Paleolitski artefakti ili geofakti - analiza površinskih kolekcija prikupljenih u blizini ležišta mineralnih sirovina na području Vrnjačke Banje

Abstract

Rekognosciranje paleolitskih lokaliteta na otvorenom prostoru u poslednjih desetak godina sprovedeno je na više lokacija na teritoriji Srbije. Na većini lokacija antropogeni karakter prikupljenih nalaza, koje najvećim delom čine okresani kameni artefakti, nije se dovodio u pitanje. Međutim, u blizini ležišta mineralnih sirovina javila se sumnja da su kameni artefakti pomešani sa geofaktima - prirodno nastalim odlomcima stena koji mogu nalikovati na artefakte. Da bismo ispitali ovu pretpostavku, upotrebili smo Pikokov test za analizu generalnih karakteristika odbitaka. Ovaj metod prilagodili smo našem istraživačkom kontekstu i mogućnostima, i primenili na tri problematične kolekcije iz okoline Vrnjačke Banje: Dublje-Nišan, Ruđinci-Crnobarac i Štulac - Slatinski potok. Statistička analiza dobijenih rezultata pokazala je da u svim istraživanim kolekcijama preovlađuju geofakti. Rezultati ukazuju na oprez koji je potreban pri interpretaciji površinskih kolekcija, naročito onih prikupljenih u blizini ležišta sirovina pogodnih za okresivanje.

During the last decade, systematic surveys for Palaeolithic open-air sites in different regions of Serbia revealed a large number of finds, predominantly lithics. Analyses of collected materials greatly contributed to the study of the Palaeolithic in the area. Finds tentatively attributed to the Lower Palaeolithic could be of great importance considering the scarcity of finds from this period in the Balkans. However, the anthropogenic character of finds was uncertain for the material collected in the vicinity of primary and secondary raw material sources. It was suspected that artefacts and geofacts could be mixed in these localities. The issue of attribution of finds and collections to artefacts or geofacts can be traced back to the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century and the Eolithic controversy. Since then, various approaches have been put forward for distinguishing naturally and culturally produced material. In order to test the hypothesis that artefacts and geofacts are mixed in the vicinity of raw material sources, we used Peacock's test for general attributes of flakes, and applied it to the material gathered on three sites in the vicinity of Vrnjačka Banja: Crnobarac-Ruđinci, Dublje-Nišan, Štulac-Slatinski Potok. Our analysis included only chert finds, as the question of attribution was studied primarily on this raw material. Eight attributes were analyzed on possible flakes from these locations and, based on them, composite scores were calculated for each find. Results indicate that most finds in the studied collections have low scores, similar to other published geofact collections (e.g. Kirminghton and eoliths from Peacock 1991). We compared our results with known collections of artefacts and geofacts from Peacock's study, using descriptive statistics, One-Way ANOVA test, line diagram, and box-plot. Our results indicate that geofacts predominate in all the studied collections. Therefore, we argue that caution is needed when interpreting surface collections, especially those collected in the vicinity of raw material sources.