Hand axe from Sprotta
| Place: | Sprotta (Doberschütz, North Saxony) |
|---|---|
| Type: | Possible secondary site |
| Dating: | Moustérien | 80000 - 50000 before today |
Description
In 1996, a Middle Palaeolithic hand axe was unearthed in the gravel pit II in Sprotta in northern Saxony. The stone tool was recovered by a volunteer from the State Office for Archaeology from one of the gravel works' overburden dumps. The context of his findings is no longer comprehensible due to the relocation. Given how rare finds from the Middle Palaeolithic period are in Saxony, its discovery is nevertheless an important testimony to early man in what is now the Free State of Saxony.
Annemarie ReckReference
The site is located between Sprotta, O.T. Doberschütz, and Eilenburg and is now a popular local recreation area. Gravel extraction is still taking place on the northern and eastern shores of the lake. Mining of the Weichselian and Saalian river gravels of the Mulde began as early as 1968. Today, the river flows about 2 km away, but feeds the lake with its groundwater. It is known from sites such as Markkleeberg that early humans searched for Nordic flints in the river gravels of former ground moraines, which were brought here and deposited by ice-age glaciers. In some cases, they worked the flints on site and often set up their camps near such raw material deposits.
Annemarie ReckImage Source R. Schulze, Foto ©LfA 1996.
Hand wedge
Since the mid-1990s, flint tools such as flakes and core pieces with a clear patina have repeatedly come to light in Sprotta, some of which had a very "archaic" character. In 1996, a completely preserved, thin-bladed hand axe was found. It has a very fine surface retouch on both sides for the time. Its triangular shape has a special aesthetic note that goes beyond the pure functionality of the stone tool. The flat, almost triangular outline of the hand axe can be assigned to the form tradition of the younger Middle Palaeolithic, the so-called Moustérien.
Annemarie ReckImage Source I. Kraft/M. Seiler, Archäologie aktuell 5, 1997 (1999), 87.
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Older than you thought?
The flint artifact is discolored brown-black by a bog patina, which is an indication of the long storage in the peaty layers of a standing body of water. Such discoloration is not known from the other core pieces and flakes found. The hand axe also differs from other finds from the gravel pit due to its lower degree of rolling, as its edges are still quite sharp. As the sediments were washed out with a suction dredger from a depth of up to 12 m, we can only speculate about the original context of the find at the moment. It is conceivable that some of the finds in the complex, which appear "archaic", come from an older, perhaps even Saalian or Eemian context.
Annemarie ReckImage Source J. Lösel, Foto ©LfA 2012.
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Literature
Ingo Kraft/Michael Seiler, Ein Faustkeil aus den Flussschottern der Mulde von Sprotta. Archäologie aktuell 5, 1997 (1999) 84–89.
Ingo Kraft, Werkzeug des Neandertalers. In: Sabine Wolfram (Hrsg.), In die Tiefe der Zeit, 300.000 Jahre Menschheitsgeschichte in Sachsen, Buch zur Dauerausstellung, 2014, 49–53.
Note on monument protection
Archaeological monuments are protected by the Saxon Monument Protection Act. A permit under monument law is required for ground interventions or construction measures.
Permalink
https://archaeo-sn.de/en/ort/hand-axe-from-sprotta/
Citation
Annemarie Reck, Hand axe from Sprotta. In: Landesamt für Archäologie Sachsen, Website archaeo | SN (01.02.2024). https://archaeo-sn.de/en/ort/hand-axe-from-sprotta/ (Stand: 20.05.2025)
