Flint session à l’EAA de Cracovie
Ce samedi 23 septembre 2006, une session relative aux mines de silex est organisée dans le cadre de la rencontre annuelle de l’EAA (European Association of Archaeologists) qui se tient en cette année à Cracovie. Vous trouverez ci-dessous le résumé de toutes les communications qui y seront présentées dont une communication sur Spiennes.
EAA- CRACOVIE, SEPTEMBRE 2006 SESSION : FLINT MINING IN PREHISTORIC EUROPE : INTERPRETING THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORDS
Organizers: Pierre Allard, Françoise Bostyn, François Giligny, Jacek Lech
Saturday all day, Main Hall room 2
IDEOLOGY AND CONTEXT WITH THE EUROPEAN FLINT MINING TRADITION
Paul WHEELER
This paper presents the results of part of a research project which aims to evaluate the influences and evolution of the early Neolithic in Southern Britain.The following discourse endeavours to understand the development of the early Neolithic flint mining tradition, with particular reference to the Sussex mines of southern Britain. The chronologically contemporary flint mines of Western Europe are analysed, in order to determine if common practices occur amongst the mines of Europe and those that first appeared in Britain and thus uncover any potential continental influences on the early Neolithic of Southern Britain. The research looks beyond superficial similarities, and looks to identify commonalities in the ideology and the attitude associated with the mines and the mining process. Do we find similar events taking place in the mines? Are technical problems dealt with in similar ways? and how does the approach towards flint manifest itself? The common practices identified are then analysed in order to determine if an ideological bond can be found throughout the flint mining process of Western Europe. Ideas are proposed about what we can infer from communities who are displaying a similar set of cultural choices across this part of Europe. Any potential ideologies are then briefly extended to see if they manifest themselves amongst other early Neolithic arenas.
” HIDDEN IN HEAPS BY THEIR KENNELS ” : DO WE REALLY KNOW WHY WAS FLINT EXTRACTED FROM THE NEOLITHIC ‘FLINT MINES’ OF CENTRAL SOUTHERN BRITAIN?
Dr Miles RUSSELL.
“That, in some fields of his country there are certain shining stones of several colours, whereof the Yahoos are violently fond; and when part of these stones are fixed in the earth, as it sometimes happeneth, they will dig with their claws for whole days to get them out, and carry them away, and hide them by heaps in their kennels” (J. Swift1726, Gulliver’s Travels, 89)
The Neolithic was a period of prolific human activity across the chalklands of central southern Britain with removal of trees, the construction of large enclosures and long mounds, and the excavation of deep shafts. Whilst the purpose of enclosures and mounds appears to be relatively clear (for settlement and burial), shafts are always thought of as points of flint extraction, the engine-rooms that drove the Neolithic through the provision of deeply buried, high quality flint. Detailed analysis of the, until recently unpublished, excavation archive relating to the Southern mine series, however, seems to contradict this view. Mines were indeed dug and flint extracted, but the bulk of the raw material appears to have been left in situ, piled into mounds or reburied in specially cut pits. Why would the Neolithic people of the area have gone to so much effort to obtain deeply buried flint, only to discard it again on the surface? Examination of the 1920 – 50 excavation archive, combined with a new programme of fieldwork, has suggested that the Neolithic shafts of central southern Britain were not primarily dug for economic reasons in order to produce flint for use in everyday activities. These shafts were not the prehistoric equivalent of the modern industrial mining complex, but may well have been designed for a very different purpose altogether.
THE EARLY NEOLITHIC FLINT MINE OF ‘CASA MONTERO’ (MADRID, SPAIN)
Marta CAPOTE *, Nuria CASTAÑEDA **, Susana CONSUEGRA **, Cristina CRIADO**, Pedro DÃAZ-DEL-RÃO *
The Early Neolithic flint mine of Casa Montero (Madrid, Spain) was recently discovered as a consequence of the Archaeological Impact Assessment of Madrid’s M-50 highway belt. It is the earliest (c. 5400-5200 cal BC) and up-to-date first extensively dug flint mine in Iberia. An open-area excavation of 4.2 ha has allowed mapping more than 3500 shafts, with a mean width of 1m and depths of up to 7 meters. Some of them are connected by horizontal galleries of small dimensions. The geological structure of the site shows four major silicification episodes, each consisting of one or more silica levels, interbedded with magnesic clays and dolomites. Only the upper three were mined during prehistoric times. They are opal and opaline cherts, which were extracted not on account of their aesthetic value, but due to their knapping qualities. The aim was to obtain blades and occasionally flakes, products that would be finally transported off-site. The remaining waste was dumped back into the shafts. Several different reduction strategies have been recognized. They vary depending on core blank selection and the characteristics desired for the final products. Flint and quartzite mining tools have been documented as well. The excavation required of a sampling design and method that could maximize information on the horizontal variability of silica levels, mining techniques, chronology of shafts, and lithic production. Our paper will present preliminary results of the observed variability of mining strategies and their role in the structuring of the earliest Neolithic societies.
