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FLINT MINING OF CENTRAL EUROPE 21

Fig. 20. Gorodok, Rovnc dist. Visncvaya Góra sile

/ — Plan of thc exploitation unit and wastc-hcap; // — Section of exploitation unit and wastc-heap on axis A - B: 1 — pit, 2 - wastc-hcap, 3 — flint workshop,

4 — soi!, 5 — locss, 6 — bcd-rock

Aftcr I.K.Svc5nikov

thc edge of the Corded Ware settlement at thc foot of Viśnevaya Góra. Prcliminary prcpared nodules werc ta-ken there. Stone rctouchers and hammerstones, spherical flint hammerstones, fragments of antler mining tools

Fig. 2!. Gorodok, Rovnc dist. Viśnevaya Góra site. Filnt workshop

from plan in fig. 20, Scalę 20 cm

Photo by I.K.Svc5nikov

and scmiproducts of flint axes and sicklcs come from thc settlement. At a distance of between one half km to 5 km from ViSnevaya Góra morę than 20 other settle-ments of the Corded Ware Culturc have been disco-vered. Some of them provided antler tools for mining works (Sveśnikov 1969, 118).

The facts ascertained by I. K. Svcśnikov i.e.: the prcscnce of local turning up of the soil with waste hcaps accompanying them and workshops of preiiminary Processing as wcli as typical mining tools, which allowed him to characterize thc unit from Visnevaya Góra as a manifestation of the simplest mining. As the abundant comparative materials indicate, the kind of works in the whole prehistorie Europę depended first of all on the deposits’ gcological situation, and was not deter-mined culturally, and secondly we can assume the ex-istcnce of similar extractive units in other regions.

2. SURFACE PITS

Surface working consisted in digging shallow, smali pits with a depth from tens to the maximum approx. 1.5 m and with a bigger diameter not usually exceeding 2 m. Such workings, from the beginning to the end, could have been dug and exploited by one man. From the point of view of working them, obtaining flint from thc pits did not reąuire the participation of any morę pcople. The right kind of planning, the knowledgc of deposit and of mining field were the only things ncccssary.

Typical units of this sort were found on the terri-

Fig. 22. Bębło, Cracow dist. Surface pits (1-3)

a — soil; b — locss containing artefaets and a smali admixture ofeluvial clay which fillcd in thc pit; c — cluvial clay with flinls