno.
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