FLINT EXTRACTION AND PROCESSING IN THE NORTH-EAST OF SCOTLAND IN THE LATER NEOLITHIC PERIOD
Alan SAVILLE National Museums of Scotland
In locations where secondary flint deposits were available close to the surface, multiple shallow pits were dug over extensive areas. Intensive initial processing of the extracted flint took place on site adjacent to the extraction pits, but there is no indication that this included tool manufacture. Despite the intensive nature of the extraction, the use and distribution of the resultant flint appears to have been only local and regional, not spreading outside the northeast of the country. This contribution will consider some of the specific circumstances of this occurrence and speculate on the nature of the workshop activity.
“KRZEMIONKI OPATOWSKIE” - LAST UNDERGROUND RESEARCH 2001-2004
JERZY T. BÄ„BEL
In 2001-2004 the new underground gallery was made in the Neolithic flint mine at Krzemionki Opatowskie, southern Poland. The gallery passes through the area of eight shafts. The author with the team from Archaeological and Historical Museum at Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski carried on the archaeological investigations during the mining works connected with the preparations of the gallery. The new observations were made concerning the stratigraphy of rubble tips, traces of works, tools, illumination and ventilation in the prehistorical shafts and so on. The new 10 radiocarbon dating from pieces of charcoal were obtained. Now the underground touristic route at Krzemionki is approximately 460 m in length.
OPEN-CAST FLINT MINING, VERY LONG BLADE PRODUCTION AND LONGDISTANCE EXCHANGE : AN EXAMPLE FROM BULGARIA
Laurence MANOLAKAKIS
From the early 5th millennium, certain populations in Europe underwent radical transformation in terms of technology, economy and society. At the heart of these developments, the Balkan peninsular contains a vast cultural entity termed the ” Zone à céramique graphitée “, dating from the late Neolithic and early Chalcolithic (4900-4300 BC) and covering the whole of Bulgaria, the Rumanian Danube plain, the Macedonian Republic and the north Aegean Greek coast. This transformation involved the emergence of hereditary social hierarchy, technological innovations, specialisation and regionalization of productions which became intensive and increasingly standardised, together with highly organised long-distance exchange. Innovations include copper metallurgy, gold-working, use of a lever for pressure debitage of flint, as well as high-temperature pottery firing. Apart from using pottery with graphite decoration, the various cultural groups form a homogeneous entity and share a number of common features, notably involving flint production. Very long blades, up to 45 cm long and obtained by lever pressure, are characteristic. The single origin of the flint used for this debitage, from sources located in north-east Bulgaria, together with the lack of knapping waste in settlements, indicate that there were specialised workshops. Detailed mapping of flint resources near Razgrad has revealed outcrops and underground beds. Deposits yielding massive, good-quality flint nodules suitable for debitage of very long blades were identified. The most important are at Ravno and had been quarried on the hill slope. Close by the deposits there is a settlement specialised in very long blade production, the Kamenovo tell. These blades were diffused as semi-finished products over considerable distances, as far as the north Aegean coast. In the second part of this period, the early Chalcolithic, pressure debitage cores were transformed into flaked axes and also circulated over shorter distances, as finished products. The very long blades played a particular role in society. They were not used for specific everyday tasks in the settlements and are clearly associated with the highest social status in cemeteries such as Varna. Rather than being based on control of production, status was related to the circulation of goods, and thus to control of exchange and probably also social and economic relations.
