Silicite („flint”) from Opole-Groszowice: Contribution to recognition of the raw materials used during prehistory in the Odra River valley

Antonín Přichystal; Jan Michał Burdukiewicz; Andrzej Wiśniewski

doi:10.23858/SA/74.2022.1.3009

Published: 2022-12-21

Vol. 74 No. 1 (2022)

Silicite („flint”) from Opole-Groszowice: Contribution to recognition of the raw materials used during prehistory in the Odra River valley

Antonín Přichystal , Jan Michał Burdukiewicz , Andrzej Wiśniewski

Sprawozdania Archeologiczne

Section: Articles

https://doi.org/10.23858/SA/74.2022.1.3009

Abstract

Until recently, all the erratic flints found at the Stone Age sites in the upper part of the Odra Valley were identified with silicites from the Baltic Sea. The age of Baltic flints is associated with the Uppermost Cretaceous, more precisely with the Maastrichtian or Palaeogene. However, it turned out that among these rocks, there are also silicites that are of different ages and origins. They were first found in outcrops of sands and gravels around Opole-Groszowice. So far, these flints have been distinguished in archaeological assemblages but they were usually regarded as imports from the Cracow-Częstochowa Jurassic Plateau. The petrographic analysis proves that these silicites of brown colour are of the Jurassic age. They entered the glacial sediments via the lobes of the Drenthe glaciation. They were used in the same way as raw materials of Baltic origin. In this paper, we show some examples of Palaeolithic and younger sites, where artefacts made of brown silicite occurred.

Keywords:

Odra valley, Stone Age, Jurassic age, brown silicite, erratic raw material

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Přichystal, A., Burdukiewicz, J. M., & Wiśniewski, A. (2022). Silicite („flint”) from Opole-Groszowice: Contribution to recognition of the raw materials used during prehistory in the Odra River valley. Sprawozdania Archeologiczne, 74(1), 31–48. https://doi.org/10.23858/SA/74.2022.1.3009

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Antonín Přichystal

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6653-0416

Affiliation:

Institute of Geological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Czechia

Jan Michał Burdukiewicz

Affiliation:

Institute of Archaeology, University of Wrocław, Poland

Andrzej Wiśniewski

andrzej.wisniewski@uwr.edu.pl

Affiliation:

Instytut Archeologii UWr,