Single-stacked chipboard core

The Ahrensburg blade core was discovered in the pre-war period in Baszewice, the Gryfice district, on a site that is part of a Palaeolithic assemblage on the Rega river. In the collection of the National Museum (Muzeum Narodowe) in Szczecin, there are several other artefacts from Baszewice associated with the Ahrensburg culture, but it is not known whether they come from the same site. Archival records indicate that Neolithic flint axes and waste from their manufacture were found nearby. The single-stack core from Baszewice, made from good quality chalk flint, was used to produce blades, which were broken off with a soft pestle from antler or bone or soft rock such as sandstone. It was formed from a crumb of a larger lump, which is characteristic of the flint manufacture of the people of the Ahrensburg culture. The core preparation stage was limited to simple procedures, including forming a heel, a plane that was struck to chip off smaller fragments. In this case, the core was abandoned due to the maker's errors during the initial mining phase. The traces preserved on the natural surface suggest a long period of deposition on the surface, while the negatives of the core-forming reflections are devoid of such traces, indicating that the core was formed on some older waste, which is typical of gatherer-hunter communities.

Michał Adamczyk