Stone objects belonging to the Bronze Age discovered in Northeastern Romania. Raw materials and symbolic value

(Abstract)

In 2022, on the surface of an archaeological site that also has traces of habitation specific to the end of the Bronze Age, located in the locality of Albești (Botoșani county), three stone artifacts were discovered, representing two fragments of an axe and a fragment of a perforated macehead.

The two axe fragments are interesting because, after the original artifact was split, an attempt was made to reuse each half, which is why they were re-perforated. The petrographic analysis of the material indicated that the axe was made from a intrusive igneous rock, namely diorite, whose source of provenance is in the Eastern Carpathians. The nearest area with such rocks is about 100 km from where the artifact was discovered. The macehead fragment comes from a spherical specimen, made from a local rock, namely limestone.

Starting from the two axe fragments, the authors of the study briefly discuss the practice of reusing some stone artifacts in the Bronze Age.

The raw materials, the morphological details and the intention of reuse are aspects that confirm the fact that the two artifacts, namely the axe and the macehead, were artifacts with symbolic valences.