Provenance studies of basaltic tools from the Polish Lowlands in the light of geochemical and mineralogical studies

Abstract

AbstractBasaltic artefacts related to early agrarian cultures (Neolithic and Early Bronze Age) inhabiting the Kujawy region of the Polish Lowlands (Central Poland) were studied. The main goal of this study was to assess the provenance of the basaltic raw material and the documentation of manifestations of the activity of inhabitants of the Lowlands. The mineral and chemical compositions of the artefacts were directly compared with those of basaltoids considered as a potential raw material. The basic discrimination feature that allowed an unambiguous correlation of the artefacts with their source region was copper and silica mineralization present exclusively in the basaltoids from Volyn (western Ukraine). Moreover, it excludes the provenance of the basaltic raw material from Lower Silesia (south‐west Poland) and Scania (southern Sweden). Usage of the basaltic raw material from Volyn was most probably based on cultural and processual presumptions, such as migrations of a population(s) from the Upland regions and/or manifestations of relatively permanent participation of the local population in interregional contacts and long‐term, long‐distance exchange of items.