The sites at Berżupia/Beržupis, Dymitrówka, Dubicze/Dubičiai and Grybosze/Gribaša, rej. Varėna, Lithuania, lie in the south-western part of the Lithuanian Lake District, on the upper and middle Mereczanka/Merkys River, at the centre of heavy concentration of Final Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic settlement. The sites at Dubicze were situated probably on the first terrace above the flood plain of Lake Pielasa; geomorphologic location of other sites cannot be specified more closely. The flint material had been collected from the surface of deflated dune formations at the turn of the 19th and 20th c. as well as in the 1920s by W. Szukiewicz and L. and I. Sawicki. All the specimens are made of Baltic Cretaceous flint collected locally from the surface. The local “Orany variation of Baltic flint (from the town of Orany/Varëna) distinguished by its fine quality occurred in large nodules. The cores were worked using the hard hammer technique. The largest group is formed by conical and subconical specimens with a single striking platform (Fig. 1). Nearly a half of the striking platforms show traces of preparation. Preparation of sides and back of the core is seen extremely seldom. While there are almost no raw blades of high quality many of the blade tools are of considerable length. It would appear that only a small number of long and straight blades were produced, most of them used in tool production. Percentage participation of cortical blades and flakes (Table 1) suggests that flint nodules were worked on the site. This is indicated by the tool inventory of a number of small concentrations of flints at Dymitrówka and Grybosze. Blade morphology, the type of cortex on cores and blanks, patina, manner of exploitation, and refittings (Fig. 6b) suggest that at least a part of the blanks and waste products had been struck from cores remaining at these sites which probably represent sites (workshops) which were used once or only briefly for working a one or more cores. Flint finds originating from the sites in question vary greatly in terms of chronology and culture affiliation. A small number of specimens probably belongs to the Lyngby and Arhensburgian culture namely, a core similar to Lyngby specimens (Fig. 6d), tanged points (Fig. 4k) and truncated pieces of the Komornica/Zonhoven type(?). Swiderian culture is represented by tanged points (Fig. 5d,h, 7i, 10e,g), opposite platform cores (Fig. 3a, 7k) and Tarnovian end-scrapers (Fig. 3e, 4h,i, 5f) all of which occurred at several sites and may be dated to the close of Younger Dryas or beginning of the Preboreal Period. Mesolithic finds well represented at all sites included single specimens characteristic for the Western Baltic early Mesolithic: Komornica/Zonhoven truncated pieces and backed pieces of Stawinoga type associated with Komornica culture. It is noteworthy that inventories featuring elements of that culture form visible concentrations on the upper Kotra and Uła/Ūla Rivers, at Duba, Dubicze, Grybosze, Rudnia and Czereszla VI. Western influence is suggested by the presence in the assemblages likewise at Dubicze and Grybosze of elements such as Wieliszew points with a truncated base (Fig. 9d) and a trapeze with concave sides (Fig. 7h). Analogous specimens are known in Maglemosian culture. The presence of the trapeze suggests that contacts with this environment lasted even until the beginning of the Atlantic Period – the post-Maglemosian Oldesloe culture. The main body of the collection is comprised by Janisławice and Neman material. Finds from Dubicze, Dymitrówka and Grybosze included all varieties of Wieliszew points: specimens having a natural, snapped, retouched or concave and retouched base. A distinct variant are truncated pieces of the Janisławice type in which the tang is formed (Fig. 9a,b) by means of a semiflat alternate (Kunda type) or unifacial (Ahrensburgian) retouch. They are made on broad, regular, slightly bowed blades. The small number of analogous specimens published to date has yet to be studied in more detail. They are associated with Kunda culture sites and concentrate in the area close to the border between Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. Materials from the analysed sites also featured elements characteristic for Janisławice culture, such as large and small Janisławice triangles, trapezes, partly backed knives and side-scrapers. The Boreal Period saw a shift of the Kunda culture from the north onto Janisławice settlement and the emergence of a zone of Kunda-Janisławice intermixing featuring assemblages containing elements of both these cultures. A compact area of occurrence of such assemblages to a large extent corresponds to with the range of a phenomenon defined by S. K. Kozłowski (1972, 92–119; 1973, 349–350) as Neman culture, group of the Lithuanian Kunda culture (S.K. Kozłowski 1971, 73), by R. Rimantienė (1971, 125–152) as Microlithic-Macrolithic culture. Neman materials are characterised by presence of tools such as subconical cores with a single striking platform, slender and squat end-scrapers, burins on snaps, core and flake axes, Kunda points, Borki bladelets, Neolithic arrowheads, truncated pieces of Michałów type and perforators, borers, side-scrapers, Wieliszew points. The assortment of types evidently suggests a strong continuation of Mesolithic forms accompanied by an admixture of Neolithic characteristics evidenced by the method of retouching (arrowheads, axes). There is no certainty however, whether the Neolithic elements do not represent a purely mechanical admixture (E. Kempisty 1983, 183). The presence of an arrowhead with channel retouch, the polishing of blades in macrolithic tools, predominance of macrolithic rather than microlithic forms (Dymitrówka, Berżupia), as well as the location of the site at Dubicze on the first terrace above the flood plain indicate a later chronology of the Neman materials, i.e., 3000 and 2000 BC. At the same time pottery registers early Neman elements (e.g. Dubičiai pottery). This suggests that the site was settled repeatedly or that there was a continuity of settlement from the beginning of the Neolithic. Phase III of the Neolithic in Lithuania (end of the 3rd millennium until 1600 BC) saw the advent of Corded Ware culture in the region. In southern regions of Lithuania settlement of Neman (Upper Neman) culture continued in existence featuring in its inventories numerous elements associated with the Corded Ware environment, represented in the collections under discussion by bifacal oval-sectioned axes (Fig. 7a) and bifacial tools (Fig. 11b). Basing on the analysis of inventories the sites were distinguished into two groups: 1. Berżupia and Dymitrówka produced predominantly Neman culture material dated to 4000–3000 BC. A number of concentrations or sections of sites may probably be considered to be largely homogeneous although a slight admixture of materials from the Final Palaeolithic is also in evidence (i.e., Swiderian, Ahrensburgian?, Lyngby?) as well as most probably, Mesolithic (Janisławice culture?). A part of the assemblages have a character of workshops – Dymitrówka (gn. 3, site 1e, Koło koty 110). 2. Dubicze and Grybosze most probably represent multicomponent flint workshops associated with working Cretaceous flint found locally. Similar character is exhibited by sites concentrating around Rudnia in Lithuania (R. Schild, H. Więckowska 1961, 194). Settlement continuity in these sites is documented starting from the close of the Final Palaeolithic until the Bronze Age.
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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