An introduction to the study of (late) prehistoric ground stone artefacts in the western part of Jebel Sabaloka in central Sudan

0563221 - ARÚ 2023 RIV CZ eng J - Článek v odborném periodiku
Řídký, Jaroslav - Varadzin, Ladislav - Varadzinová, L.
An introduction to the study of (late) prehistoric ground stone artefacts in the western part of Jebel Sabaloka in central Sudan.
Památky archeologické. Roč. 113, prosinec (2022), s. 5-44. ISSN 0031-0506
Grant CEP: GA ČR(CZ) GA22-10930S
Grant ostatní: AV ČR(CZ) LQ300022002; GA ČR(CZ) GA17-03207S
Program: Prémie Lumina quaeruntur
Institucionální podpora: RVO:67985912
Klíčová slova: ground stone artefacts * Mesolithic * Neolithic * subsistence * central Sudan
Obor OECD: Archaeology
Impakt faktor: 0.7, rok: 2022
Způsob publikování: Open access
https://doi.org/10.35686/PA2022.1

This study is devoted to stone artefacts made from raw materials that are valued for their hardness, tenacity, and texture. They were often ground, and some tools from this category were themselves used for grinding. In addition to shaping artefacts, they were employed in processing of food, crushing minerals and ores, or as parts of digging sticks. Changes in their functional composition generally signal significant subsistence, economic and social changes. As our research focuses on the Sahel region, which has undergone complex formative processes connected with climate change and radical transformation of living conditions, it is necessary to test diverse approaches to utilizing the information potential of finds from this region. The studied artefacts come from Mesolithic (~9000–5000 cal BC) and Early Neolithic (~5000–3800 cal BC) settlements in the western part of Jebel Sabaloka in central Sudan. We focus on two assemblages from surface collection at the sites of Sphinx (Mesolithic) and Fox Hill (Mesolithic and Early Neolithic). We first provide a critical review of core studies of ground stone artefacts from the region and propose a unified basic terminology. Subsequently, we present a new classification and description system and highlight certain variables which are important to track at the sites. Among other things, our conclusions indicate that although changes occur in the settlement system and domesticated animals appear in the study region in the fifth millennium BC, these changes are reflected neither in the quantity nor in any substantial way in the morphometric characteristics of ground stone artefacts as was the case, for instance, in the Near East.
Trvalý link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0335279