Field report of a rescue excavation of an Upper Palaeolithic settlement in Hlinsko near Lipník nad Bečvou (Moravia, Czech Republic)

Abstract

This article presents the results of a 2019 rescue excavation of an Upper Palaeolithic settlement at Kouty III in Hlinsko u Lipníka in Central Moravia. The excavation took place due to a planned enlargement of the local greywacke mine. Lithic artefacts were found in Quaternary sediments redeposited by slope processes. The density of artefacts was quite low; therefore, it was not possible to recover them using a standard archaeological excavation and most of them were collected on the mounds of dirt beside the trenches excavated by a mechanical excavator, or during an excavation of the Eneolithic barrows situated in the south-western part of the site. A total of 106 lithic pieces were found during this excavation. Eighteen of the artefacts lacked a patinated surface, thus they were attributed to the Eneolithic period. A collection of 88 patinated lithics was classified as Aurignacian based on technological and typological characteristics. Most of the artefacts were made on erratic flint, however radiolarite, quartzite, spongolite and Moravian Jurassic chert were present as well. The technology was based on production of blades and bladelets from Upper Palaeolithic prismatic cores. These bladelets could have been used as components of composite tools. One tool set is similar to the neighbouring site Kouty I (Škrdla 2007) and consists of nine burins, three splintered pieces, one thick end scraper and two tool fragments. A bifacial triangular point that was found at Kouty I (Demidenko et al. 2018) and at several other surface sites in the surrounding area, were not found here. Despite this fact it is possible to classify this site as Evolved Aurignacian of the so-called Morava River type (Klíma 1978), which is quite common in this region.