The Late Palaeolithic “Lyngby Axe” from Murowana Goślina (Poznań district) in the Light of Traceological Analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/AUNC_ARCH.2021.003Keywords
Late Palaeolithic, "Lyngby axe", traceology, technology, Murowana GoślinaAbstract
The Polish Lowland, due to its location and environmental conditions, is of significant
importance in research on the existence and development of late Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer
communities. The remains of the material culture of that period have survived to our
times mainly in the form of various kinds of flint objects. Unique finds include items made
of bone and antler. The study presents the results of a technological analysis of an object
made of reindeer antler, functioning in Polish literature as the so-called “Lyngby axe”. It
was discovered at the end of the second half of the 19th century in Murowana Goślina near
Poznań. Despite many difficulties resulting from the state of preservation of the discussed
specimen, the results of the analyses made it possible, among other things, to reconstruct the
techniques related to its creation, as well as to understand the processes accompanying its
use. The traces observed on it, related, inter alia, to the process of dividing the antler, appear
in many analogous items discovered all over the European Lowlands. Similar products from
reindeer antler are associated with the late Palaeolithic communities of the tanged point
technocomplex. The date obtained for the specimen from Murowana Goślina – 9890 ±50
uncal BP – places it among the youngest objects of this type discovered in the European
Lowlands.
The find from Murowana Goślina is a good example of the fact that the research on such
artefacts brings a lot of new information about the objects themselves, and allows for a better
understanding of the processes accompanying the production and use of various categories
of artefacts made of bone materials by prehistoric hunter-gatherer communities.
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