Petrographic and geo chem i cal in ves ti ga tion of a stone adze made of neph rite from the Balatonõszöd – Temetõi dûlõ site (Hun gary), with a re view of the neph rite oc cur rences in Eu rope (es pe cially in Swit zer land and in the Bo he mian Mas sif)
Bálint PÉTERDI1, *, György SZAKMÁNY2, Katalin JUDIK3, Gábor DOBOSI3, Zsolt KASZTOVSZKY4, Veronika SZILÁGYI4, Boglárka MARÓTI4, Zsolt BENDÕ2 and Grzegorz GIL5
1 Geo log i cal and Geo phys i cal In sti tute of Hun gary, De part ment of Geo log i cal and Geo phys i cal Col lec tions, H-1143, Stefánia út 14, Bu da pest, Hun gary
2 Eötvös Loránd Uni ver sity, Fac ulty of Sci ence, In sti tute of Ge og ra phy and Earth Sci ences, De part ment of Pe trol ogy and Geo chem is try, H-1117, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/C, Bu da pest, Hun gary
3 Hun gar ian Acad emy of Sci ences, Re search Cen tre for As tron omy and Earth Sci ences, In sti tute for Geo log i cal and Geo - chem i cal Re search, H-1112, Budaörsi út 45, Bu da pest, Hun gary
4 Hun gar ian Acad emy of Sci ences, Cen tre for En ergy Re search, Nu clear Anal y sis and Ra di og ra phy De part ment, H-1121, Konkoly Thege Miklós út 29-33, Bu da pest, Hun gary
5 Uni ver sity of Wroc³aw, In sti tute of Geo log i cal Sci ences, Pl. Maksa Borna 9, 50-205 Wroc³aw, Po land
Péterdi B., Szakmány G., Judik K., Dobosi G., Kasztovszky Z., Szilágyi V., Maróti B., Bendõ Z. and Gil G. (2014) Petrographic and geo chem i cal in ves ti ga tion of a stone adze made of neph rite from the Balatonõszöd – Temetõi dûlõ site (Hun gary), with a re view of the neph rite oc cur rences in Eu rope (es pe cially in Swit zer land and in the Bo he mian Mas sif). Geo - log i cal Quar terly, 58 (1): 181–192, doi: 10.7306/gq.1146
The pres ent study re ports on re sults of petrographic and geo chem i cal anal y ses on a stone adze from the ar chae o log i cal Balatonõszöd – Temetõi dûlõ site (SW-Hun gary, on the south ern side of Lake Balaton). This is the larg est ex ca vated site of the Baden Cul ture in Hun gary (more than 200,000 m2) and has the lon gest con tin u ous set tle ment his tory. At the site, fea tures of the Balaton-Lasinja Cul ture (Mid dle Cop per Age) and the Boleraz Cul ture have also been found. Al to gether 500 stone artefacts were found and reg is tered. The pres ent study re ports on the re sults of the in ves ti ga tion of a unique neph rite adze, found on the site. This adze is the first neph rite arte fact with an es tab lished ar chae o log i cal con text in Hun gar ian pre his tory.
By ap ply ing de tailed petrographic, geo chem i cal and petrophysical meth ods as well as com par ing with pub lished data we have lo cated the or i gin of the raw ma te rial of this neph rite adze. Its most prob a ble source is the north ern part of the Bo he mian Mas sif, Lower Silesia, a geo log i cal site near Jordanów (Po land).
Key words: archaeometry, pol ished stone tools, Baden Cul ture, neph rite, Balatonõszöd (Hun gary), Jordanów (Po land).
ARCHAEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND AIM OF THE STUDY
Balatonõszöd – Temetõi dûlõ is the larg est ex ca vated and lon gest-lived ar chae o log i cal site of the Late Cop per Age Baden Cul ture in Hun gary. The to tal ter ri tory of the ex ca vated and the con nected reg is tered site is more than 200,000 m2 (Fig. 1). At the site, fea tures of the Balaton-Lasinja Cul ture and the Boleraz Cul ture have also been found. Some fea tures of the two cul - tures oc curred to gether (mixed) though no traces of any later dig ging in or dis tur bance was ob serv able in the sec tion (Horváth et al., 2006; Horváth, 2010).
Al to gether 500 stone artefacts turned up. Their ar chae o log i - cal clas si fi ca tion was car ried out by Tünde Horváth.