FLINT MINING OF THE DANUBIAN COMMUNITIES IN THE OJCOW JURA NEAR CRACOW
Jacek LECH
The Ojców Jura lies in the highest part of the Polish Jura. In prehistoric times this region was a border area, crossed by migration routes and expeditions. The highest part of the Ojców Jura is rich in good quality Jurassic-Cracow flint. The deposits of flint in the eluvial clays were exploited in the Neolithic times. The best deposits of raw material lay in the area of the palaeogenic plantation surface, mainly above the 400 m. contour line. Karstic clays with accumulations of flint, were covered here in the Pleistocene epoch with relatively thin layer of loess. These clays were a great attraction for Danubian communities as a source of raw material. The first farming communities appeared here in the second half of the 6th Millennium BC (LBK). They arrived from the south. They were already familiar with such achievements of civilization as farming, pottery making and flint mining. We know of three flint mines of the Danubian communities in the Ojców Jura: at SÄ…spów, BÄ™bÅ‚o and Jerzmanowice-DÄ…brówka in Cracow province, and also some exploitation points, most of which were probably mines (Åazy, Pieskowa SkaÅ‚a). The methods used to obtain the flint varied according to the depth at which the deposits occurred. The methods usually ranged from shallow primitive workings, through surface pit exploitation (BÄ™bÅ‚o), to the labourintensive open shafts, sometimes of very large dimensions (SÄ…spów I). The depth of those exploitation units ranged from a dozen or so centimetres to 5 m. Exploited flint was transported from mines to settlements laying in areas more suitable for early farming economy. Analysis of the flint assemblages from the territory of the mines and their vicinity has enabled us to differentiate four main types of chipping-floors (workshops). Although no flint exploitation units of the LBK communities have been found to date in the Ojców Jura, a variety of data suggests that the Jurassic-Cracow flint was mind from the early phase of settlement in the Cracow region. The exploitation was carried out by settlements of the Cracow-Olszanica type (settlements of producers). Settlements like Boguszewo in CheÅ‚mno Land (North), Bylany in Bohemia, Niemcza and Strachów in Lower Silesia (West) obtained Jurassic-Cracow flint by indirect exchange (settlements of users). Mining and flint processing became considerably more intensive among the communities of the Lengyel-Polgár complex. In the Ojców Jura are known numerous, large open shafts and flint chipping floors (workshops) dating from this period (SÄ…spów). The processes involved are labour-intensive, and the level of difficulty and the knowledge required for their execution indicate the existence of a more complex form of organization and division of labour; this suggests that there were specialists dealing with the exploitation and processing of raw materials. Jurassic-Cracow flint was an object of exchange among communities of the Lengyel-Polgár complex and travelled in many directions. It reached the present-day Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Hungary.
FLINT WORKING AT THE EARLY BANDKERAMIK SETTLEMENT OF GELEEN-JANSKAMPERVELD (PROV. LIMBURG, THE NETHERLANDS)
Dr. Marjorie de GROOTH
The settlement Geleen-Janskamperveld, situated on the well-known Graetheide Plateau in the Netherlands, was almost completely excavated in 1990/1991 (Louwe Kooijmans et al. 2003). More than 7.000 flint artefacts with a total weight of ca. 44 kg, were recovered, mainly belonging to the Early (‘Flomborn’) phase of the LBK. Recently, a new evaluation of raw material characteristics made it possible to determine the (probable) extraction site, located some 20 km south of the settlement. In the Banholtergrub, a dry valley 5 km to the east of the Rijckholt flint mines, nodules originating from the upper Cretaceous Lanaye chalk member were extracted from residual loams. Intensive processing took place in the settlement; surplus material was distributed in the shape of partially reduced blade cores and blades. The intensity of this transfer fluctuated during the different inhabitation phases. Contemporary sites both in the Graetheide region (e.g. Elsloo) and the Rhineland (e.g. Langweiler 
seem to qualify as receiving settlements. Inter-site comparisons were complicated by the fact that different excavation strategies led to different rates of recovery.
References:
Grooth, Marjorie E.T. de, 2003: They do things differently there. Flint working at the Early Bandkeramik settlement of Geleen-Janskamperveld (The Netherlands), in: Eckert, Jörg, Ursula Eisenhauer & Andreas Zimmermann (Hrsg.): Archäologische Perspektiven; Analysen und Interpretationen im Wandel; Festschrift für Jens Lüning zum 65. Geburtstag. Rahden/Westf., 401- 406.
Louwe Kooijmans, Leendert P., Pieter van de Velde & Hans Kamermans, 2003: The early Bandkeramik settlement of Geleen-Janskamperveld: its intrasite structure and dynamics, in: Eckert, Jörg, Ursula Eisenhauer & Andreas Zimmermann (Hrsg.): Archäologische Perspektiven; Analysen und Interpretationen im Wandel; Festschrift für Jens Lüning zum 65. Geburtstag. Rahden/Westf., 373-397.
