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FLINT MINING OF CENTRAL EUROPE 15

Fig. 13. Gorzów Wielkopolski-Chwalęcice. Kłodawka rivcr gap at moraine of Wiirm glaciation. Flint exploitation point

Photo by J.Lech

zonę. This raw materiał originates from the primary deposits in the Cretaceous formations of the south Baltic Sea rim, from West Pomerania to Schleswig-Holstein (Ginter 1974, 11). In the west it originates from the Cretaceous deposits of the Maastricht—Liege—Aaachen area (Lohr, Zimmermann, Hahn 1977, 151-153, 158-160). In most cases they were erodcd from their primary deposits in the Cretaceous formations and were transported to the places of their present occurrence by the inland ice, mainly of Riss glaciation (Ginter 1974, 11). Erratic flints are found most often in the moraines (Fig. 13), gravcl trains and fluvioglacial sands and the outerops freąuently occur in the river-gaps (i.e. Poznaó-Staro-łęka — Kobusiewicz 1967). The colour of the erratic flints changes so that within one nodule in sonie places arc black and in others grey. Sometimes the blend of both colours occurs. Additionally, brown, russet, grey, bluish and yellowish flints are known. Some varieties are striped. The fracture surface of some is duli and of others glossy. The cortex as a rule has traces of the glacial transport in the form of smoothings or sometimes is even completely torn off. Secondary deposits differ from the point of view of nodules sitc and their industrial values (Fig. 14). Recent research indicates the possibi-lity of making distinctions between raw materials from difFerent deposits (Bagniewski 1979; Cyrek 1979). Erratic raw materials from the local deposits played an impor-tant role in the flint industries of early farming communi-ties in western Poland, from Pomerania to Upper Silesia, in the region of Opava and in the whole of northern Moravia, in Meklenburg, Brandenburg, Saxony, Thurin-

Fig. 14. Gorzów Wielkopolski-Chwalęcice. “Baltic” erratic chalk

flint nodules

Photo by J.Lcch

gia and further west in Lower Saxony. Riigien island and the neighbouring Continental shores were an im-portant centre of their exploitation and distribution (Wiślański 1969, 236-238), as well as the region of Racibórz in Upper Silesia (Balcer 1977, 7 f., and the region of Poznań-Starołęka (Kobusiewicz 1967). Therc was pro-bably a similar region of rich occurrence and exp!oita-tion of the erratic flint deposits (Baltic ones) in Saxony. Numerous long blades madę of this raw materiał in north-west Bohcmia, from the region of Chomutov and Teplice to Praguc could be a proof⁵.

Stone raw materials from Slovakia are little known.

⁵ For example, compare the blades from the gravcs in the Corded Ware culture cemctery at Vikleticc ncar Chomutov. They are now in the collection of the Branch of the Archaeological Institutc ĆSAV in Most; sec: Buchyaldek, Koutecky 1970.