Quartz Assemblage from the Early Mesolithic Helvetinhaudanpuro Settlement Site in Eastern Central Finland

Abstract

Research of the occupation in the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea areas has been vivid over the last centuries and it has had different perspectives and thematic ranges. In this paper we present a overview of the history of Stone Age quartz research in Finland and general quartz working techniques and, above all, some results considering analysis of the quartz material from the Early Mesolithic settlement site of Helvetinhaudanpuro in Finland. It is surprising how little in archaeology has been paid attention to the changes in the variations of lithic technologies when groups of people moved from one area to another. If there were not any possibilities to use familiar stone materials as a technological starting point, adaptation to new materials was essential. In the lithic material of Helvetinhaudanpuro we detected characteristics connected to adaptation from flint to the local quartz. The shift in raw materials took place within a few hundred years and appears to coincide with the change in social networks related to the break in connections with previous habitation areas. The quartz techniques seen in Helvetinhaudanpuro are similar to those from other Finnish Mesolithic sites; bipolar technique dominates, but platform percussion has also been in use to some extent. There are some aspects in this material that are unusual, even special, and more compatible to flint than quartz technology: Helvetinhaudanpuro-type points, inserts and possible use of pressure flaking in some cases. These tool shapes and technical achievement indicate a deeper socio-cultural background and are a distinctive link between flint and quartz knapping technology.