Long blades and Phantom Cores: A Case of Long-Distance Stone Tool Refitting (Southern Norway)

The paper presents a lithic case study applying refitting and technological analysis on two long-blade deposits discovered 82 km apart in southernmost Norway. With reference to previous research on Neolithic long blades in southern Scandinavia, it is proposed that the assemblages belong to the late Middle Neolithic chronozone (2800-2350 cal. bc), i.e. the period preceding the introduction of a predominantly agrarian economy in southern Norway. Analyses identified one minimal analytical nodule (MAN) and a single reduction sequence. Blades had been produced by the use of multiple techniques: indirect percussion and direct percussion on what would have been a cylindrical- shaped core. The combination of long-blade production and the cylindrical- core concept has only been identified in contexts related to the Pitted Ware Complex in western Sweden, at the island Anholt in Kattegat, and on northern Jutland. Thus, it is argued that the two long-blade assemblages from southernmost Norway represent evidence of cross-cultural, long-distance travels among the last Neolithic foraging cultures in southern Norway southern Scandinavia.