Most of the stone tools in ves ti gated are frag ments of grind - ing stones (on a few of them, traces of min eral paint were ob - served), grind ers, pol ish ers, stone axe pre-forms and a few axes. Ob jects whose func tion is not known, boul ders of raw ma - te rial and cores of shaft-hole axes were also found. Al most all of the pol ished stone artefacts (axes) are made of ba salt, the source of the ba salt raw ma te rial most prob a bly be ing the ba - saltic rocks of the nearby vol ca noes of the Balaton High land [Hegyestû, Haláp, Uzsa, and Halyagoshegy (Diszel)] (Péterdi et al., 2011). There is only one stone adze made of neph rite in the set stud ied. Since we do not know any neph rite source in the Carpathian Ba sin (and its sur round ings), the raw ma te rial (or, better to say, the stone adze it self) must have orig i nated from a dis tant source.
Its pleas ing aes thetic ap pear ance and its tough ness – en - sured by the com pact fab ric con sist ing of in ter weav ing and in - ter lock ing thin, fine am phi bole fibres – makes neph rite an ex cel -
* Corresponding author, e-mail: peterdi.balint@gmail.com Received: October 15, 2013; accepted: December 18, 2013; first published online: January 31, 2014
lent raw ma te rial for pol ished stone tools, and so it be came a wide spread raw ma te rial all over Eu rope in the Neo lithic and the Bronze Age; how ever, it was not used (as raw ma te rial) in large quan ti ties be cause of the small size and lim ited oc cur rence of the neph rite bod ies.
Neph rite is pres ent rarely among ar chae o log i cal finds in Hun gary and it is known ex clu sively from Transdanubian sites, pri mar ily in the ma te rial of old sur face col lec tions such as the Miháldy Col lec tion of Veszprém (Szakmány et al., 2001) and the Ebenhöch Col lec tion of the Hun gar ian Na tional Mu seum (Friedel, 2008; Friedel et al., 2008). The ar chae o log i cal finds curated in the above col lec tions can not be iden ti fied ac cord ing to ei ther age or cul ture be cause of a lack of in for ma tion con - cern ing their prov e nance (Horváth, 2001). There fore, the Balatonõszöd – Temetõi dûlõ neph rite adze is the first au then tic Hun gar ian find with re li able ar chae o log i cal con text dat ing back to pre his tory.
The gen eral aim of our study is the de tailed petrographic and geo chem i cal ex am i na tion of the stone tools found at the Balatonõszöd – Temetõi dûlõ ar chae o log i cal site, and lo cat ing the or i gin of the raw ma te ri als. Here we fo cus on this unique neph rite adze.
METHODS
The ma te rial of the stone artefacts found at Balatonõszöd – Temetõi dûlõ was clas si fied ac cord ing to raw ma te rial; we di - vided them into groups on the ba sis of mac ro scopic in ves ti ga - tion. Thin sec tions were made of sam ples of a given group (from ei ther frag ments or of pieces hav ing less value from an ar - chae o log i cal point of view) to carry out de tailed petrographic mi - cro scopic anal y ses. Re sults of the mi cro scopic ex am i na tions (min eral com po si tion, fab ric) were com pleted with geo chem i cal [bulk-rock chem is try (PGAA), min eral chem is try (EPMA, SEM-EDX)] and petrophysical ex am i na tions (mag netic sus cep - ti bil ity; Ap pen dix 1*).
Re cently found neph rite sam ples from pos si ble sources were ana lysed by PGAA (Ap pen dix 1), and the re sults were com pared to pub lished data. The large amount of data was rep - re sented diagramatically.
Prompt-gamma ac ti va tion anal y ses (PGAA) were per - formed us ing the 108cm–1s–1 in ten sity cold neu tron beam of the Bu da pest Re search Re ac tor at the Hun gar ian Acad emy of Sci - ences In sti tute of Iso topes (now the HAS Cen tre for En ergy Re - search). A pre cisely cal i brated HPGe-BGO de tec tor sys tem Fig. 1. Lo ca tion of the Balatonõszöd – Temetõi dûlõ site
* Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in the online version, at doi: 10.7306/gq.1146
was used for de tec tion of prompt gamma pho tons. The ex per i - men tal set-up was de scribed by Szentmiklósi et al. (2010).
Quan ti ta tive de ter mi na tion of most ma jor and some trace el e - ments was made, based on our PGAA li brary (Révay, 2009).
