Semi-manufactured tool

The massive shard made from striped flint was broken off with a hard pestle from a larger piece. A crack in the distal part suggests that it was much larger. The top side is covered with thin, smooth bark, partly removed by several blows that initially gave shape to the object. The prepared flint could be turned into a number of different tools, such as an axe, chisel or punch. The shard was found in Krzemionki in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, where there is a mine complex that is globally unique due to the striped flint found there. This one of a kind outcrop was used for almost the entire Middle and Late Neolithic period. Due to its significance, the site was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2019.The activities of the former inhabitants of Krzemionki left behind a mining field with numerous open pits, individual mine shafts, mine entrances and workshops where the quality and initial processing of the raw material was carried out. The processed blocks were then sent to specialised workshops or exchanged with exchanged with inhabitants of further areas for various goods. The piece on display is an example of one of the prepared pieces that were used for exchange. A semi-finished tool from Krzemionki came to Szczecin in the inter-war period, together with several other striped flint products, thanks to a donation by Dr Alfred Bannier (c. 1900 - after 1962) from Slupsk. These objects were included in the mineral reference collection of the Szczecin Pommersches Landesmuseum (1927-1945). Creating such collections is still a popular method in archaeology for collecting data helpful in identifying rock materials. Only a small proportion of the rocks collected in Szczecin in the pre-war period have survived to the present day. Michał Adamczyk