The Flint Technology of the – Hamburgian Culture – (Olbrachcice, S.W. Poland)

The technology of treatment of flint and any other stone raw materials of the Hamburgian Culture has not been studied in literature. Only some hints have been given to the subject. (RUST 1958; TROMNAU 1975). The sites of the Hamburgian Culture, that have been studied up to the present give only artifacts of the stonewares in the form of the retouched artifacts, in other words so called tools. The characteristics of cores, blades, flakes and waste materials has been omitted (the KOBUSIEWICZ study is an exception). Also it has not been made the observations of traces of wear preserved on artifacts. If so it would have been possible to determine the real functions of the tools. Thus the present paper will focus primarely on the technology of flint of the Hamburgian Culture, examples of which will be flints of only one site in Olbrachcice. The abovementioned site was excavated by the author in 1974 through 1976 (BURDUKIEWICZ 1979). The site is located on the route of the Kopanica glacifluvial valley (a tributary of the Odra River, near Glogow). The Kopanica valley at the lower part of the river has been created as a result of the erosive activity of thawing waters of the Baltic Glacier after the Leszno (Brandenburg) Stage on the basal moraine of Warta Glaciation. In the valley recognized were the lower terrace, flood plain terrace (79,5-80 m of absolute height), higher terrace, sand terrace of 80-85 m high, on which there is the site and the border of the valley of 20 m high in comparison to the flood plain terrace. The sand terrace is composed of sand formations with occasional gravels, that at the top layer possess formations defined as solifluction layers. The top layer of sands of terrace bears traces of transformation (SZPONAR 1977).