Kieselgeoden als wichtiger Rohstoff für die Beilproduktion im Neolithikum von Nordwestdeutschland – Erste Nachweise von Produktionsplätzen der Trichterbecherkultur

Abstract

The black silica-ironstone was used in northwestern Germany during the Neolithic period only for the production of large stonetools. It is a sediment type from the Soninnia-Beds of the Lower Doggerian (Middle Jurassic) that was heated up thermically by the Bramscher and Vlothoer Pluton in the Cretaceousperiods and has similar working features such as flintstone. The large platy to small round black concretions were collected by theNeolithic people from surfaces between the Teutoburger Wald to Wiehengebirge. The raw material was collected in secondary Pleistocene Saale ice age deposits of ground andend moraines or from Were, Else or Weser river terrace gravels. For the first time, this material was discovered and rarely used by the Rossen Culture (6.900 BP) for the fabricationof flat unperforated adzes. In the period of the Funnel Beaker Culture a manufacture of rectangular silica-ironstone hatchetsand their trade over distances of about 150 km can be prooved. From this period a new hatchet production place was remembered at Bissendorf-Wulften, Kr. Osnabruck in closecontact to some megalith graves such as the Sloopsteene and settling places. At this site the raw material, more than 150 debris, and some hatchet fragments, hatchet brutes, brokenhalf products and finished polished hatchets were found. Other Neolithic sites have delivered only a few silicaconcretion debrisin between the common flint stone material. Another more important small production site of the Funnel Beaker Culture was found at an old river branch of the river Else at Kirchlengern-Steinlacke, Kr. Herford. With the discovery of these hatchet producing sites for the first time the silica-ironstone hatchet production can be discussed. 68% of the debris atthe main site Bissendorf-Wulften contains cortex remains that indicate a prepreparation to hatchet brutes, which were polished in another step from all sides. The debris was rarely used for scrapers. In a few cases cissels and thickbladed rectangular hatchets were produced of the silica-ironstone. The high percentage of hatchet fragments and debris indicatea lower quality of the raw material silica-ironstone concretion as flintstone or magmatic rocks. In the following late Neolithicperiods people of the Single Grave and Bell Beaker Cultures used rarely silica-ironstone mainly for the production of battle axes, until this raw material became forgotton at about4.200 BP.