Publication details
Petrographic and Mineralogical Characterisation of Raw Materials from Quernstone Extraction
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| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Citation | |
| Description | Recent archaeological evidence of early medieval rock exploitation from outcrops along the Oslava River near the present-day village of Čučice indicates that local raw materials of varying composition and quality were used in quernstone production. This variability, however, complicates efforts to trace Čučice’s products within assemblages from early medieval settlement sites. The case of Čučice demonstrates that, in order to reliably reconstruct quern production and distribution networks in early medieval Moravia and beyond, more detailed sampling of source sites, archaeometric analysis, and improved data accessibility are essential. As the first area with such spatially extensive evidence of raw material exploitation in Moravia, Čučice offers a valuable opportunity to standardise methodologies applicable to other sites in the Moravian-Silesian mica schist belt and beyond. In this talk, we present our approach to mapping and sampling the mining areas, along with initial results of SEM-EDS analyses that reveal the characteristics of local raw material sources. We also highlight several other potential mica schist source areas that will be investigated using a similar methodology. |