On the issue of functional use of pics during the Early Neolithic: a case study from the LBK site in Wólka Wojnowska (S Poland)

Picks are extremely rare artefacts associated with flint inventories of the Linear Band Pottery culture (hereinafter: LBK). Previously, only three such artefacts attributed to this culture have been found in the drainage basins of the Vistula and Oder Rivers. The contexts of discovery of picks dated to slightly later times indicated that they should be linked with mining activities of early agricultural societies. The presented collection from Wólka Wojnowska is one of the most numerous typological series of LBK picks found at a single site within the entire range of the LBK. The results of traceological and chemical SEM-EDX analyses of residues preserved on their surfaces indicate that these tools were used in processing hematite in order to produce ochre. The obtained data considerably broaden the scope of the functions of picks used during the Early Neolithic and allow us to question the interpretation that they were only employed in mining for siliceous materials.