Early Neolithic grinding practices in central Europe: A case study from the LBK micro-region in southwestern Poland

Abstract

Macro-lithic stone tools were a part of the so-called Neolithic package introduced by the first farmers north of the Sudety Mountains and Carpathians in the 2nd half of the 6th millennium BCE. In the early communities of the Linear Pottery Culture (LBK) in today’s southwestern Poland, two general traditions are noticed when selecting raw materials for their production. The first tradition is evidenced by axes and adzes made exclusively of metabasite from the Bohemian Massif in Sudety as far as 200 km south. On the other hand, grinding and abrading tools used for processing various products and tool manufacturing were made of locally accessible selected rocks and erratic resources.

This paper focuses on the production and use of different grinding and abrading tools from the LBK microregion in southwestern Poland (Lower Silesian cluster). The collection consists of 80 implements grouped into a few categories: passive querns and grinding slabs/anvils, active grinders, handstones, hammerstones, grooved abraders and polishers. To study strategies for selecting and processing patterns of locally accessible raw materials, we studied morphometric characteristics and use-wear and residue analysis combined with experimental data. Our research showed that the methods of production and utilisation of grinding and abrading tools in grain processing, edge tools manufacturing and repair, as well as deposition patterns of querns and grinders at the settlements in the Lower Silesian cell, are similar to southern and north-western regions of the LBK occupations. That shows similar technological traditions among the first farmers and their similar patterns of adaptation to the local environments.