Ślady osadnictwa wczesnoneolitycznej ludności kultury ceramiki wstęgowej rytej w rejonie wsi Ramiszów, pow. wrocławski

• Authors: Włodzimierz Wojciechowski

Title variants

EN

TRACES OF EARLY NEOLITHIC OCCUPATION BY THE PEOPLE OF LINEAR POTTERY CULTURE AT RAMISZÓW

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The relics of a possible settlement were identified at Ramiszów, site 4, in the course of archaeological excavation made in advance of the construction of expressway S8 linking Wrocław and Warsaw. Excavation was made of SE fragment of a site designated by a scatter of archaeological finds observed during a surface survey, an area of less than 4000 m2. Regrettably, the area available for excavation was restricted by the scope of the road construction project and could not be extended. Despite the relatively large size of the site subjected to exploration only two archaeological features were identified on the western boundary of the trench, suggesting it was the eastern outlying area of a settlement extending more to the west of the excavation. Ceramic finds determined the dating of one of the pits as early medieval (no. 1) and assigned the other pit (no. 20) to the Neolithic age and to the Linear Pottery Culture. Archaeological finds from this second pit are the subject of the present analysis. The 2.24×1.26 m pit survived only in its bottom fragment, as shown by its depth of just 0.24 m, with a fill of dark grey compacted humus. The inventory consisted of 131 pottery fragments and 69 flints. Despite substantial fragmentation of the sherds it was possible to identify nine vessel forms (Fig. 8, 9). It is characteristic that not one of them was a globular vessel typical for the older phases of Linear Pottery Culture; next to a single barrel-shaped form (Fig. 9c) there were only pyriform vessels with a flattened body and marked rim (Fig. 8a-c, f, 9b). Also notable is ornamentation which does not feature the musical notation motif, so typical for the older phases of Linear Pottery Culture. The designs observed on all the decorated sherds (except for the barrel-shaped form) are of Šarka variety, its most representative forms shown in Fig. 8a-g. The ornamentation of the barrel-shaped vessel is also striking, a typical stroke-ornamented design similar to the earliest ornamentation seen on Stroked Pottery Culture ceramics encountered in Lower Silesia in settlements dated to the final stages of Linear Pottery Culture (Skoroszowice, Strachów). All ceramic attributes named here help in dating the pit no. 2, and the settlement to which presumably it belonged, to the final stage of the Linear Pottery Culture, to be more precise - its youngest stadium, phase Šarka, transitional to the Stroked Pottery Culture. The flint inventory is of two varieties: Baltic moraine flint (89.8%) and Jurassic flint from the region of Kraków (10.2%). The series of 59 flints included cores, mostly of splintered piece type, flakes, blades and retouched tools (5 specimens). The pit is interpreted as a waste pit based on the presence of refittings of production waste (Fig. 15 and 16) from the working of cores by its edge. The site under discussion of truly exceptional relevance for the study of the extent of Linear Pottery Culture settlement bordering on the Odra River in Lower Silesia. This is because it is the first evidence, so well-documented by diagnostic ceramic material, of penetration of the areas on the right bank of the Odra, after the people of the said culture had forded the great river in the region where its joined by its tributaries the Oława, the Ślęza and the Bystrzyca. The source area of this group would have been the centre of dense settlement formed between the Oława and the Bystrzyca, with the river Ślęza as its axis. Ties with this region are indicted by some of the technological attributes of the pottery (copious tempering with mica or with coarse quartzite) and finds of Jurassic flint from the region of Kraków, which in settlements of this centre of settlement in southern Silesia is definitely the dominant variety, imported from western Lesser Poland.

Keywords

EN

NEOLITHIC; FARMERS; LINEAR POTTERY CULTURE; SETTLEMENT

• Publisher: Instytut Archeologii Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego
• Journal: Śląskie Sprawozdania Archeologiczne
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 53
• Pages: 177-210

Contributors

author

Włodzimierz Wojciechowski

• Instytut Archeologii Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, ul. Szewska 48, 50-139 Wrocław, Poland.