Barbara Sałacińska, Sławomir Sałaciński, Andrzej Pelisiak

# A quadrangular axe made of banded flint from Berezka, Solina Commune, Lesko district, Podkarpackie Voivodeship

## ABSTRACT

The quadrangular, fully polished axe, made of banded flint, from Berezka, Solina Commune, Lesko district, bears a resemblance in shape, manufacturing technique, and material to axes associated with the Globular Amphora culture. It was discovered accidentally as a loose find. No other finds from this culture were recorded in its vicinity. It represents evidence of the penetration of the Globular Amphora culture population, or it could have been produced within this cultural context. Still, the last user may have belonged to the Funnel Beaker culture or the Corded Ware culture.

## KEYWORDS

Neolithic stray find, banded flint, axes rectangular in cross-section, eastern Polish Carpathians
In the collections of the Museum of Material and Spiritual Culture of the Boykos in Myczków, Solina Commune, Podkarpackie Voivodeship, there is a fully polished quadrangular axe made of banded flint. The primary deposits of this raw material are in the Jurassic formations of the northeastern slope of the Holy Cross Mountains, in the band of outcrops of Upper Oxfordian rocks from Iłża to Krzemionki Opatowskie (Budziszewski, Michniak 1989). This is an accidental find made by the student Mateusz Wojnik at an unspecified time and under unknown circumstances. The artefact was given to the founder and curator of the museum, historian and enthusiast of the folk culture of the Bieszczady Mountains, Stanisław Drozd, and the detailed descriptive and graphic documentation was carried out by Barbara and Sławomir Sałaciński from the State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw (Fig. 1). The axe was found within the administrative boundaries of Berezka (Fig. 2), though no more precise data on the location of this discovery is available. The artefact measures 10.5 cm in length, with a blade width of 5 cm and butt dimensions of 1.8×3 cm. The surface of the specimen is fully polished, and the blade has been repaired and re-ground. The butt shows traces of wear likely resulting from the hafting or aeolian erosion caused by external depositional factors (Fig. 3).

The axe from Berezka, in terms of raw material, shape, and manufacturing technique, exhibits typical characteristics for specimens of the Globular Amphora culture (hereinafter referred to as GAC). Such items are often found as part of the grave goods of GAC communities (e.g., Wiślański 1966; 1979; Balcer 1983; Szmyt 1996; 1999; Bronicki 2016; Sałacińska, Sałaciński 2022).

Bogdan Balcer described axes of the GAC as four-sided, wedge-shaped, with flat butt, very carefully crafted, and completely or almost completely polished. The cross-sections are rectangular and regular, with rare slight deviations, and they broaden from the butt towards the cutting edge. The length of GAC axes ranges from 5 to 20 cm, with smaller forms prevailing, typically around 10 cm. The width of the cutting edges reaches up to 5 cm, the poll up to 3 cm, and the maximum thickness up to approximately 2 cm (Balcer 1983, 209). The described axe from Berezka exhibits practically all these characteristics and dimensions, with minimal deviations.

Marzena Szmyt classified the flintworking of the Globular Amphora culture into two main categories of products: macrolithic tools and non-macrolithic tools, within five raw material groups. According to her classification, the Berezka axe fits into type B1 – axes and chisels with a so-called thick poll, B11 – with a rectangular cross-section, and B11-12.1, made from banded flint. Artefacts of this type are found in the context of burial equipment and grave
<figure><img src="image_1.png" /><figcaption>**FIG. 1.** Museum of Material and Symbolic Culture of the Boykos in Myczków. Barbara Sałacińska (State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw) during the preparation of graphic documentation of the Berezka flint axe, on the right: Stanisław Drozd (founder and curator of the Museum). Photo S. Sałaciński</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /><figcaption>**FIG. 2.** Location of the site at Berezka, Lesko district. Prepared by W. Grużdź</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>FIG. 3. Berezka, Lesko district. Globulat culture axe made from banded flint. Photo, drawing and prepared by B. Sałacińska</figcaption></figure>
forms associated by Szmyt with phases IIb-IIIa of GAC, dated to 3250/3100-2400/2150 BC, or 2500-1900/1850 conv. BC (Szmyt 1996, 49). Szmyt suggests that the chronological range for these phases can be narrowed to 3250/3100-2600 BC (1996, 51, 75, 78; 2017, 219).

