Between the use, copying and innovation. A contribution to the studies on the stone tool industry in Neolithic societies of the Globular Amphora Culture in the Polish Lowland (Kuyavia)

Abstract

This article focuses on a section of studies on the Globular Amphorae Culture (GAC) stone production in Kuyavia. The source materials from this area provide evidence of heretofore unknown activity of stone workers of this culture engaged in production of adzes that copied the forms typical of Late Band Pottery Culture. The resulting observations challenge the view that GAC communities did not produce stone adzes of their own, but allegedly restricted themselves only to using ready-made adzes of other Neolithic cultures. The sources under discussion also provide documented information on an innovative contribution of Kuyavian GAC stone workers in the assortment of tool products. This assortment includes polishing plates with the shapes and dimensions that essentially differentiated them from the corresponding tools used in the area in the Neolithic. Nevertheless, the claim that the local GAC communities did not produce type of the stone adze that would be characteristic of their own still remains as valid as ever.