Bipolar technique in the Iron Gates Mesolithic

Abstract

The region of the Iron Gates gorge and downstream the Danube River is well known for more than 20 sites dated to the periods of the final Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Early Neolithic, c. 13000-5900 cal BC. The chipped stone collections have been published from the 1980’s onward regarding raw materials, technology, and typology separately. Researchers did not conduct technotypological analyses depending on the raw materials (except for the Lepenski Vir site, Kozłowski & Kozłowski 1984) nor the analyses of the knapping techniques. The knapping on the anvil was ascertained only with splintered pieces (fr. pièces esquillées), while the splinters (fr. esquilles) were not segregated from flakes obtained by direct percussion. In addition, splintered pieces were in some instances a priori interpreted and counted as cores in a single category. Quartzite pieces were reported in sum and considered exclusively for the retouch, while the bipolar knapping was confirmed only in random remarks. In this paper, we present for the first time (based on a recent study, Mitrović 2018) morpho-metric and spatial data on the bipolar technique applied to flint and quartzite. The artifacts selected for the analyses originate from closed units (house floors, stone hearths and structures, and graves) from the sites of Lepenski Vir and Vlasac dated to the final Mesolithic. As far as the collections of flint (Fig. 1) and quartzite are concerned, the percentages of splinters and splintered pieces are very similar for each in the layers Vlasac I and Lepenski Vir I. However, quartzite is the predominant raw material on Vlasac while flint prevails on Lepenski Vir. The bipolar knapping products are present as flakes, blades, and bladelets according to the dimensions. The amount of cortex and the dimensions of the quartzite artifacts suggest the whole knapping sequence at the Lepenski Vir. Gray flint dominates among flint findings in both splinters and splintered pieces categories, with more than 60%. Of particular interest are several halved quartzite pebbles with traces of knapping of anvil found at both sites, usually interpreted as indicators of beginner activities in knapping. These analyses were the first steps to present characteristics and the importance of the bipolar technique in the Iron Gates. The results emphasize the need for revisions of entire collections to discover more exciting features of the knapping on the anvil from a detailed diachronic and spatial perspective.