The life biography of artefacts and ritual practice. With case studies from Mesolithic-Early Bronze Age Europe

0532144 - ARÚ 2021 RIV GB eng M - Monography Chapter
Řídký, Jaroslav - Končelová, Markéta - Burgert, Pavel - Šumberová, Radka - Hadacz, R.
Grinding tools and circular enclosures: activities on late Neolithic settlements.
The life biography of artefacts and ritual practice. With case studies from Mesolithic-Early Bronze Age Europe. Oxford: BAR Publishing, 2020 - (Bjørnevad-Ahlqvist, M.; Bye-Jensen, P.), s. 23-34. BAR International series, 2991. ISBN 978-1-4073-5682-2
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA19-16304S; GA ČR GA15-16963S
Institutional support: RVO:67985912
Keywords : Late Neolithic * circular enclosures * grinding tools * life cycles
OECD category: Archaeology

This paper discusses the issue of the occurrence of grinding tools in the fills of the pits from the first half of the fifth millennium BC and their possible application to the study of ritual activities at Neolithic settlements. We examine whether artefacts from the category of grinding tools, unearthed in ditch fills of circular enclosures - rondels (Kreisgrabenanlagen) can somehow help us in the search for activities tied to the original function of rondels. We look at how often and in what form grinding tools appear in archaeological contexts and what information they provide about the “life cycles” of stone artefacts. During various analyses we compare the assemblages from two types of settlement contexts - i.e. from those in which rondels were found, and subsequently also from other settlements where their existence has not been confirmed. According to our findings fragments of used tools - both grinders and querns - are often concentrated in the infills of rondel ditches on our processed sites. It could therefore be that the evidence of ritual activity concentrated in the vicinity of these objects is striking in terms of their shape and size. At the same time we should also add that a similar handling of tools also occurs on other explored areas of settlements where, during the field research, the rondels were not documented. The accumulation of deliberately broken grinding tools can therefore represent some unique remnant of certain forms of rituals taking place at the Neolithic settlements of that period. If there were an area or an object suitable for implementing rituals (e.g. a rondel) within the settlement, a part of these activities were concentrated within its vicinity.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0310741