Jahresbericht 2010 - Curt-Engelhorn-Zentrum Archäometrie gGmbH

Seite 44 Jahresbericht 2010
Fig. 9 Fired chert. Binocular
microscope, polished
section
chert nodules were broken
away from a washed rock
or, more likely, that the
eroded nodules and fragments
were collected in
clusters in the immediate
vicinity of a host rock. Metasomatic
nodular chert
from which Kopac ina artefacts
were made may originate
from an autochthonous
or parautochthonous
outcrop on Brac , some
other island as well as the
inter-island area or from
the mainland side of Dalmatia
and hinterland. Considering
that Kopac ina
hunter- gatherers did not
use the numerous, abundant
and easily accessible
outcrops of cherts in closer
and further surroundings
of Brac , or in the area
of Middle Dalmatia, which
is of better quality than the
items in the lithic assemblage
of Kopac ina, we can
conclude that they did not
attempt any especially
distant campaigns in
searching and procuring
stones, but satisfied their
need for raw materials on
outcrops within the network
of daily and seasonal
movements in the area of
Brac .
If we compare the two
basic types of stone raw
material comprising the
lithic assemblage of
Kopac ina (metasomatic
chert and radiolarite), with
their culturally, temporally,
geographically and petrographically
similar items
from Vela cave, it is visible
that those assemblages are
a reflection of deposits of
stones used as raw material,
or similar types of outcrops
commonly found in
carbonate rocks of outer
Dinarides and ophiolites of
inner Dinarides. Therefore,
this paper is a foundation
for continuing field research
in the area of occurrences
of the said rocks in
the part of Croatia, Bosnia
and Herzegovina and Montenegro
with the purpose of
geoarchaeological mapping
of sources of rocks represented
in lithic inventories
of prehistoric sites in that
same area. Systematic field
research of primarily autochthonous
outcrops of
such rocks in regional and
supraregional area could
provide more concrete and
precise answers to questions
of possible and probable
origin of stones used to
make the artefacts in question,
and consequently the
association between the
listed Epigravettian sites.
Lithic analysis of the
Kopac ina assemblage showed
the possibility of separating
two phases based on
the relation of relative frequency
of backed bladelets
Literature
and arched backed points.
The older phase (LF I)
would last until ca. 13200
uncal BP, which is terminus
post quem non for this
phase, while for the oldest
part of the stratigraphic
sequence from Kopac ina we
do not have absolute dates
that would give us the beginning
of LF I. The duration
of the younger phase
may be placed between ca.
13200 and 12000 uncal BP,
and we can assume the end
of this younger phase several
hundred radiocarbon
years later. Although there
are certain typological differences
between these two
phases, their similarities
are much greater. Ön the
basis of lithic industry and
absolute dates, the entire
stratigraphic sequence
from Kopac ina may be geochronologically
determined
as Late Glacial, and culturally
as Epigravettian. Based
on comparison with Late
Glacial industries of eastern
Adriatic and hinterland, the
lithic assemblage from
Kopac ina is closest to those
discovered in Vela cave and
Badanj, which would correspond
to the hypothetic
hexagonal ideal area of
movements of huntergatherer
communities in
the Adriatic suggested by R.
Whallon.
Perhoc 2009a: Z. Perhoc , Sources of Chert in Middle Dalmatia:
Supplying Raw Material to Prehistoric Lithic Industries,
in: S. Forenbaher, A Connecting Sea: Maritime Interaction
in Adriatic Prehistory, BAR International Series
2037, Öxford 2009, 25-46.
Č eč ük 1996: B. Č eč ük, S pilja Kopač ina kod Donjeg Hümča
na otoku Brac u, Arheolos ki radovi i rasprave 12, Zagreb
1996, 13-30.
Vukosavljevic et al. 2011: N. Vukosavljevic , Z. Perhoc , B.
Č eč ük and I. Karavanič , Kasnoglačijalna indüstrija lomljenog
kamena pec ine Kopac ine. Vjesnik za arheologiju i
povijest dalmatinsku 104. in press