Stone head tools from the hunter-gatherer Stone Age sites of Dudka and Szczepanki, NE-Poland

Gumiński, Witold (author)

A large collection of 75 stone head tools coming from the Stone Age hunter-gatherer sites of Dudka and Szczepanki in NE-Poland is presented. The tools, which are exceedingly diversified, were divided into 14 taxa. Most taxa reveal a long chronology from the Mesolithic to the Late Neolithic, although the majority of tools belong to the Para-Neolithic Zedmar culture. Tools were characterized regarding shape, proportion, size, mass, raw material and processing. The analysis shows that almost every taxon is intrinsically diversified regarding the position of maximum width and thickness, size and mass or kind and colour of rocks, and these variabilities do not show connections with the chronology. Instead, some secondary stylistic features such as the edge protrusion and separation from the trunk or form of sides and butts reveal chronological trends. Unexpectedly, the contexts in which tools appeared at both sites were different, at Dudka three quarters of finds come from the cemetery, whereas at Szczepanki three quarters come from the lake shore zone. It is argued that in both cases this arose from the custom of the intentional deposition of stone head tools.

• Language: English
• Keywords: stone head tools, hunter-gatherers, Dudka and Szczepanki, Zedmar culture, NE-Poland
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 82-120
• Numbering: Vol. 52
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-180569
• ISSN on article: 1854-2492
• DOI: 10.4312/dp.52.17
• COBISS.SI-ID: 272604931

Copyright

Podatek o licenci CC BY-SA 4.0 je naveden na pristajalni strani članka (glej zgoraj izvorni URL). (Datum opombe: 11. 3. 2026)

• Publication date in RUL: 11.03.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Documenta Praehistorica
• Shortened title: Doc. Praehistor.
• Publisher: Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 1854-2492
• COBISS.SI-ID: 220673792

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Kamena orodja v kamenodobnih naseljih lovcev in nabiralcev v Dudki in Szczepanki, SV-Poljska

Abstract

Predstavljamo obsežno zbirko 75 kamnitih orodij, odkritih v naseljih lovcev in nabiralcev iz kamene dobe v Dudki in Szczepanki na severovzhodu Poljske. Orodja izstopajo po veliki tipološki raznolikosti in so bila razvrščena v 14 taksonov. Večina pripada paraneolitski kulturi Zedmar, vendar kažejo širok kronološki razpon, od mezolitika do poznega neolitika. Orodja smo tipološko in morfološko analizirali glede na obliko, razmerja, velikost, maso, vrsto surovin ter tehnologijo obdelave. Analiza je pokazala, da je skoraj vsak takson izrazito variabilen glede položaja največje širine in debeline, dimenzij, mase ter vrste in barve kamnin. Variabilnost ni odvisna od kronološkega obdobja, čeprav nekatere stilistične značilnosti – kot so izbočenje roba, način loma od jedra ter oblika stranskih robov in zadnjih delov – kažejo kronološke trende. Zanimivo je, da se najdiščni konteksti razlikujejo, saj je bilo v Dudki tri četrtine orodij najdenih v grobišču, medtem ko so v Szczepanki tri četrtine orodij odkrili na obali jezera. Na podlagi teh podatkov zagovarjamo tezo, da gre v obeh primerih za namensko odlaganje kamnitih orodij.

• Keywords: kamena orodja, lovci in nabiralci, Dudka in Szczepanki, kultura Zedmar, severovzhodna Poljska