Min eral-chem i cal ex am i na tions of the thin sec tion (SEM, EPMA) were per formed at the Institue for Geo chem i cal Re - search, HAS (now the HAS Re search Cen tre for As tron omy and Earth Sci ences, In sti tute for Geo log i cal and Geo chem i cal Re search; JEOL Superprobe 733 type equip ment, with an Ox - ford In stru ments INCA En ergy 200 en ergy dispersive spec - trom e ter; 15kV ac cel er at ing po ten tial, 4nA sam ple cur rent).
Non-de struc tive min eral-chem i cal ex am i na tion of the sur - face of the adze (SEM-EDX) was per formed with the orig i nal sur face in ves ti ga tion method (Bendõ et al., 2012) at the De - part ment of Pe trol ogy and Geo chem is try of the In sti tute of Ge - og ra phy and Earth Sci ences of the Eötvös Uni ver sity (ELTE).
The in stru ment is an AMRAY 1830 type SEM, with an EDAX PV9800 en ergy dispersive spec trom e ter. Con di tions of anal y - ses: ac cel er at ing po ten tial: 20kV; beam cur rent: 1nA; fo cussed elec tron beam (di am e ter: ~50 nm). Fairly large sam ples can be placed into the sam ple cham ber of this elec tron mi cro scope so the stone im ple ments could be placed into the sam ple cham ber with out in tru sive prep a ra tion.
Mag netic sus cep ti bil ity (MS) ex am i na tions were per formed at the De part ment of Pe trol ogy and Geo chem is try of Eötvös
Uni ver sity (KT-5 type Kappameter; for cor rec tion meth ods see Bradák et al., 2005, 2009).
RESULTS – PETROGRAPHY AND MINERAL CHEMISTRY (EPMA)
MACROSCOPIC FEATURES
The adze is made of very fine-grained meta mor phic rock; its col our is light green, but in some places it shows a darker green or pale blue hue (Fig. 2A). Mod er ately large crys tals are not vis i - ble ei ther to the un aided eye or us ing a hand lens. The pol ished sur faces have a silky lus tre. Here and there fi brous struc ture shows: the wa ver ing fibres are white or ex tremely light green.
Patches of red-brown hue show on the sur face.
MICROSCOPIC FEATURES
The rock is monomineralic; very fine fi brous am phi bole con - sti tutes the mass of the rock (Fig. 2B–D); min ute (50–100 µm), idioblastic am phi bole crys tals are also pres ent. The idioblastic crys tals are spread unoriented; they also ap pear in the cross-sec tion per pen dic u lar to the C-axis (Fig. 3A) and par al lel Fig. 2A – photo of the neph rite adze; B – pho to mi cro graph (crossed polars) of rock tex ture; C – pho to mi cro graph
(plane po lar ized light) of rock tex ture; D – pho to mi cro graph (crossed polars) of rock tex ture
with (010) (Fig. 3B). The fibres of ten wa ver here and form a fan-shaped pat tern there (Fig. 2B); else where they ap pear as tan gled masses lack ing ori en ta tion (Fig. 2C, D). Microanalyses show, that the am phi bole fibres and idioblastic crys tals do not dif fer much in com po si tion; the am phi bole is tremolite through - out, with Si apfu (at oms per for mula unit) 7.9–8.0 and Mg/(Mg + Fe2+) from 0.90 to 0.95 (Leake et al., 1997; Ap pen - dix 1 and Fig. 4).
Us ing the “orig i nal sur face in ves ti ga tion method” we could not see any dif fer ences in tex ture and the am phi boles ana lysed on the sur face of the adze show data that ac cords with the am - phi bole crys tals mea sured in thin sec tion [only the Mg-con tent shows a mi nor (<2%) dif fer ence (Ap pen dix 1) that may re sult from the dif fer ence in anal y sis method (WDS vs. EDS)]. There are some rel a tively large (20–200 µm) mag ne tite crys tals in the red-brown patches on the sur face (Fig. 3C). In all prob a bil ity these patches de rived from the com pletely limonitization or hematitization of the mag ne tite crys tals. It must be pointed out
that mag ne tite crys tals were ab sent in thin sec tion (taken from the in side of the adze).