Wojciech Borkowski and Witold Migal (1996) conducted a detailed analysis of the four-sided axe made of banded flint, focusing on the traces of grinding, smoothing, polishing, as well as any damage and repairs. They also drew attention to the results of morphometric studies, which revealed variation within the morphology of this tool group. According to their observations, the production of GAC axes involved the precise grinding of the frontal surfaces, which effectively removed traces of earlier flint working operations (Borkowski, Migal 1996, 141, 164). On the Berezka axe, traces of sharpening and polishing on the blade were observed, while the remaining parts of the tool were merely smoothed and polished.

The production cycle of four-sided axes made of banded flint was experimentally recreated by W. Migal and S. Sałaciński (1996). As a result of their research, three main methods of producing these tools were identified: the complete core method, the “flake” method, and the method using massive semi-raw flake or chip material (Migal, Sałaciński 1996, 123–132; 1997, 338–342). The Berezka axe was most likely made using the “flake” method. This is indicated by the central location of the hard flint with poor spalling characteristics, which is a distinguishing feature of this production method (Migal, Sałaciński 1996, 128).

The clear determination of the cultural affiliation of the Berezka axe should not pose significant difficulties. However, this is complicated by the nature of the find, the lack of information about the context of its discovery, and the picture of Neolithic settlement in the Carpathians and the Sandomierz Basin.

Similar or nearly identical axes are known as loose finds from the eastern part of the Polish Carpathians and the adjacent areas of Podkarpacie (e.g. Valde-Nowak 1988; Pelisiak 2018; 2019). These objects come from accidental discoveries, often without precisely defined locations and the circumstances of their finding, typically by random individuals. The exceptions are the four-sided banded flint axes from Chotyniec, Jarosław district, and Sarzyna, Leżajsk district, site 4. The former was discovered during excavations at a Scythian circle site, though it lacked a Neolithic spatial context (Czopek 2020, 486–487). The axe from Sarzyna, site 4, was discovered during rescue excavations on the surface of a multi-cultural site, also outside the Neolithic spatial context (Drewniak, Marek, Mazurek 2024).
In the eastern part of Polish Podkarpacie, only one GAC grave has been discovered, in Rozbórz, Przeworsk district, site 42. However, its comparatively rich inventory (ceramics, amber ornaments) did not include any banded flint objects (Sznajdrowska 2013). A second, presumed grave was noted in Nisko, Nisko district. This discovery consists of a GAC vessel with the suggestion that it may originate from a destroyed grave. However, no banded flint objects were registered in its vicinity (Czopek 1999, fig. 13: a, b). Fragments of GAC ceramics, possibly of settlement origin (though such an interpretation may raise doubts), are known, for example, from Rozbórz, site 42 (where the aforementioned grave of this culture was also found). They were found in a secondary deposit, some within a feature of the Trzciniec culture (Sznajdrowska 2013, 15; Pelisiak 2018, 34).

Considering the current state of knowledge about Neolithic settlement in the eastern part of the Polish Carpathians and eastern Polish Podkarpacie, loose finds of four-sided axes made of banded flint discovered in these areas can be interpreted in three main ways. First, they may represent remnants of penetration by GAC communities or their communication routes (lost objects, traces of destroyed graves, etc.). The few settlement sites and graves cannot be considered evidence of permanent settlement by GAC populations in these areas. Second, these may be items produced within the GAC environment but used by populations of the Funnel Beaker culture or the Corded Ware culture (cf. Libera 2009, Libera et al. 2019). This interpretation, at least for some of the four-sided axes made of banded flint in the GAC type, is supported by numerous remains of settlements from both cultures in the region (Pelisiak 2018, fig. 11: 6, 9). Third, it cannot be completely excluded that these items are associated with the settlement of these areas by GAC populations, and that the minimal traces of this settlement are a result of research shortcomings. It is also worth adding that finds of axes may have resulted from various processes and events. This means that each of them has its own individual history and should be perceived as such.

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## ADRESSES OF THE AUTHORS

### Barbara Sałacińska

State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw
Długa 52, 00-241 Warszawa, Poland
neolit@pma.pl
ORCID 0000-0001-6126-397X

### Sławomir Sałaciński

State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw
Długa 52, 00-241 Warszawa, Poland
neolit@pma.pl
ORCID 0000-0002-0767-8979

### Andrzej Pelisiak

Professor Emeritus
Łódź, Poland
a.pelisiak@gmail.com
ORCID 0000-0001-9870-9656