G25 - Gifts from the earth – interpreting polished stone tool biographies and their symbolic, social and economic impact in the Neolithic

Session Organisers: Lasse Sørensen, Michael Brandl, Laura Dietrich, Danny Rosenberg

Category: Technology

Session Abstract: The invention of polished stone tools, such as axes, adzes and chisels, played a crucial role in the processes involved in Neolithisation on a global scale. These tools were vital for establishing settled life and agriculture, by facilitating clearance of the land, woodworking, the construction of buildings and subsistence strategies. Accompanying the economic transformations caused by the introduction of polished stone tools, were processes associated with the social life of the early farming communities, attested by the use of rare exogenous raw materials, such as jadeite and nephrite. In this session, we invite researchers to explore and discuss the relationship between Neolithic societies – early and developed – across key areas witnessing socio-economic developments, involving the use of polished stone tools from various perspectives. These include techno-morphological, use-wear, contextual and raw material analysis, to reveal the full extent of the use and function of such implements, as well their role in the development of novel exchange networks, symbolic behaviour, wealth, status and social inequality.

Room: G

07/11/2024

Start Time - End Time	Authors	Title
10:00 - 10:20	Lasse Vilien Sørensen, Michael Brandl, Laura Dietrich, Danny Rosenberg	Studying polished stone tools – research history, current status and future perspectives
10:20 - 10:40	Özlem Çevik, Mine Uçmazoğlu	Common and Rarer Polished Stone Tools from Neolithic Ulucak
10:40 - 11:00	Thomas Strasser	Neolithic Stone Axes from Crete and their Implications for the Wider Aegean
11:00 - 11:20	Laura Dietrich, Barbara Horejs, Michael Brandl	Greenstone chisel-like adzes for carpentry were components of the Neolithic Package in Anatolia and the Balkans

Lunch Break

Start Time - End Time	Authors	Title
13:00 - 13:20	Lasse Vilien Sørensen	Tougher than the rest – quarrying jadeitite raw materials for polished stone tools in the Eastern Mediterranean region
13:20 - 13:40	Mariana Diniz, Ana Rosa, Andrea Martins, César Neves	{To Be or Not to Be an Agricultural Community…} Debating the Question from Portuguese Neolithic Polished Stone Tools Assemblages
13:40 - 14:00	Simone Meinecke, Roberto Risch, Laura Culi Verdaguer, Francisco Jose Martinez Fernandez	Neolithic axe production in Central Germany – technological aspects and lithic raw materials
14:00 - 14:20	Wulf Hein, Mihaela Savu, Kai Martens, Müller Michael, Marquardt Lund	Grinding flint axe heads – an experimental approach

Coffee Break

Start Time - End Time	Authors	Title
14:45 - 15:05	Michael Müller	To Grind or Not to Grind – Axe Heads from Depositions of Neolithic Groups in Central and Northern Europe
15:05 - 15:25	Anne Teather	Flint, chalk and pigment: Tracing the symbolism of axeheads in northern Europe
15:25 - 15:45	Lars Larsson	Ritual depositions in a local perspective
15:45 - 16:05	Sebastian Schultrich	‘Battle axes’, fragments, and cup marks

Coffee Break

Start Time - End Time	Authors	Title
16:30 - 16:50	Amber Roy	The Lifeways of Scandinavian Middle Neolithic B Battle-Axes
16:50 - 17:10	Mads Lou Bendtsen, Lasse Vilien Sørensen, Niels N. Johannsen	Newcomers: Tracing Corded Ware Expansion through Provenance of Battleaxes
17:10 - 17:30	Peter Bye-Jensen	Tracing Neolithic Craftsmanship: A Use-Wear Analysis of Polished Flint Tools from Stone Heap Graves in Mid-Jutland
17:30 - 17:50	Okopi Ade	A Functional Study of Ground Stone Axes (Gsa) Assemblages from Akwanga, Central Nigeria

08/11/2024

Start Time - End Time	Authors	Title
10:00 - 10:20	Michael Brandl, Lasse Vilien Sørensen, Michael Gostencnik, Iris Schmidt	NEOProvenance: The Potential of Non-Destructive Protocols for Provenance Analyses of Polished Stone Tools
10:20 - 11:30	All Participants	Final Discussion