Same same, or very different? Comparing grindstones from Late/Final Bronze Age settlements and a mining/ore beneficiation site in the Southern Alps

Abstract

Archaeological excavations often uncover macrolithic tools such as grinding implements. They appear in settlements, at workshop sites and close to mines. By comparing implements found in mines and beneficiation sites directly with similar ones found at settlement sites, mining archaeology has a lot to gain. Domestic production and mining have, however, traditionally been considered separate spheres. This is largely responsible for the fact that tools from the two spheres of prehistoric life have so far only very rarely been compared with each other. Using a marginalised group of tools from three sites in the Southern Alps as a basis, I examine the characteristics and traces of Late Bronze Age grinding tool production to explore whether knowledge might have been transferred between different spheres of life during the aforementioned period.