From the West to the East. On the Transcarpathian Circulation of the Lithic Raw Materials During the Linear Pottery Culture (Lbk) Development

Abstract

The article is devoted to the issue of far-reaching, Transcarpathian distribution and exchange of various flint raw materials and obsidian during the development of Linear Pottery Culture (LBK). The currently-available source data suggest clear differences between the oldest (Pre Music-Note) and the younger (Music-Note and Želiezovce) developmental phases of this culture in terms of directions and range, as well as the form and degree of distribution intensity of particular raw materials. This applies in equal measure to the raw materials of high technological importance – distributed in large quantities in the forms of concretions, pre-cores, or prepared cores – and to blades, flakes or tools, constituting only a minor quantitative supplement to the mainstream Transcarpathian distribution of raw materials, much less important in this respect and represented within particular inventories by very few specimens. Particularly significant differences are visible at the younger developmental stage of the LBK. They are closely related to the much broader context of cultural phenomena and changes that took place in the areas on the northern side of the Carpathians at the turn of the 6th and 5th millennia BC as a direct reflection of the intensity of interregional contacts, both at the intra and intercultural level.