Linking Quarry and Settlement on the Swabian Alb, Southern Germany
Résumé
Beginning in the Early Neolithic Period (or LBK) and increasingly in the Middle and
Later Neolithic periods (a transition spanning about 5,000
-
2,300 B.C.) in Europe, considerable
energy was invested in quarrying and mining
chert and flint for tool production. Acquisition of
stone combined local sources with regional transport. Chipped stone was used in everyday
activities and for objects that likely played a special role in exchange networks. Linkages
between quarries an
d surrounding landscapes thus can shed light on patterns of travel, work,
and trade at local and regional scales. Archaeologists are rarely able to link quarries and
settlements in a detailed analysis. This paper reports on a long
-
term regional project
i
nvestigating chert acquisition and tool production in quarry and settlement contexts in a
chert
-
rich upland in southern Germany. We combine collections analysis, archaeological and
geophysical survey, and targeted test excavations to document stone source
s and site
locations. We compare assemblages from a large open
-
pit quarry complex (Asch
-
Borgerhau)
and from settlements at varying distances using a uniform coding system. Systematic, non
-
destructive petrographic characterization of chert enables us to t
race material from the quarry
or other sources to settlements. The resulting database offers rich potential for exploring
chronological and spatial variation in stone acquisition, tool production, and activities on a
Neolithic landscape