BULK ROCK CHEMISTRY (PGAA) AND MAGNETIC SUSCEPTIBILITY (MS)
Com par a tive PGAA stud ies on sev eral types of rock oc cur - ring as raw ma te rial of ar chae o log i cal finds have been made re - cently, with a dual pur pose: to ob tain chem i cal anal y ses of the raw ma te rial of ar chae o log i cal finds non-de struc tively and to set up a data-base from the re sults of the anal y ses (Szakmány and Kasztovszky, 2004; Szakmány et al., 2011).
The com po si tion of the neph rite adze found at Balatonõszöd – Temetõi dûlõ is very much like that of the neph - rite adze in the Ebenhöch Col lec tion of the Hun gar ian Na tional Mu seum (Friedel, 2008; Friedel et al., 2008); the only neph rite arte fact in Hun gary that had ever been ex am ined by PGAA be - fore. The char ac ter is tics of the raw ma te rial of both adzes are:
the high sil i con, mag ne sium and cal cium, while low alu mina, so - dium, po tas sium and ti ta nium con tents. The com po si tion of the whole rock is prac ti cally iden ti cal with that of in di vid ual am phi - bole crys tals (based on EPMA and PGAA mea sure ments; Ap - pen dix 1); the dif fer ence ap pears only in the higher iron-con tent prob a bly caused by the red-brown, fer rous dis col our ation that is scat tered on the sur face of the rock.
The real MS value of the rock is low: 0.13x10–3 SI units, that is con gru ent with the val ues mea sured on the neph rite pol ished stone-tools both in the Miháldy Col lec tion (0.09–0.52x10–3 SI units; Bradák et al., 2005) and the Ebenhöch Col lec tion (0.1–0.7x10–3 SI units; Friedel, 2008; Friedel et al., 2008). The nec es sary cor rec tions were cal cu lated us ing the for mula pub - lished by Bradák et al. (2005, 2009).
POSSIBLE SOURCE REGIONS
Ac cord ing to their for ma tion, nephrites can be clas si fied into two groups: one is formed by con tact metasomatism be tween in ter me di ate-acidic (e.g., granodiorite, tonalite) in tru sions and dolomitic mar bles (do lo mite-re lated de pos its, D-type), the other is formed by con tact metasomatism be tween ser pen tin ite and Fig. 3A – SEM-pho to mi cro graph (thin sec tion) of idioblastic tremolite crys tals in tremolite ma trix; B – SEM-pho to mi cro graph
(thin sec tion) of idioblastic tremolite crys tals in tremolite ma trix; C – SEM-pho to mi cro graph (sur face method) of mag ne tite crys tals in tremolite ma trix
Num bers – EPMA mea sur ing points; mt – mag ne tite
Fig. 4. Com par i son of am phi boles from the Balatonõszöd – Temetõi dûlõ site neph rite adze (per formed by means of elec - tron microprobe), with am phi boles from Jordanów and Z³oty Stok neph rite de pos its in Po land; di a gram mod i fied af ter Leake et al. (1997), Jordanów and Z³oty Stok nephrites af ter Gil (2013)
mag matic bod ies (ser pen tin ite-re lated de pos its, S-type; Zhang et al., 2011).
There is a sig nif i cant dif fer ence in chem i cal com po si tion be - tween the two types. The dif fer ence can be best ex pressed by the Mg2+/(Mg2+ + Fe2+(3+)) mol-ra tio: i.e., D-type nephrites have 0.930–1 and S-type nephrites 0.860–0.930 (Zhang et al., 2011). In the case of the Balatonõszöd – Temetõi dûlõ site neph rite adze, this value is 0.901 (Ap pen dix 1 and Fig. 5), there fore the raw ma te rial ex am ined is S-type, con se quently it be longs among the serpentinized ultrabasic rocks.
Geo log i cal oc cur rences of neph rite are fairly rare in Eu rope.
Known oc cur rences are the fol low ing: the Alps (Swit zer land, It - aly, France, Ger many and Aus tria), the Apennines, the Harz Mts. and Scan di na via; also in the meta mor phosed ba sic and ultrabasic com plexes of the bound aries of the Bo he mian Mas - sif. Neph rite oc curs among gla cial er rat ics car ried by ice from Scan di na via to Rügen Is land, and in the en vi rons of Potsdam and Leip zig (Gunia, 2000).
