Obsidian blade debitage at Kašov-Čepegov I (Bükk culture), Slovakia

Abstract

This paper presents the first results of a new lithic study of the site of Kašov-Čepegov I (KČ-I) in eastern Slovakia. Excavations at Kašov were conducted by Ladislav Bánesz during the mid-1980s after finds were made during the digging of a drainage ditch (Bánesz 1991). Archaeological excavation exposed a pit that contained several concentrations of hundreds of obsidian artefacts associated with decorated pottery sherds belonging to the Bükk culture (šiška 1991). Exploitation of, and trade in, obsidian is usually linked to this culture. Previous analyses of the chipped stone industries from various sites have shown that obsidian played a major role in distribution networks, especially given the existence of so-called ‘specialized on-site workshops’ where blocks of raw material were preliminarily worked and partially exploited to obtain blades (Kaczanowska, Kozłowski 2008). Technological study of two concentrations at KČ-I shows that the chaîne opératoire of debitage of obsidian blades is quite distinctive and made by ‘punch technique’ (indirect percussion). The production does not exhibit a very high level of regularity and includes ‘macro blade’ debitage as well as smaller blades. Besides the main production, evidence of flint knapping apprenticeship has been detected, on very small obsidian nodules. Reassessment of the material from KČ-I leads to the interpretation of the collection as a domestic assemblage rather than a workshop production as initially suggested by Bánesz. It should be noted that the obsidian production does not differ much from blade production from limnic quartzite or radiolarite described from other Bükk sites. In fact, the debitage of the pit of KČ-I is interpreted as belonging to a laminar tradition that appeared in the early phase of the early Linear Pottery culture in eastern Slovakia.