Ground Stone

Özet
Höyüktepe kazıları Kütahya Müzesi Müdürlüğü tarafından ve başkanlığında yürütülmüştür. Kazılar sonucunda ortaya çıkan arkeolojik buluntular arasında çok sayıda öğütme taşlarının da bulunduğu gözlenmiş, kazı projesinin yürütücüleri tarafından detaylı ve analitik incelenmesi için sistematik olarak kazı alanında ve sonrasında belgelenerek kazı sonrası analizleri için depoda biriktirilmiştir. Buluntular üzerinde yapılan ilk incelemeler gerçekleştirilerek elde edilen bilgiler yine aynı kurum tarafından gerçekleştirilen monograf içinde yayınlanmıştır. İlk değerlendirmeler Höyüktepe öğütme taşlarının tipolojik çeşitliliği, hammadde ve kullanımına işaret etmekteydi. Buluntuların tipolojik açıdan çoğunluğu alt ve üst öğütme taşlarından meydana geldiği ve bunların yoğun kullanımda kaldıkları gözlenmiştir. Bununla birlikte buluntuların kazı alanındaki konumları değerlendirilmeden bırakılmıştı. Burada ilk çalışmanın devamı olarak düşünülen ve bir anlamda çalışmayı tamlayacak olan bir perspektif ile buluntuların konumları ve kontekstleri değerlendirilecektir. Dolayısıyla, bir dağılım analizi yapmak amaçlanmaktadır. Dağılım analizleri sonucunda da öğütme taşlarının bulundukları ortamlarla ilişkileri dışında, onların kullanım tarihlerinin de bir anlamda ortaya çıkarılması amaçlanmakta ve mekan ve alet kullanımı açısından da bir çerçeve sunmayı amaçlanmaktadır. Bu da yerleşmenin işlevi ve anlaşılmasında önemli oranda yardımcı olacaktır.



Abstract
The excavation of Höyüktepe is conducted under the direction of Kütahya Museum. As a result of these systematic excavations numerous ground stone tools have been discovered. These tools were registered and recorded during the excavations and stored in the depot of the dig house where post-excavation analyses were conducted. Initial results of the examination of the assemblage were previously reported in a monograph published by the Kütahya Museum. This report considered tool typology, raw materials and use of the raw materials. It indicated that the lower and upper parts of grinding equipment were dominant in the assemblage compared to other types. However, the first report did not include contextual analysis or consideration of on-site distribution of these artifacts. As a follow up the previous one, this report focuses on the contextual analyses, on-site distribution and use-life of the artifacts. The wider purpose of this report is to help in the interpretation of building use, household activities and life cycles of the ground stones, all of which are useful in understanding the overall functioning of the site.

Product and production issues are debated widely in archaeological literature. This paper shows that a product can also be a production place using grinding stones as an example of multi-functional tools. These large lithic tools are portable and employed for food and tool production. They are made by using lithic tool making technologies such as rubbing and knapping. The chaîne opératoire approach is useful to understand the technologies related to their production. Based on this, it is possible to track ground stone tools as products of technologies in sequences of tool making, resulting in final products. Ground stones are the result of applied lithic technologies until they start to be used, at which point they become a production place. This paper emphasises how an artefact can transition from being a product to a production place.

Western archaeology really adopted S.A. Semenov’s use-wear analysis method (Semenov 1964), with the blind-test of
M.H. Newcomer and L.H. Keeley in 1977 (Keeley et al. 1977). Today, functional analysis on grinding and abrading stone tools is a promising field of research, especially for Neolithic studies. It requires a re-evaluation of the framework initially created for flint tools. This paper proposes an evaluation, through a blind-test, of the framework of grinding tools functional analysis. In this aim, H. Plisson took in charge the crushing of calcite and dry bone, the grinding of naked wheat, fresh bone and cartilage, dry meat and roasted acorn as well as the softening of dry hide. On the other side, the observation of these fourteen tools by C. Hamon helped her proposing hypothesis on the position of the tool, their action, the transformed matter, their condition and duration of use. Comparison of the hypothesis proposed and the effective experimentations help us discuss the reliability of each of these criterion

A wide range of stones were found at the 22,000-24,000 year old lakeshore camp of Ohalo II, the Sea of Galilee, Israel. The well-preserved camp includes the floors of six brush huts, several open-air hearths, a grave, a midden, and small installations. Stones were found in all excavated loci. These include a small assemblage of basalt and limestone tools, among which bowls, grinding implements and weights are the most common. Use-wear analysis supports the identification of the grinding tools, suggesting that cereals were indeed processed with them, but not in an intensive manner. The presence of thousands of cereal grains as well as several sickle blades accord well these finds. Bowls were all shallow and only their fragments were found. Weights were likely used as fishing net sinkers. Limestone and basalt flakes indicate local knapping. Basalt and limestone fragments, shattered from heat, were abundant in all the excavated loci. Their original use is yet to be verified, but their shattering from heat was affirmed by a series of experiments. Stones were also used as wall supports. The range of types, contexts and activities reflected by stone tools and natural stones is unprecedented in other contemporaneous sites in the southern Levant.

Prehistoric wooden objects have a special status amongst archaeological finds mostly due to a low rate of conservation and because they can be directly dated through archaeometric investigations. This contribution is a review of the papers on the radiocarbon dates obtained for some “wooden” objects from two Early Neolithic sites in southern Romania: Grădinile-La Islaz (Olt County) and Măgura-Boldul lui Moş Ivănuş (Teleorman County). This analysis was also focused on the archaeological research and the geo-archaeology of the two sites, the archaeological context of the objects and their morphological traits. The 14C dates obtained for the respective objects were above 35000 years BP, far in time from the normal Early Neolithic ages in this area. Thus, the archaeologists investigating this problem reached the conclusion that the prehistoric people living at Grădinile and Măgura used fossil wood as a raw material for the objects. The reviewed information has revealed that the astonishing 14C dates obtained for the supposed wooden objects embodies the saga of overlapping research errors, such as disregarding the unfavourable conditions for wood preservation in the given geological contexts, decontextualisation of the objects and their treatment in an antiquarian manner, unfortunate choosing of the investigation tools for the identification of the raw material. These errors derive from taking for granted the arguments proposed for the preservation of the Grădinile “wooden” objects by the archaeologist describing them some 30 years ago.

Les recherches sur les haches polies préhistoriques, très importantes au neolithique, sont  assez récentes en Turquie. Les premières études pétrographiques, ont été faites par Demangel (1926) sur les haches polies découvertes dans le site préhistorique  de Protésilas (Karaağaçtepe) situé juste au bout de la presqu’île de Galipoli.
Les résultats que nous présenterons dans cet article portent sur quinze ébauches de haches. Les ramassages ont été effectués sur deux sites importants au sud de la Thrace turque. La Thrace qui constitue une partie de la Turquie en Europe, s’étend entre la mer Noire au nord, la mer Marmara et la côte égéenne au sud. La première prospection réalisée durant la mission 1999 nous a permis d’appréhender l’étendue des deux sites Hamayl›tarla (Buruneren) et Fener-karadutlar. Ces deux gisements préhistoriques  ont été découverts durant la mission de 1997 lors des prospections archéologiques faite par Onur Ozbek.
Ce sont des höyüks très plats. Les coordonnées de Hamaylıtarla et Fener-karadutlar sont N 40°34'29,9" E 026°56'05.2" et N 40˚33’21,6” E 26˚59’34.0”.