The so-called “Mur Nockerls” – neph rite-grav els, neph - rite-boul ders orig i nat ing from the al lu vium of the small stream Mur be tween Leoben and Graz – also de serve men tion. The Mur flows into the Drava so it is nearer the Carpathian Ba sin than the other known prov e nances. Along its up per course (be - fore it is break ing through the Glein Alm) sev eral serpentinized rock masses oc cur, but the par ent ma te rial of the neph rite-grav - els is as yet un known (Giess, 2005).
Since a sig nif i cant num ber of pol ished tools made of neph - rite have been found on the Bal kan Pen in sula a raw ma te rial source (of neph rite) has been sug gested to be there by ar chae -
ol o gists. How ever, the po ten tial geo log i cal source has not yet been found (Kostov, 2005).
The iden ti fi ca tion of the prov e nance for the Balatonõszöd item is ren dered more dif fi cult be cause too many “green-col - oured” rocks have been named neph rite in the past. The ma jor - ity of these “green-col oured” rocks do not fit the con cept of neph rite as un der stood petro graphi cally to day; the no men cla - ture of am phi bole-types has changed, cer tain types of am phi - bole are known un der sev eral, dif fer ent des ig na tions (i.e. in ear - lier lit er a ture “grammatite” and even “hornblende” are men - tioned rather than tremolite or actinolite). In ad di tion to com par i - son of the min eral com po si tion and fab ric, com par i son of the re - sults of chem i cal anal y ses avail able from cer tain prov e nances and the re sults of anal y ses of finds may of fer sup port.
Monomineralic am phi bole rocks (100% tremolite, con tain - ing tremolite crys tals among the tremolite fibres) sim i lar to the Balatonõszöd – Temetõi dûlõ neph rite can not be found in Liguria (It aly) ac cord ing to D’Amico et al. (2003). The most prob a ble prov e nance of such neph rite finds in It aly might be Graubünden (Grisons) Can ton in Swit zer land (D’Amico et al., 2003).
The above-men tioned “Mur Nockerls” also be long to the tremolite-nephrites (Giess, 2005), but de tailed de scrip tions or anal y ses are not avail able.
Data avail able from the two prob a ble source ar eas con sists of de scrip tions and sur vey data and con cerns min eral, tex tural and chem i cal com po si tions. In the fol low ing we de scribe the nephrites of these source ar eas in de tail. (Ta ble 1, Fig. 6 and Ap pen dix 2)
Fig. 5. Bulk-rock chem is try of the neph rite adze and neph rite sam ples from var i ous geo log i cal sites: R* Mg/(Mg + Fet) as a func tion of SiO2-con tent (wt.%)
Num ber on
Fig ure 6 Lo ca tion De scrip tion:
colour/fabric GCD FT MAT +Min er als Ref
Ct. Graubünden (Grisons)
1 Scortaseo w, lgr (gr, bk) + D T a, b
2 Alpe d'Ur gr/cf + S a, m
3 Piatte di Canciano gygr, gr/fol, asb, fib + S a, j
4 Cima Val Fontana ND D a
5 Fuorcla Fellaria ND S A a
6 Furtschellas im Oberengadin dg/cf + S A a, l
7 Lago di Cavlocc ND a
8 Cuolms dgr/cf + S A mt (iso lated) a
9 Fuorcla da la Vallette ND a
10 Fuorcla da Faller bkgr/slat S a
11 Muntognas digls Lajets dgr/cf + S A a
12 Ruine Marmorera gr/cf S a
13 Forschella-peak sogr to pgr/ex tremely fol,
lamellar joint ing + S A chl, mt, pic,
gt-g a, q, r
14 Mühlen (Mulegns)
1: dgr/fol [parfib]; 2: lgr, w/parfib [parfib]; 3: sogr to pgr/ex tremely fol, lamellar
joint ing
+ S A chl, mt, pic,
gt-g (ep, cc) a, b, q
15 Sblocs wgr / fol S a
16 Salux (Salouf) dgr/cf, fol [parfib (very tough)] + S
gt-yg, pic, chl, mt (iso -
lated patches)
q
17 Piz Martegnas ND S a
18 South of Crap Farreras dgr/cf S pure/carb,
sp, chl a
Other Swiss lo cal i ties
