Bone hoe

The hoe made of bones of a large mammal, probably an aurochs, comes from Pogorzelica, the Gryfice district. It was discovered by accident in 1971 by a primary school pupil from Brzeg Dolny in Lower Silesia who was on holiday at the seaside. Initially, it was included in the former Archaeological Museum (Muzeum Archeologiczne) collection in Wrocław, but in January 1972, it was transferred to the collection of the National Museum (Muzeum Narodowe) in Szczecin. The process of hoe production begins with cutting off a redundant element - the bone head and ends with drilling a hole for setting the handle. The blade shaping method cannot be precisely reconstructed due to the shining and smoothing of the surface caused by use and centuries of being buried in soil or water. It seems likely that the hoe discovered in Pogorzelica was in contact with seawater, bumped against stones and rubbed off on the sand. It has to do with changes in sea levels leading to the flooding of an extensive area of the Pomeranian Bay from Bornholm to the present Polish coast. Therefore, the products of the Old Stone Age people made from various raw materials are caught by fishing nets during fishing or thrown ashore by the waves. Bone motes of large mammals are known from several sites, among others from Trudna, the Złotów district, and in Hohen Viecheln, Lkr. Nordwestmecklenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. They differ from the Pogorzelica hoe by the presence of rich ornamentation.

Michał Adamczyk