Considerații preliminare asupra utilajului litic șlefuit din așezarea cucuteniană de la Hoisești - „La Pod”

Abstract

The Polished Stone Tools Assemblage from Hoisești -"La Pod" cucuteni settlement. Preliminary Report.

Our paper aims to define the typological and functional structure of the polished stone assemblage from Hoiseşti − “La Pod” settlement. In order to achieve our goal, for a typological ordering, we used a series of morphological variables which helped us define three major groups of tools, each group being further divided into types. Also, in order to establish the possible function of each group and type of tools we started from the already established morphological characteristics, adding ethnological and use-wear data and observations. We thus identified, as a first group, the axes which present two types. The first type is represented by one specimen, with an approximate length of 5 cm. Although it presents use-wear traces, we were not able to establish its function. The second type is represented by six specimens with lengths varying from 6 to 15 cm. As their main function, both ethnographical data and use-wear observations suggest wood chopping. The second group, the adzes, presents compact morphological attributes which did not allowed us further division into types. As their main function, both ethnographical data and use-wear observations suggest wood working, this kind of tools being employed in various tasks such as wood chopping, adzing, planing. For the eight adzes identified in the lithic assemblage from the Hoiseşti settlement tasks such as adzing or planing seem to have been characteristic. The third group, the chisels, was further divided into two morphological types. The first type, represented by two specimens, is characterized by a symmetrical section of the working edge. The use-wear analysis of these tools led us to the assumption that they were used in a shaving-like motion. The second type, represented by two specimens, is characterized by an asymmetrical section of the working edge. The use-wear analysis of these tools indicates scraping as a possible motion. Both ethnographical and use-wear data indicates wood as most probable working material. All these observations, corroborated with the results yielded by the study of the archaeozoological remains which indicate the presence of a densely wooded environment, mark, in our opinion, a preference for the selective exploitation of the edge of the wood, without any real effort being made in activities of deforestation, in order to obtain new plats suitable for agriculture.