19 Robenhausen (Pfäffikersee) ND + S a, e
20 Gotthardtunnel ygr + S a, e, k
21 Gotthard ND + S a, e, k
22 Andermat 25 gygr + S A a, k
23 HaudÀres (Val d'Hérens) gygr/cf + S a, h
24 Neuenburgersee
(Lake Neuchâtel) dgr-bk + S a, g
Bound aries of the Bo he mian Mas sif 25
Schwarzenbach an der Saale (Frankenwald val ley
in Ba varia, Ger many) gr/fib + S A hbl, chl, mt,
lx q
26
Jordanów (for mer Jordansmühl in
Schlesien) (Pol ish Lower Silesia)
w, grcr, bgr (lgr) to dgr (gybl,bl, p)/cf or fol or sch [typ-nd, fib,
parfib] + S T
pure/pspx/di, chl (com -
mon)/gr, hgr, preh, atg, Cr-sp, tit, ap, mon,
zir
c, d, f, i, n, o
27
Z³oty Stok (for mer Reichenstein in
Schlesien) (Pol ish Lower Silesia)
bgr (lgr) to dgr, gygr / cf or fib
or lay [typ-nd, fib, parfib] + S A (T)
di, lö, mt, carb, q, ap, sche, serp, aspy, gd
c, d, p
Colour: bgr – bright green, bk – black, bkgr – blackish-greenish, bl – blue, dgr – dark green, gr – green, grcr – greenish-creamy, gybl – greyish-blue, gygr – greyish-green, lgr – light green, p – pink, pgr – pistachio-green, sogr – spring-onion green, ygr – yellowish green, w – white, wgr – whitish-green; macroscopic fabric: asb – asbestiform, cf – compact fabric, fib – fibrous, fol – foliated, lay – layered, parfib – parallel fibrous, slat – slatey, sch – schistose; [microscopic fabric]: fib – fibrous, parfib - parallel fibrous, typ-nd – typical non-directional; ND – more detailed descriptions/data not available; GCD – geochemical data available;
FT – formation type: D – dolomite-related deposits (D-type), S – serpentinite-related deposits (S-type); MAT – main amphibole type: A – actinolite, T – tremolite; +Minerals – associated and enclosed minerals: ap – apatite, aspy – arsenopyrite, atg – antigorite, carb – carbonate, cc – calcite, chl – chlorite, Cr-sp – Cr-spinel, di – diopside, ep – epidote, gd – gold, gr – grossular, gt-g – green Ca-Al-garnet, gt-yg – yellowish-green garnet, hbl – hornblende, hgr – hydrogrossular, lö – löllingite, lx – leucoxene, mon – monazite, mt – magnetite, pic – picotite, preh – prehnite, pspx – pseudomorphs after pyroxene, pure – pure nephrite, q – quartz, sche – scheelite, serp – unspecified serpentine, sp – spinel, tit – titanite, zir – zircon; Ref – references: a – Dietrich and de Quervain (1968); b – Giess (2003); c – Gil (2013); d – Gunia (2000); e – Heierli (1902); f – Mazur et al. (2006); g – Meyer (1884); h – Preiswerk (1926); i – Sachs (1902); j – Schmidt (1917); k – Schneider (1912); l – Staub (1915); m – Staub (1917); n – Traube (1885a); o – Traube (1885b); p – Traube (1887); q – Welter (1911a); r – Welter (1911b); for more detailed descriptions see Appendix 2
T a b l e 1 Pos si ble neph rite sources in the Swiss Alps and in the Bo he mian Mas sif
RESULTS OF PETROCHEMICAL AND MINERAL-CHEMICAL ANALYSES
Re sults of the bulk chem i cal (and EPMA) anal y - ses of the Baden Cul ture neph rite adze from Balatonõszöd – Temetõi dûlõ site have been com - pared with pub lished data for known neph rite oc cur - rences. Re sults of new PGAA-mea sure ments of re - cently found neph rite sam ples from Jordanów and Z³oty Stok (Fig. 7 and Ap pen dix 1) have also been used.
Bi nary di a grams have been con structed: di a - grams il lus trat ing mag ne sium and iron con tents plot ted against sil i con con tents are shown here (Figs. 8 and 9).
[For brief de scrip tions of neph rite sam ples, see the texts in square brack ets in Ap pen dix 2]
The chem i cal com po si tion of rock-form ing am - phi boles from the Jordanów and Z³oty Stok de pos its (Gil, 2013) have been com pared with that of the neph rite adze (Fig. 4).