REMARKS ON THE PREHISTORIC FLINT MINE SITE AT SPIENNES (BELGIUM) ON THE OCCASION OF ITS DISCOVERY 140 YEARS AGO
Hélène COLLET, Anne HAUZEUR, Jacek LECH
140 years ago next year the Neolithic flint mine at Spiennes, Hainaut province was discovered. The discovery initiated the dynamic development of research into prehistoric flint mining in European and world archaeology. The anniversary is an excellent occasion for summing up our state of knowledge concerning the mine which, in the year 2000 was placed on the UNESCO world heritage list. Excavations of the Spiennes flint mine site have a long and rich tradition and have produced important results for European prehistory. These are presented in the first part of the paper. In the second part, the authors sum up the current state of knowledge about the mining field at Spiennes, about the various methods of flint exploitation, production trends and chronology of mining activities. Particular attention has been paid to studies of old chipped inventories and the most significant results of recent research carried out by H. Collet. In the conclusion, some suggestions are made concerning the most important future research topics.
SURPLUS PRODUCTION IN THE BELGIAN LINEARBANDKERAMIK : THE FLINT WORKSHOPS OF VERLAINE
Pierre ALLARD- UMR 7055 CNRS, France & Laurence BURNEZ-LANOTTE-University Namur-Belgium
The site of Verlaine the “Petit Paradis” is a major source of information for understanding how flint-working activities were organized amongst Bandkeramik communities in north-west europe. An economic situation involving over-production of blades beyond the needs of a single settlement is clearly demonstrated here for the first time. At the regional level, the “Petit Paradis” site is located in an area of dense Bandkeramik settlement, with almost eighteen sites occuring within a radius of three kilometres. Between four and six sites have produced knapping concentration comparable to the “Petit Paradis” : these have been called workshops by Belgian archaeologists. The site of Verlaine probably belongs to a whole complex of producer sites and thus provides new evidence for interpreting the circulation networks of Hesbaye flint products.
L’EXTRACTION INTENSIVE DES MINÉRAUX NON MÉTALLIQUES À LA PROTOHISTOIRE ANCIENNE DANS LA MOITIÉ NORD DE L’EUROPE
Yoann GAUVRY-UMR 7041 Nanterre (France) CNRS
L’objectif de ce travail est, dans un premier temps, de cerner les connaissances disponibles dans la littérature archéologique sur les sites miniers, pour répondre, dans un deuxième temps, à des problématiques définies à une large échelle géographique et chronologique. Les modes d’acquisition des matières minérales non métalliques, qui présentent tous les intermédiaires entre des ramassages ponctuels de surface et les minières profondes et planifiées, sont riches d’informations socio-économiques sur les populations qui les ont employés ; c’est pourquoi il est intéressant de comprendre leurs évolutions lors des différentes périodes du Néolithique, du Chalcolithique et du début de l’âge du Bronze, et de voir s’ils reflètent des dynamismes globaux et cohérents dans la moitié nord de l’Europe.
A NEW FLINT MINE IN THE PARIS BASIN : FLINS-SURSEINE/ AUBERGENVILLE AND THE MAULDRE RIVER COMPLEX.
Françoise BOSTYN*, François GILIGNY**, Adrienne LO CARMINE**
Discovered in the 1920s, the mine at Flins-sur-Seine/Aubergenville, situated in the Seine valley downstream from Paris, was identified as a flint mine on recent aerial photographs. The site of Flins-sur-Seine exploited Bartonian Tertiary flint for axe manufacture and is comparable to the mine at Jablines, 70 km to the east in the Marne valley, published by F. Bostyn and Y. Lanchon in 1992. Surface collection and geophysical survey in progress since 2002 show that the area with knapping waste covers about 15 hectares and that the extraction zone extends over at least 3 to 5 hectares. The first technical stages of axe manufacture such as bifacial preparations, rough-outs and flaked axes are present, but there are no polished artefacts and no traces of settlement. Other workshops or probable workshops for the making of axes in Bartonian flint have been identified in the region along the river Mauldre. Productions from these workshops are identical to the finds from the Flins-sur-Seine mine, but there is less knapping waste. There is evidence for the diffusion of Bartonian flint axes over a distance of at least 50 km. Apart from the Flins-sur Seine mine, a large settlement site at Jumeauville appears to have produced axe rough-outs in Bartonian flint, as well as polished axes. Located near several polishing stones, this could be a defended plateau-edge site. It certainly played a role in the diffusion of axes to the west.