Wolfgang Taute’s Excavation at the Open-Air Site Feuersteinacker and the Early Mesolithic in the Western Part of Central Germany

Figures & data

Figure 1. Location of the open-air site Feuersteinacker in Central Germany (Figure: T. Hess).

Figure 2. Location of the trenches. (Figure: T. Hess after the original drawing by W. Taute).

Figure 3. Internal distribution of artifacts within the trenches. (a) Horizontal distribution. (b) Vertical distribution. (Figure: T. Hess).

Figure 4. Origin of different raw materials in combination with Early Mesolithic sites. (1) Niederweimar. (2) Hattendorf. (3) Lahrbach. (4) Kleinsassen. (5) Rüsselsheim-Waldhaus. (6) Sulzdorf-Hoher Stein (Figure: T. Hess).

Table 1. Importance of different raw material types by number and weight (n = 1192).

Raw material	Number	Percentage	Weight (g)	Percentage
Chalcedony	366	30.7%	401.0	26.7%
Silicified sandstone (Lenderscheid)	293	24.6%	388.9	25.9%
Silicified sandstone, red orange (Rörshain)	258	21.6%	324.6	21.6%
Siliceous shale	123	10.3%	127.0	8.5%
Silicified sandstone, green (Wahlen)	108	9.1%	126.6	8.4%
Cretaceous flint	13	1.1%	12.6	0.8%
Materials from river gravels (radiolarian chert, quartz, etc.)	9	0.8%	5.0	0.3%
Jurassic chert	8	0.7%	5.0	0.3%
Silicified sandstone (Ziegenhain)	3	0.3%	18.4	1.2%
Silicified sandstone (Hausen)	1	0.1%	6.0	0.4%
Not determined	10	0.8%	86.9	5.8%
Total:	1192	100.0%	1502.0	100.0%

Figure 5. Comparison of the proportions of different raw materials between stratified artifacts from the excavation by W. Taute (n = 1192) and the surface finds collected by H. Quehl until 2017 (I = 8089).

Table 2. Raw material used for the production of microliths (n = 76).

Raw material	Number	Percentage
Chalcedony	23	30.3%
Silicified sandstone (Lenderscheid)	15	19.7%
Siliceous shale	15	19.7%
Silicified sandstone, red orange (Rörshain)	12	15.8%
Silicified sandstone, green (Wahlen)	6	7.9%
Cretaceous flint	2	2.6%
Materials from river gravels	2	2.6%
Silicified sandstone (Ziegenhain)	1	1.3%
Total:	76	100.0%

Table 3. Overview over the lithic assemblage (n = 1192).

Artifact class	Number	Percentage
Cores & Debitage	358	30.0%
Cores	12	1.0%
Preparation artifacts	285	23.9%
Shatter debitage	61	5.1%
Modification products	82	6.9%
Burin spalls	19	1.6%
Microburins	63	5.3%
Blanks	627	52.6%
Blades	22	1.8%
Bladelets	108	9.1%
Flakes	437	36.7%
Undetermined blanks	60	5.0%
Modified pieces	125	10.5%
Microliths	76	6.4%
Notched pieces	10	0.8%
Laterally retouched pieces	16	1.3%
Scrapers	13	1.1%
Burins	2	0.2%
Truncations	2	0.2%
Perforators	2	0.2%
Multifunctional tools	4	0.3%
Total	1192	100.0%

Figure 6. Different core types. (a, b) Cores with centripetal negatives. (c) Core with two striking platforms. (d, e) Cores with multidirectional negatives. (f) Core with two striking platforms and a trapezoidal cross-section. (Drawings: L. Hilmar).

Figure 7. Microliths, microburins, and laminar blanks discovered at the site (Photographs: R. Johansen & T. Hess).

Figure 8. Ideal reduction sequence for the production of crescents, isosceles triangles, and microliths with oblique truncation (Drawings and photographs: T. Hess).

Table 4. Different microliths within the assemblage (n = 76).

Artifacts class	Number	Percentage
Microliths with oblique truncation	28	36.8%
Crescents	15	19.7%
Triangular micropoints	11	14.5%
Isosceles triangles	10	13.2%
Other micropoints	8	10.5%
Not determined	4	5.3%
Total:	76	100.0%

Table 5. Metric attributes of complete microliths (n = 58) and complete laminar blanks (n = 86) (measurements in mm).

Complete microliths	Length	Width	Thickness	Length/Width
Mean:	16.8	8.1	2.9	2.1
Maximum:	24.0	15.1	4.8	3.0
Minimum:	10.2	5.0	1.5	1.3
Standard deviation:	2.9	1.9	0.7	0.5
Complete laminar blanks	Length	Width	Thickness	Length/Width
Mean:	21.6	8.9	3.2	2.4
Maximum:	39.3	19.2	7.9	3.5
Minimum:	10.9	4.4	1.4	2.0
Standard deviation:	5.8	2.4	1.2	0.4

Figure 9. Groundstone tools found at Feuersteinacker. (a–c) Hessian State Museum Kassel. (d) Upper Hessian Museum Gießen (Photographs: I. Görner, J. Knossalla, T. Hess).

Figure 10. Reconstructed use of groundstone artifacts found at Feuersteinacker. (a) Retouching of an edge by striking. (b) Creation of a notch as part of the microburin technique. (c) Retouching of an edge by applying pressure. (Figure: T. Hess).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [T. H.], upon reasonable request.