EVALUATION OF THE RESULTS AND THE MOST PROBABLE
PROVENANCE
On the ba sis of mac ro scopic ap pear ance, min - eral com po si tion and fab ric char ac ter (con sid er ing the pos si ble sources de scribed above), sources of neph rite no ta bly sim i lar to the raw ma te rial of the Balatonõszöd – Temetõi dûlõ neph rite adze are:
Jordanów, Z³oty Stok and Cuolms (though the last of these has in suf fi ciently de tailed de scrip tion).
Chem i cally the most sim i lar nephrites to the Balatonõszöd – Temetõi dûlõ neph rite adze oc cur at Salux and Piatte di Canciano, while very sim i lar nephrites also can be found around the bound aries of the Bo he mian Mas sif (Jordanów, Z³oty Stok,
Fig. 6A – map (Dietrich and Quervain, 1968), mod i fied to show neph rite oc cur rences in the Swiss Alps; B – map, mod i fied to show neph rite oc cur rences at the bound aries of the Bo he mian Mas sif
1 – Scortaseo, 2 – Alpe d’Ur, 3 – Piatte di Canciano, 4 – Cima Val Fontana, 5 – Fuorcla Fellaria, 6 – Furtschellas im Oberengadin, 7 – Lago di Cavlocc, 8 – Cuolms, 9 – Fuorcla da la Vallette, 10 – Fuorcla da Faller, 11 – Muntognas digls Lajets, 12 – Ruine Marmorera, 13 – Forschella-peak, 14 – Mühlen (Mulegns), 15 – Sblocs, 16 – Salux (Salouf), 17 – Piz Martegnas, 18 – Crap Farreras, 19 – Robenhausen (Pfäffikersee), 20 – Gotthardtunnel, 21 – Gotthard, 22 – Andermatt, 23 – HaudÀres, 24 – Neuenburgersee (Lake Neuchâtel), 25 – Schwarzenbach an der Saale, 26 – Jordanów, 27 – Z³oty Stok
Fig. 7. Pho tos of neph rite sam ples from Jordanów (A) and Z³oty Stok (B, C) neph rite de pos its in Po land, with the area mea sured by PGAA
Blue squares – size of the mea sured area: 2 ´ 2 cm
Fig. 8. Bulk-rock chem is try of the neph rite adze and neph rite sam ples from var i ous geo log i cal sites:
MgO-con tent (wt.%) as a func tion of SiO2-con tent (wt.%) with EPMA-re sults from the adze Ex pla na tions as in Fig ure 5
Fig. 9. Bulk-rock chem is try of the neph rite adze and neph rite sam ples from var i ous geo log i cal sites:
FeO(t)-con tent (wt.%) as a func tion of SiO2-con tent (wt.%); with EPMA-re sults from the adze Ex pla na tions as in Fig ure 5
Fig. 10. Map (Zentai, 1996), mod i fied to show the ar chae o log i cal site and the most prob a ble source of or i gin of the neph rite raw ma te rial of the adze ex am ined
Schwarzenbach an der Saale) and from Cuolms, Muntognas, Alpe d’Ur and Neuenburgersee.
The fol low ing sources of raw ma te rial may likely be ex - cluded: Salux – due to the dif fer ent en closed min er als (gar net, spinel, chlorite); Piatte di Canciano – be cause of its schistosity and be ing asbestose; Schwarzenbach an der Saale – be cause of its typ i cal “actinolite struc ture” and the pres ence of hornblende; Z³oty Stok – due to the dif fer ent en closed min er als (löllingite, ap a tite, schee lite, ar seno py rite); Cuolms, Muntognas, Alpe d’Ur and Neuenburgersee – since the de - scrip tions are in suf fi ciently de tailed – may be ex cluded only on the ba sis of col our.
To sum up: on the ba sis of mac ro scopic ap pear ance, min - eral com po si tion, fab ric char ac ter and the bulk chem i cal com - po si tion the most prob a ble raw ma te rial sources are Jordanów and Cuolms.
Al though we have min eral-chem i cal data only from two geo - log i cal sites (Jordanów and Z³oty Stok), all data from the EPMA-anal y ses of the neph rite adze are sim i lar to neph rite from Jordanów.
