Flint tools for bone and antler adzes production at the Early Mesolithic site Krzyż Wielkopolski 7 (Western Poland)

In 2003 a rich Early Mesolithic peat bog site was discover in Western Poland and subsequent interdisciplinary project let to recognise the site as one of the richest North European Plain occupation from the point of view of the organic materials it delivered. A set of technological and typological analyses of find material, supplemented by palaeoenvironmental studies and almost 50 AMS radiocarbon datings suggest an affinity of the Mesolithic occupation with the early Duvensee/Komornica culture with probable short episode of the Maglemose culture group presence in the Boreal period. A considerable number of organic artefacts made on the spot accompanied by the Early Mesolithic lithic assemblage allow a direct on-the-spot confrontation of traces recorded on bone and antler tools and on production wastes with lithic assemblage that served for their manufacturing on different stages of the production cycle. In order to verify which tools and in what ways served for elaboration of bone and antler a selected sample of flint artefacts were subjected to micro-wear analysis. As a result a number of typologically different tools were identified, used especially for scraping. Single tools only were used for cutting, reaming, grooving, chiseling and drilling. Not always it goes along with the technological observations made during the analysis of antler and bone tools itself. Picks and flake axes, numerous within the lithic assemblage, were relatively often used for nicking in the process of antler tools' manufacturing. Technological analysis of organic material reveals that bone and antler tool manufacturing was a specialized chain of operations but not all the stages of production are manifested in the analysed material.