Geoarchaeology of the middle palaeolithic locality at Znojmo, southern Moravia

Abstract

Geoarchaeology and Quaternary geology investigations in the Dyje/Thaya River Basin along the present South Moravian-Austrian border performed during the last five years have significantly completed former evidence on the pre-Upper Palaeolithic (>40kaBP) occupation in this Central European region. Numerous surface-exposed localities (>50) have been mapped at patterned geomorphic positions associated with relicts of the Early and Middle Pleistocene alluvia of the former Dyje/Thaya River drainage system. Concentrations of presumably early Middle Palaeolithic (MIS 8-5) sites are contextually linked to the 30-50m-high terraces built by massive sandy gravels overlying the pre-Quaternary sedimentary formations or the weathered granitic bedrock. Relative chronological proxy indicators (the differential artifact surface abrasion degree and patination, and the non-uniform stone-tool working technologies) attest, together with the specific geomorphic positions of single sites, to several stages of early human occupation, encompassing a long time span of the Middle and early Late Pleistocene.The key and most recently investigated site with typical Middle Palaeolithic stone tool inventories was discovered in a stratified geological position at Znojmo - Přímětice sealed in colluviated slope deposits. The geoarchaeology of the locality testifies to an early human adaptation with local raw material exploitation as well as complex palaeoenvironmental processes prior to site burial. A diagnostic cultural record of a series of typified polyhedral cores, retouched, notched and pointed flakes as well as finished tools (including the characteristic side-scraper forms) was concentrated within an area of ca. 10×15m in a gleyed poly-modal (clayey-gravelly) formation overlain by a thin (30-50cm) erosional loessic cover. The palaeo-setting of this workshop-occupation site points to its strategic geomorphic position in the broader Dyje valley, with a variety of local raw material sources used for expedient lithic industries' production - alluvial terrace gravels and vein quartz from a surface-exposed pre-Quaternary bedrock forming a relief elevation in the nearby site vicinity. The aeolian abrasion of the lithic inventories and admixture of angular quartz grains in the cultural geology context attest to intensive (presumably glacial) winds blowing over the exposed palaeo-surface prior to site burial.The variety of the pre-Upper Palaeolithic, mostly rudimentarily made core-and-flake lithic industries found in diverse (colluvial, sub-aerial, pedogenic) geological contexts points to several stages of earlier Pleistocene inhabitation of the southern Moravia with specific landscape exploitation patterns and cultural adaptation strategies. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA.