Lithic Production and Consumption in a Chert-Rich Upland: Exploring Local Patterns on a Neolithic Landscape in Southern Germany

Summary

The intensity of extraction activities at Neolithic quarries and mines in Central Europe has fueled debate about the scale and organization of chert and flint extraction and exchange during this period. However, most studies of stone consumption and exchange in the region have been based on lowland settlement assemblages at some distance from stone sources. This paper presents results of a regional project combining survey, remote sensing, analysis of private collections, and test excavation to explore Neolithic use of locally abundant chert on the Swabian limestone uplands in southwest Germany. At the center of the studied region is a quarry landscape of pits and debris piles extending over 6 hectares. Radiocarbon dates on charcoal in pit fill indicate that the quarry was used in several episodes from 5000 to 2500 B.C. We combine attribute analysis of the quarry assemblage with comparisons to excavated and surface assemblages from surrounding locations to explore local variations and change through time in the use of the quarry and in the spatial distribution of lithic production activities across a settlement landscape. Results of this project contribute to an understanding of diversity in local patterns of lithic production, consumption, and exchange in the Central European Neolithic.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21692