The provenance of serpentinite tools in the Corded Ware culture of Moravia (Czech Republic)

Abstract

1 Masaryk Uni ver sity, De part ment of Geo log i cal Sci ences, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Re pub lic 2 Garmur.cz, s.r.o., Nebovidy 497, 664 48 Brno, Czech Re pub lic 3 Brno Uni ver sity of Tech nol ogy, Fac ulty of Ar chi tec ture, Poříčí 5, 639 00 Brno, Czech Re pub lic Frýbová, P., Gadas, P., Přichystal, A., Všianský, D., Hadacz, R., Hlavsa, P., 2018. The prov e nance of ser pen tin ite tools in the Corded Ware cul ture of Moravia (Czech Re pub lic). Geo log i cal Quar terly, 62 (3): 563-578, doi: 10.7306/gq.1437This pa per con strains the prov e nance of pol ished tools used in the Corded Ware cul ture (CWC) in Moravia. Based on op ti cal mi cros copy, Přichystal and Šebela (1992) sug gested the source for the CWC bat tle-axes would be the Gogołów-Jordanów Mas sif in Lower Silesia (Po land). The pres ent study ex am ines 14 ser pen tin ite tools from ar chae o log i cal sites of Cen tral Moravia. We have lo cated the or i gin of the tools' raw ma te rial by ap ply ing de tailed petrographic, geo chem i cal and petrophysical meth ods, as well as com par i sons with data from prob a ble ser pen tin ite sources. Pos si ble sources are ad ja cent to the Sowie Góry Block (mainly the Gogołów-Jordanów Mas sif) and within other ar eas in Cen tral Eu rope (Penninic Bernstein Win dow, West ern Lugicum and the east ern part of the Moldanubicum). Its most prob a ble source is the Gogołów-Jordanów Mas sif, which is a part of the Ślęża ophiolite. The tools re sem ble the raw ma te rial source in sev eral ways: firstly in mag netic sus cep ti bil ity, with an av er age value of ~40 × 10-3 SI; sec ondly, in the light yel low ish-green patched patinated sur face and very strong serpentinisation with al most no pri mary min eral rel ics; and lastly, in the oc cur rence of pseudo morphs filled with opaque min er als, and also parts with magnesite ag gre gates, which are quite rare. The main common fea ture is the pres ence of large pri mary zoned spi nels, with Cr-and Al-rich cores and Fe-rich rims. The con clu sions are sup ported by the re sults of bulk-rock chem i cal anal y sis, both the raw ma te rial from Lower Silesia and the tools be ing Mg-rich. In ad di tion, the shape of some Moravian bat tle-axes (from Prusinovice) cor re sponds to the Ślęża type that is be lieved to be char ac ter is tic of Lower Silesia. The es ti mated dis tance of trans port from the source area in Gogołów-Jordanów Mas sif to the ar chae o log i cal sites in Cen tral Moravia is >260 km.