An experimental approach to the study of amber processing in the Neolithic

Amber appears relatively late in the archaeological record on eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, being mostly restricted to the Neolithic period, however, the presence of amber artefacts in majority of Latvian settlements and burial sites of this period and its distribution further inland, shows the important role it rapidly assumed in late Stone Age society. There are major Neolithic amber processing centres in the East Baltic, but the rarer distribution of amber working elsewhere in the Baltic Sea region may have left it less “visible” in context of technology research, comparing to materials like flint, bone and antler, which were used both longer and for wider range of purposes. Traditionally, only typological analyses of amber artefacts have been carried out, fewer studies have focused on technological analyses. Based on the concept of chaîne opératoire, it can be argued that material culture is the knowledge passed down through generations, shared among a group of people. Each artefact is considered as a final product with a characteristic sequence of operations, where specific choices are made at each stage of production. These choices can be defined as culturally derived features/elements that can be observed on the artefact as specific physical characteristics. Thus, allowing to identify analytical units that reflect culturally transmitted knowledge embedded in social traditions, as well as significant differences and similarities in knowledge that can shed light on social relations in time and space. Using macro-/microscopic analysis, specific features of the techniques described in few available experiments from archaeological collections in the Baltic amber distribution region and replicated in experiments, were identified on the processed amber surface. Comparing with the artefacts from a Neolithic processing centre in Siliņupe (Latvia), it was found that flint tools were widely used for surface treatment, distinguishing four techniques: flaking, pressure flaking, shaving, and scraping