Artefacts Made from Siliceous Rocks of Polish Origin on Prehistoric Sites in the Czech Republic

Compared with Poland, the territory of Bohemia and Moravia is not so rich in natural occurrences of high-quality siliceous rocks (silicites, ‘flints’). This contribution follows distribution of the four most attractive Polish chipped raw materials (silicite of the Cracow-Częstochowa Jurassic, ‘chocolate’ silicite, banded Krzemionki [striped] silicite and spotted Świeciechów [grey white-spotted] silicite) in the Czech Republic. Since the middle phase of Upper Palaeolithic (Gravettian) the Jurasssic-Cracow silicites had been transported to Moravia and since its late phase (Magdalenian) also to Bohemia. The first use of the ‘chocolate’ silicite has been ascertained at some Late Aurignacian (Epiaurignacian) sites of central Moravia similarly as an exceptional find attesting early use of Świeciechów spotted silicite (Late Szeletian?). No finds of the banded Krzemionki silicite have been registered in Pre-Neolithic flaked assemblages in the Czech Republic. Evidence of systematic and mass transport of silicites from the Cracow-Częstochowa Jurassic to northern/central Moravia and to eastern/central Bohemia has been found in some periods of the Neolithic (especially connected with the Linear Pottery culture). For the period of the earlier Eneolithic (Funnel Beaker culture) we can identify a small but systematic presence of raw materials from the northern foreland of the Świętokrzyskie (Holy Cross) Mountains, this comprises objects of banded Krzemionki silicite and spotted Świeciechów silicite. About 24 Moravian non-stratified finds of axes made of the banded Krzemionki silicite and polished over the whole surface can be probably connected with the Globular Amphora culture. Silicites from the Cracow-Częstochowa Jurassic appeared again in the late Eneolithic, especially as arrowheads of the Bell Beaker culture in Moravia. Only two pieces made from the Jurassic Cracow-Częstochowa silicite appeared in a collection of 1463 artefacts connected with the Early Bronze Age in Moravi