Rock physics and the circulation of Neolithic axeheads in Central Europe and the western Mediterranean
Introduction
Production of edge-ground tools in Neolithic Europe is outstanding in terms of the large variety of raw materials used by this technology. Amphibolite, blueschist, eclogite, nephrite, spessartite, meta-ophiolite, metadiabase, jadeitite, omphacitite, serpentinite, sillimanite, hornfels, phonolite, and siltstone are only some of the rocks shaped into axes, adzes, chisels, etc. (e.g., Refs. [[1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8]]). It can be expected that these rocks entail quite different physical behaviors during the manufacture and use of axeheads. Mechanical analysis carried out so far has confirmed that rocks were more intensively exploited and distributed over wide areas depending on certain physical properties, although the relationship between these parameters does not follow a simple economic rationale [8,9].
This paper seeks to test the importance of the mechanical properties of some of these rocks exploited during the Continental European Neolithic, when edge-ground artefacts were one of the main goods integrated into wide exchange networks (e.g. Refs. [10,11]). For the first time, two markedly different Neolithic distribution strategies are compared in terms of material qualities, production, and circulation of axeheads.
One dynamic forms part of the Early Neolithic Linear Pottery culture (LBK; ca. 5500-4900 BCE) and was responsible for the supply of amphibolite/amphibolic hornfels over large parts of Central Europe. Amphibolic hornfels was amply quarried in the Jizera Mountains in northern Bohemia [12] and, according to available petrographic and chemical analyses, circulated at considerable distances, up to >650 km as the crow flies. Such work-intensive production and distribution of axeheads is unparalleled in the Early European Neolithic. In Middle and Late Neolithic times, only Alpine high pressure meta-ophiolites (HPms: jadeitites, omphacitites and eclogites) traveled over similar, or even larger distances, from their original sources in the Western Alps [11,[13], [14], [15]]. Although different ground stone materials are abundant in Central Europe [6,16], they mostly became prominent in axe production after a certain decline in the exploitation of MJH.
The second dynamic was distinctive of the Iberian Peninsula and focused on the exploitation of secondary clast deposits containing the most suitable raw materials available in each region, such as hornfels or metagabbro. Axeheads made of these rocks supplied communities in an area of up to 150–200 km from the source, and rarely circulated beyond 400–500 km [8,10]. Contrary to the situation observed in Central Europe, these networks remained rather stable over the whole Neolithic period.
Mechanical tests were carried out to establish how far these notably different production and circulation strategies were driven (or not) by the advantageous material qualities of the rocks transformed into axeheads. The test comprised of hardness, elastic modulus, response to friction, and impact toughness measurements. The results were also compared with data acquired earlier from Baltic (erratic) flints [17], a material also used for axe head production, but supposed to possess very different mechanical qualities than ground stone material [18]. Additionally, data available for other rocks used by Neolithic communities, such as Alpine HPms, were used for an indirect comparison with MJH (see below, and [8]). Finally, mechanical tests allowed us to determine which intrinsic (petrographic) variables of the rocks conditioned the behavior of the resulting tools.
Section snippets
Materials: petrography and provenance
The studied materials originate from what is today the Czech Republic (one lithotype from northern Bohemia) and Spain (two lithotypes from Catalonia and two from south-east Iberia). The exploitation of these raw materials has been identified based on petrographic analyses, the location of workshops, and geo-archaeological surveys (e.g. Ref. [19], for Bohemian material, [10,[20], [21], [22]], for Iberian material).
Archaeological background and artefact types
Rocks often classified in the archaeological literature as amphibolite, including MJH, were used to manufacture axes, adzes, shoe-last celts, axe-hammers, hammers, hammer stones, polishers, grinding stones, picks (see Ref. [12] for overview), and possibly other tools. Amphibolite (MJH) was mostly used during the Early and the beginning of the Middle Neolithic, above all in the LBK (ca. 5500–4900 BCE), Stroke-ornamented Ware Culture (STK; ca. 4900–4500 BCE), and Rössen Culture (ca. 4700–4400 BCE
Methods
Mechanical analyses of rocks used in prehistoric times test their behavior in front of different physical forces. So as to understand the effects of these forces on the material it is necessary to distinguish between intrinsic variables and control variables [30,72]. Intrinsic variables are petrographic features inherent to each rock, while control variables quantify the resulting mechanical reaction of intrinsic variables. Therefore, each material was first described macro- and microscopically
Intrinsic variables of rocks exploited: petrographic features
The petrographic analysis of our MJH sample (Table 2; Fig. 4) shows that its texture is nematogranoblastic, with characteristic intergrowing laths and needles of radially arranged, partially chloritized amphiboles (55%; mostly actinolites). The laths reach up to 400 μm in length whereas the surrounding matrix, of grains mostly less than 10 μm in size, is composed of smaller amphiboles, plagioclases (35%), opaque minerals (10%), mostly ilmenite, and quartz as an accessory. Whereas the matrix of
Correlation between intrinsic and control variables
Correlations (Pearson's χ2 test) clearly indicate that weighted hardness is strongly acting on the mechanical properties of rocks (Table 4). Hard minerals, like quartz, garnet, or ilmenite and amphibole in MJH must have offered to the artefacts an added value especially during use, as hard particles make the tools more effective when penetrating other materials (see above). This correlation has also been noted in a frictional test of another kind Table 3 in Ref. [72]. Hard materials also tend
Conclusions and historical implications
Mechanical quality of rocks used by Neolithic communities for axe manufacture mostly derived from their density and their weighted hardness, which depends on their mineral composition, especially the amount of hard minerals. These properties are highly correlated with the mechanical hardness, the elasticity, and the resistance to friction of the rocks. Flint, which was amply used in axe production in several Atlantic regions, such as Scandinavia, South East England, North France or the Low
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
This research was financially supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic under the project CEITEC 2020 (LQ1601), the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (grant number HAR2017-85962-P), the Catalan Direcció General de Recerca (grant number AGAUR 2017SGR1044), and the ICREA Academia program. We wish to thank Detlef Gronenborn for his comments on a preliminary version of the manuscript.
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