Overview

Prehistoric Flint Mines in Europe presents the results of the UISPP Commission, Flint Mining in Pre- and Protohistoric Europe. It offers a review of major flint mines dating from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. The eighteen articles were contributed by archaeologists from ten countries – Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden – using the same framework in order to propose a uniform view of the mining phenomenon. At the same time the book reflects various research methods and traditions. Each article deals successively with the geographical and geological context, mining zone topography, research history, methods of exploitation of raw material, dating of archaeological features and structures, characteristics of lithic production, organization of labour, miners' settlements, distribution of products and symbolic aspects of mining activity. Part I includes the well-known flint mines at Spiennes in Belgium, Grime’s Graves in England and Rijckholt-Sint Geertruid in the Netherlands, as well as the equally fascinating Defensola mine from Italy. Part II contains presentations of other European flint mines. The book is abundantly illustrated with large, colour photographs and drawings, and is aimed not only at archaeologists, who will find valuable data and further literature, but also at any reader seeking up-to-date information on prehistoric flint mining communities in Europe.

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9781803272214

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Françoise Bostyn is professor of Neolithic archaeology at the Paris 1-Pantheon-Sorbonne University. She is a specialist of Neolithic period and works more particularly on lithic technical systems from the end of the 6th millennium to the 4th millennium BC in northern France. Through a global technological approach, she addresses issues of artisanal specialisation and exchange networks in early and middle Neolithic societies. Jacek Lech is researcher of prehistoric flint mining in Poland and Europe. He also studies distribution of siliceous rocks in Central Europe in settlement and social contexts with a particular focus on the Danubian exchange network (Bylany). Since 2000 he has been full professor at the Cardinal Wyszyński University in Warsaw. Alan Saville (1946-2016) was an archaeologist and a founding member of the UISPP Commission ‘Flint Mining in Pre- and Protohistoric Times’. He worked as senior curator at the National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh, and earlier as Archaeological Field Officer of the Western Archaeological Trust. He led the excavation of flint mine sites at Den of Boddam and Skelmuir Hill, both in the Grampian region of north-east Scotland. Dagmara H. Werra is an archaeologist and ethnologist at the Institute of Archeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In her professional career, she has focused on prehistoric flint mining, the use of flint in the Stone Age and Metal Ages, and the identification and use of siliceous rocks by prehistoric communities.

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