An addition to knowledge of the Middle Stone Age in Central-Eastern Poland. Mesolithic site of Pulki 1 in the Vistula valley near Puławy

Abstract

The Puławy region is poorly recognized in terms of pre-Neolithic settlement. There are few known sites that can be connected with the Palaeolithic or Mesolithic, among them Pulki 1. The site is located on a gentle slope of a dune, falling towards a tributary of the Kurówka river. The materials dating from before the beginning of the Neolithic period constitute only a small part of the findings. A total of 411 flint artefacts have been obtained. The inventory consists of 17 cores, 1 flake, 50 tools, debris and waste product. Artefacts are made of several types of stone raw materials, mainly local erratic flint. Chocolate, Świeciechów and Volhynian flint is less represented. Nearly 40% of the artefacts are burnt. The group of cores is dominated by small or even microlithic cores for bladelets, sometimes combined with obtaining flakes or bladelets. Almost all of them are residual forms, mono-directional or with a change of orientation. More than half of the debitage is made up of blades or bladelets. Flakes are mainly waste from core preparation or repairs. The group of tools is dominated by microliths (backed bladelets, triangles and trapeze, truncated bladelets) and endscrapers, which together account for 60% of all tools. Among the others, there are two tanged points and an adze. The inventory analysis shows that this is almost entirely a relic of the Mesolithic settlement – most probably of the younger phase of the Komornicka culture. Only single artefacts are certainly older (tanged points) or younger (a point with a concave base). The site in Pulki is another trace of settlement from the beginning of the Holocene recorded in areas located on the eastern side of the Vistula. It is also one of the few sites which were excavated.