Provenance studies

The provenance study of polished stone tools is partly more simple, partly more com­

plicated than that of the chipped stone industry. It is more simple because for most of the polished stone tools, the raw material is petrologically more characteristic than in the case of the chipped stone industry, made almost exclusively on siliceous rocks composed of micro- and crypto-crystalline quartz varieties. On the other hand, polished stone tools were made on a great variety of rocks with considerable geological distribution. The

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sibilities of macroscopic identification are very modest, at least on the current level of knowledge, and the application of instrumental analytical techniques is only in its initial phase.

2.3.1. Methodology

Provenance studies of polished artefacts are still in a primeval state. Most of the mate­

rial stored in museums are described at most on an "inventory book" level. This means for most pieces a lay person's opinion. At the present level of understanding, the macroscopic determination can be misleading even with profound petrological experience, and hardly informative with respect to exact provenance.

There were only a limited number of pieces investigated by microscopy or in the form of petrological thin sections. This method is suitable for a reliable determination of rock type and, in fortunate cases, can be adequately used in determining exact provenance as well.

Instrumental analyses (X-ray diffraction, different chemical analyses and radiometrical dating) should be applied in cases when petrographical microscopy was not adequate for the determination of the rock or, more typically, within the petrographically separated large groups, such analyses offer further help in exact provenance studies.

Such analyses, better to say, series of analyses have so far not been performed on ar­

chaeological polished stone tools in Hungary⁶.The reason for this is that the limits and potentials of macro- and microscopic analyses have not yet been explored, and in this situation, analyses can be meaningless.

2.3.2. Basic research

Starting from the experience with chipped stone tool raw material provenancing, it is evident that in order to achieve a really good efficiency in determining the origin of raw materials at the site, we have to make parallel studies on the archaeological material and the geological evidence. From the viewpoint of methodology, we had a similar start: first, on the basis of archaeological (macroscopic) evidence, potential samples from classical outcrops in petrographical collections were selected, that are fairly well known from both petrological and geochemical aspect. A sample collection of some 20 items was selected (Table 2).

The study of the sample collection is still in progress - we are making microscopic im­

ages on surfaces prepared in different ways as well as traditional petrological thin sec­

tions. The microscopic images are produced in a digitised form in the Archaeological Instrument Centre of the HAS. In the technical preparations and the evaluation of the material we are working in collaboration with the Petrological and Geochemical Depart­

ment of the Eötvös Loránd University (György Szakmány, geologist and Zsolt Schléder, university student took part in this work). Parallel to this, partly in preparation of the 3rd

Conference Excursion for the 1998 Archaeometry Symposium, we carry out a systematic survey of the most promising outcrops, partly for the purposes of sample collection, but also in hope of locating former mines and workshop settlements.

Exception: X-ray diffraction of the light grey, fine grained material described already by KOTZIAN 1963; from the site Aszód, type '56 ' was identified as containing mainly diopside andplagioclas.

(measurement by L. Bognár, BÍRÓ 1991).

Table 2

Lithotheca Inv. Nr.

Source Name of the rock

L 97/208 Nadap (Velence mts.) andésite L 97/209 Erdősmecske (Mecsek mts.) granite

L 97/210 Glasshütten (AU) chlorite schist with magnetite L 97/211 Szársomlyó mt. (Fejér county) skarn

L 97/212 A Kövestető (Mecsek mts.) phonolite

L 97/212 В Polgárdi (Fejér county) crystalline limestone L 97/213 Szarvaskő, Tóbérc quarry (Bükk mts.) gabbro

L 97/214 Misina plateau (Mecsek mts.) limestone

L 97/215 Rumpersdorf (AU) serpentinite

L 97/216 Harka quarry (Sopron mts.) gneiss L 97/217 Kismórágy (Mecsek mts.) aplitic granite L 97/218 Felsőcsatár (Kőszeg mts.) greenschist L 97/219 Sopron- Kőhegy (Sopron mts.) Grobgneiss L 97/220 Kisnána (Mátra mts.) andésite L 97/221 Medves quarry (near Salgótarján) basalt L 97/222 Brennbergbánya, Kovács árok mica schist L 97/223 Kantavár (Mecsek mt.) bitumenic limestone

L 97/224 Sátoros mt. (Slovakia) amphibol-andesite with garnets L 97/225 Kisújbánya (Mecsek mts.) limestone

L 97/226 Szarvaskő (Bükk mts.) ore peridotite

Unfortunately, the traces of prehistoric mining activity are typically removed by modern quarrying, as Hungary is not very rich in high quality building stones - at least, as yet, we could not find traces of prehistoric mining or workshops on the source. We hope that further fieldwork will be more successful in this respect.

Among the source areas surveyed so far, there are some "classical" sites known from the study of archaeological materials (e.g., Felsőcsatár, greenschist, Bernstein, serpen­

tinite, different basalts), as well as some special materials which offer the possibility of exact identification both among the archaeological finds and the geological evidence.

According to recent studies, the phonolite of the Mecsek Mts. can be one of these: the material was spotted in significant amounts at the well-known Neolithic site of Zengővárkony. Another raw material which can be a point-like a potential source is the Szarvaskő gabbro, which was also spotted in archaeological materials (so far only spo­

radically).

The material collected as well as the collection of reference samples will be stored in the comparative raw material collection of the Hungarian National Museum, called Lithotheca. Here we have already collected some raw material types from the Carpathian Basin and its surroundings which can be considered important as possible sources of polished stone artefacts (see Map 1.).

2.3.3. The study of archaeological material

The provenance study of polished stone tools in Hungary has so far had very modest results. In certain assemblages, there were some, mainly petrologically based studies. The results, however, could be contented only with the determination of the main rock types, due to the lack of basic research. Such studies were made on the material of the sites Vésztő, Tiszapolgár-Basatanya, Battonya-Parázstanya, Szécsény-Ültetés. The results, however, remained unpublished, or were registered as archived data only. The reason for

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this clearly is, that without basic petroarchaeological research the rock identification worded in the language of the geologist did not mean much to the excavating archaeolo­

gist.

More recently, due to the activities of György Szakmány, valuable data concerning the provenance of the polished stone tools from Bicske, Méhtelek and Szarvas Neolithic sites were published. His maps can be complemented with the scanty amount of information we have at hand (Map. 2., Table 4.).

During the course of the complex study of some prehistoric sites, the author had the possibility to spot some important materials which seem to play important roles as raw materials for polished artefacts. They comprise some rocks which can be connected more or less exactly to source regions such as serpentinite, different types of greenschist, gab-bro, more recently, phonolite - but there are much more types the geological source of which cannot be identified yet, such as different types of basalt, andésite and a wide vari­

ety of sedimentary rocks.

New efforts, and mainly the results of basic research performed parallel to the analysis of archaeological material, will hopefully complete our knowledge and it will be possible to fit the polished stone tool provenance data within the methodological framework used in exploring the system of contacts between prehistoric sites.