Leaving no stone unturned: The production and use of chipped stone artefacts among the Late Neolithic communities of southern Transdanubia during the fifth millenium BC

Kata Furholt; Eszter Bánffy

doi:10.34780/xfz3de94

Leaving no stone unturned: The production and use of chipped stone artefacts among the Late Neolithic communities of southern Transdanubia during the fifth millenium BC

https://doi.org/10.34780/xfz3de94

Authors

List of Contributors

Kata Furholt [Author] https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3944-9951
Eszter Bánffy [Chapter Author] https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5156-826X

Synopsis

The third volume of the Confinia et horizontes series presents a comprehensive study of over 6,200 chipped stone artefacts from the Late Neolithic period (4800–4500 cal BC), associated with the Lengyel community at the Alsónyék-Bátaszék site in southeast Transdanubia (Hungary). Kata Furholt meticulously reconstructs the successive phases of the chaîne opératoire, including raw material procurement, preparation, production, use, and discard / deposition, with particular attention to the patterns of deposition in burial context. The applied technological analysis gives insight into how environmental factors, cultural traditions, and individual skills have influenced tool-making practices. Based on a comparison of chipped stones from settlement contexts and burials, the study brings to light several different facets of daily life and symbolic practices of the Lengyel community, highlighting the significance of the Alsónyék site as a regional hub for material exchange and mortuary rituals, and revealing patterns of communication and social practices. The raw material, tool type, and position of the stone grave goods show a distinctive pattern that points beyond the simple materiality of the artefacts and are vested with a symbolic value, which helps to better understand the social and cognitive transformations during the fifth millennium BC in the western half of the Carpathian Basin.

Keywords:

south-eastern Transdanubia (Hungary), Late Neolithic, Lengyel culture, lithics (chipped stones), lithic raw material procurement, tool production, provenance analysis, spatial distribution patterns, mortuary practices

Chapters

Series editor's introduction

Eszter Bánffy
Ackknowledgements
1. Introduction and research objectives
2. The Alsónyék-Bátaszék site
3. Methodology
4. Lithic raw materials and raw material economy
5. The technological-typological assessment of the chipped stone assemblage
6. Tool production activities
7. The role of chipped stones in the mortuary rite
8. The chipped stone assemblages associated with the Lengyel Culture in south-eastern Transdanubia
9. From convergent mortuary rites to the emergence of cemeteries
10. References
11. Abstract
12. Zusammenfassung
13. Absztrakt
14. List of figures
15. List of tables