This paper attempts to show that manufacture of Micoquian bifacial backed tools was structured. Data for this study were collected using a comprehensive analysis of artefacts from the site Pietraszyn 49a, Poland, which is dated to the beginning of Marine Isotope Stage 3. Based on the whole data set, it was possible to distinguish four stages of the manufacturing process. During manufacturing, both mineral hammer and organic hammer were used. The tools were usually shaped due to distinct hierarchization of faces. The study has also shown that the shape of bifacial tools from Pietraszyn 49a is very similar to the other Micoquian examples from central Europe. The ways of shaping of some tools are finding their counterparts also in the Early Upper Palaeolithic inventories, but the similarities are rather limited to the narrow range of preparation of bifacial form.
The authors describe a Neolithic ground stone adze, retrieved from an Early Iron Age burial (c. 700–550 BC) at the urnfield cemetery in Miłosławice, south-western Poland. This artefact yields an interesting example of an extended tool biography.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.