Stone axe

Between the middle of 1868 and 1874, the collection of Pomeranian antiquities, gathered in Szczecin by the Society for History and Antiquities of Pomerania (Gesellschaft für Pommersche Geschichte und Altertumskunde), received several archaeological finds. They had been encountered during various types of earthworks in the complex of state forests near Myślibórz Wielki (German: Gross Mützelburg Forst) in the Wkrzańska Forest. Schulz, a retired forestry official, handed them over on behalf of the local forester Küster. One of the finds was a set of four rock artefacts discovered under the roots of a lofty pine tree in an unspecified part of the forest near the village. The site is on the national border, and it is uncertain whether the artefacts come from the current Polish or German territory. The nature of this discovery, which included two flint and stone axes, a flint dagger and a stone axe, is also questionable. The archival documentation and the oldest literature references are clearly described as a deposit, i.e. a compact cluster find called a treasure. The development of knowledge on the chronology of individual forms of artefact and their cultural affiliation has weakened the interpretation of the discovery as a homogeneous assemblage. While the association of the stone axe and both axes with the Middle Neolithic Funnel Beaker cultures has not been questioned, the presence of the flint dagger, a form found mainly in younger groups in the late Middle Ages and early Bronze Age, is considered controversial. However, it cannot be ruled out that we are dealing with an assemblage combining the traditional wares of the Funnel Beaker culture with the oldest flint daggers, which was deposited around the middle of the 3rd millennium BC.

Krzysztof Kowalski