Stonework
Apart from flint material, Funnel Beaker Culture people used for tools production – limestone, crystalline rocks and sandstone. Those materials were transported from remote places. They were transported to Gródek from Chełm, Rejowiec and Trembowla. We cannot forget about Roztocze and also about connections with Ćmielów and Trypillian culture people. The main storehouse of Ćmielów people were Świętokrzyskie mountains. Tools made from these materials are not so diverse as flint tools. Querns, axes and grindstones were made from them.
There are plenty of other objects made of raw stone material which are often omitted in general analysies of stonemasonry production. Among other things small stone polishers, imitations of stone axes with nodular heads and flint axes. Those imitations stone toys - axes were probably made of the production waste coming from initial treatment of stone material intended for big tools. Whereas flint axes’ imitations were made of slate used among other things for production of inlay mass. It was raw material easy to treat, which made such toy possible to be made by a child itself. Those miniatures of stone weapon could have been also a "birthday" gift from older siblings or parents.
Appart from commonly avaliable rocks, fossils were used as well. One of the examples may be a half of rostrum belemita decorated with a number of notches, found during S. Jastrzębski’s research in Gródek by the Bug river. Was it found by primaeval man while he was ploughing in spring, bathing near in the Bug river in summer or was it a souvenir from faraway journey? We will never know. However, we can state that human mind has been accompanied by an element of curiousity and possession from the very beginning.
There are following phases of stone tool processing (e.g. an ax):
- carving the stone
- crashing the surface
- drilling a hole with a bone drill
- smoothing and grinding
Stone object was very important in Funnel Beaker Culture. An ax that stimulated people’s imagination was a dream of many young men. Dreams of small children partly come true – they got ideal clay imitations of axes. Owing to archaeological materials we can observe different aspects of social life such as protectiveness (fathers, mothers and siblings looked after young generation). I think that this kind of reasoning cannot be an overinterpretation or an author’s imagination. How can a child from the XXI century react seeing a gun in man’s hands – would it like to possess a gun and be like an adult? I don’t have to anwer this questions.
"The dream of eneolithic boy"
Partly fulfilled dream, unfortunately small and clay (fragments of miniature axes)
Stone quern from Funnel Beaker Culture
An amulet, decoration or souvenir? A half of rostrum belemnit with visible carving