Stone axes made of Jordanów neph rite have been found about 15 km north of Jordanów (Neo lithic); in the cen tral part of Po land (near Gniezno; Danubian Cul ture); and also in Up per Silesia (Fun nel Beaker Cul ture, Corded Ware Cul ture; Foltyn et al., 2000; Gunia, 2000) and prob a bly from a Late Neo lithic Silesian site (Pøichystal et al., 2012). The Boleraz Cul ture in Moravia de vel oped from one of the Fun nel Beaker Cul ture groups, sup pos edly by min gling. Con tem po ra ne ous with the Corded Ware Cul ture – that de vel oped from the Fun nel Beaker Cul ture – was Baden Cul ture, a for ti fied set tle ment of which was ex ca vated near the above-men tioned prov e nances of Corded Ware Cul ture in the Moravian Gate way – a sys tem of nar row de pres sions be tween the Bo he mian Mas sif and the Carpathians – that pro vides a main cross-con nec tion be tween the north ern plain ter ri to ries of Mid dle Eu rope and the Carpathian Ba sin (Pøichystal, 2000). There fore, con nec tion must have ex isted be tween the Baden Cul ture and the neph - rite-sources of the Jordanów dis trict, whereas the Cuolms prov - e nance in the Swiss Alps (and the “Mur Nockerls” as a nearer source) could have been reached only in the Boleráz era and via circum-al pine in ter re la tions (as the nearer source, the “Mur Nockerls”).
Serpentinites con tain ing neph rite-bod ies – crop ping out on the north ern bound aries of gneiss es of the Góry Sowie Mas sif – were used to make stone-axes in the Neo lithic Age, as were the serpentinites crop ping out on the east ern and south ern bound - aries of the Góry Sowie Mas sif (Majerowicz et al., 2000;
Skoczylas et al., 2000). It has been shown that lo cal ser pen tin -
ite was ex ca vated (Wojciechowski, 1995) and pol ished stone tools made of them were dis persed as widely as 340 kms away (Skoczylas et al., 2000). In the time of the Corded Ware Cul ture, there was a cen tre for ex tract ing and pro cess ing ser pen tin ite in this ter ri tory; its most im por tant prod ucts were the so-called
“Œlê¿a-type” shaft-hole axes (Skoczylas et al., 2000).
SUMMARY
The pres ent study pro vides petrographic and geo chem i cal anal y ses of a Late Cop per Age (Baden Cul ture) neph rite adze from the ar chae o log i cal site at Balatonõszöd – Temetõi dûlõ.
This adze is the sin gle neph rite stone arte fact so far found at this site.
Neph rite pres ent in ar chae o log i cal finds in Hun gary is rare and known ex clu sively from Transdanubian sites, but with out iden ti fi ca tion ac cord ing to ei ther age or cul ture. There fore, the Balatonõszöd – Temetõi dûlõ neph rite adze is the first find that has a re li able ar chae o log i cal con text dat ing back to Hun gar ian pre his tory.
By ap ply ing de tailed petrographic, geo chem i cal and petrophysical meth ods as well as com par i son with pub lished data, we have lo cated the or i gin of the raw ma te rial of the neph - rite adze stud ied. On the ba sis of its mac ro scopic ap pear ance, min eral com po si tion, fab ric char ac ter, bulk chem i cal com po si - tion, mag netic fea tures, the con tem po ra ne ous raw ma te rial ex - trac tion and the cul tural re la tions in the era of the Baden Cul - ture, the most prob a ble lo ca tion of the raw ma te rial of the neph - rite adze stud ied is the geo log i cal site at Jordanów (north ern part of the Bo he mian Mas sif, Lower Silesia, Po land; Fig. 10).
Ac knowl edge ments. We are in debted to T. Horváth, lead - ing ar chae ol o gist of the ex ca va tions at Balatonõszöd – Temetõi dûlõ ar chae o log i cal site, for af ford ing us the op por tu nity to study the stone tools ex ca vated. We are es pe cially grate ful to Á. Veres for de ci pher ing the com pli cated text of the 19th cen - tury Ger man lit er a ture. We want par tic u larly to thank E.P. Szabó, K.T. Biró and J. Zalasiewicz for help ing to ren der the text of our study into Eng lish. T.M. Peryt is ap pre ci ated for ed i to rial cor rec tions. We are thank ful to A. Pøichystal, D. Hovorka and Anon y mous for re vi sion and con struc tive com - ments that im proved this pa per. Spe cial thanks go to the Hun - gar ian Sci en tific Re search Fund OTKA Grant No. K 62874 and K 100385 for their fi nan cial sup port. The PGAA ex per i men tal sta tion has been de vel oped with the sup port of the “NAP VENEUS05” pro ject, Nr. OMFB 00184/2006.
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