Stanowisko torfowe łowców-zbieraczy z epoki kamienia. Szczepanki, stan. 8, woj. warmińsko-mazurskie. Badania w roku 2016

Abstrakt

In 2016, trench Eq in the south-eastern part of ‘Sector E’ was excavated (Fig. 1). The uncovered layers belonged to the following periods: L/B.1-3 through the Late Neolithic and post-Zedmar (the Early Subboreal), L/B.4 through the classic Zedmar (Subboreal/Atlantic), L/B.5 through the early Zedmar (the Late Atlantic), L/B.6 through the Late Mesolithic (the Middle and Early Atlantic), and L/B.7 through the Early Mesolithic (the Borealand Preboreal). The majority of finds were obtained from the layer L/B.5 dated to the early Zedmar (Fig. 2). In the L/B.4 layer, apart from typical Zedmar pottery (Fig. 3a, b), some imports or imitations were found. The first sherd bears a twisted cord ornament called the ‘caterpillar’ (Fig. 3d). Such ornamentation is typical for the Piestina type pottery of the late Narva Culture in Latvia. The second is a pot with a ledge on the neck very common in the funnel Beaker Culture (TRB) in the Lublin region of south-eastern Poland (Fig. 3f). The next pot has a peculiar leap between body and high neck (Fig. 3e) which is typical for the TRB in Greater Poland. The last import belongs most probably to the Radial Decorated Pottery Culture from the Cracow region (Fig. 3c). The early Zedmar pottery can be divided into two technological-stylistic groups. Oneconsists of pottery tempered with breakstoneand vegetablefibres, very fragileand thick-walled. Ornamentation is impressed deep (Fig. 4). The second group consists of pottery tempered with either shells or water horsetail (“hair”) or not tempered atall, very poorly fired and easily effaceable. Ornamentation, apart from rims, is meagre and coarse (Fig. 5). There are no handles and all bottoms are flat. Stoneaxesappeared in most layersand were varied. An axe slightly curved in outline with a lowered edge and thick butt came from the Late Neolithic layer (Fig. 7a). The early Zedmar layer yielded four axes/adzes. One axe is trapezoidal in outline and with thick butt (Fig. 7b), two others are triangular in outline and with thin-rounded butts (Fig. 7d, e). The last one is an oval-shaped adze with lenticular sections and a round edge (Fig. 7c). One adze of semi-cylindrical section was uncovered in the Late Mesolithic layer (Fig. 7f). Antler and bone artefacts came almost exclusively from the early Zedmar layer (Fig. 8a–i). There were three pieces ofantler tines, two cut-offand polished and one broken-off (Fig. 8a–c), one broken-off antler base, probably waste from T-shaped axe production (Fig. 8i), a piece of elk antler (Fig. 8e), fragment of the edge of a T-shaped antler axe (Fig. 8h). There were two interesting implements made of middle parts of red deer antler. In both cases, the antler beam was splintered and the end of tine was cut-off (Fig. 8f, g). Possibly, they were used as handles for stone adzes. The only bone implement is a cut-off elk phalange which could have been used as a cup/handle(?) for a tool (Fig. 8d). In the Late Mesolithic layer an axe or adze/pick-axe made of red deer antler tine was found (Fig. 8j). Bones (circa 340) came mostly from ungulates (circa 220) followed by fish (circa 75). There were also plenty of hazelnut shells (circa 2 litters were collected). Two human bones – a phalangeand atooth,as wellasa dog fang suggest that this part of the island bank was also used for temporary burials.