Petrografia silicolitelor din siturile Paleoliticului superior de pe Valea Dunării. Caracteristici şi provenienţă
Petrography of the silicates from the Upper Paleolithic sites in the Danube valley. Characteristics and provenance

Summary/Abstract: This article presents the conclusions of the author’s PhD thesis called “Raw-material sources, raw-material supply and production strategies in the Upper Paleolithic from the Valachian Sector of the Moesic Platform”. The study area is the Lower Danube Valley and includes the Paleolithic sites of Vădastra-Măgura Fetelor, Ciuperceni-La Tir, Ciuperceni-La Vii 1, Giurgiu-Malu Roşu and Nicolae Bălcescu-La Vii, plus a series of sampling points (see map 1, tables 1 and 2). The raw-material taken in consideration is chert. For many years archaeologists supported two alternative hypotheses about the raw-materials provenance: Pre-Balkan Platform and the Danube’s gravels. By means of macroscopic description in hand specimens, microscopic characterization in thin section (mineralogy, primary constituents, fossils), complemented by X-ray diffraction, the author has determined several varieties of chert for each site and sampling location and also three categories that exhibit macro- and microscopic features which surpass the local settings (see map 2, tables 4, 5 and 6). By analyzing the microscopic features and by directly examining the thin sections chert varieties with macroscopic similarities from different places, the author determined the provenance of some raw-materials in the Paleolithic sites. The two Ciuperceni sites are linked to the Frăteşti Formation (Lower Pleistocene) gravels, opened in the vicinity by a modern quarry (Ciuperceni-La Carieră); some of the Giurgiu-Malu Roşu cherts were determined to originate from gravels of the Frăteşti Formation, opened by modern quarries to the North-West (Ghizdaru-Cariera de la Haltă, Cetatea-Cariera Bălănoaia), and from gravels of the lower terrace (t 1 ), opened in places such as Giurgiu-Cariera Malu Roşu; the source of provenance for the main raw-material (grayish “granulated” chert – in fact a peloidal chert) of Giurgiu-Malu Roşu was not found; for the other two sites in the study, Vădastra-Măgura Fetelor and Nicolae Bălcescu-La Vii, it was impossible to determine the provenance of the raw-materials. All cherts form the Paleolithic sites have external characteristics which are similar to materials transported and reworked by waters (despite of the “fresh cortex” found on many of the samples).The raw-material sources that were identified indicate short supply distances and a local exploitation of raw-materials (under 50 km).

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