Provider: Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic

TY  - JOUR
JO  - Anthropologie (Brno)
TI  - ANALYSIS OF A BAIERSDORF SICKLE BLADE
FROM EASTERN AUSTRIA
AU  - Brandl M
AU  - Hauzenberger Ch
AU  - Trnka G
Y1  - 2017
VL  - 55
IS  - 1-2
PB  - Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic
SN  - 0323-1119
SP  - 181
EP  - 191
KW  - Chert raw materials ‒ Baiersdorf type tabular chert ‒ Chert provenance studies ‒ Petrography ‒ LAICP-
MS ‒ Altheim-type sickle blade ‒ Imitation ‒ Late Neolithic/Copper Age ‒ Lower Austria
N2  - 
N2  - The Altheim type sickle blade (ca. 1st half of the 4th millennium BC) from Annastift-Krummnußbaum in
Lower Austria represents the to-date most magnificent and completely preserved Neolithic harvesting tool of its kind
in eastern Austria. The source of the raw material of this specimen manufactured from Jurassic tabular chert is located
at Baiersdorf in the upper Danube region west of Regensburg, in northern Lower Bavaria (Germany), and was
transported downstream the Danube Valley as a finished product. The sickle blade is placed in the Pfyn-Altheim-
Mondsee cultural complex contemporary with the furrowed incised ceramic in Baalberge ceramic traditions and early
Baden (Boleráz) in the middle Danube region.
Provenance studies were conducted according to the by now internationally established Multi Layered Chert Sourcing
Approach (MLA). This method is based on a combination of macroscopic (visual), stereomicroscopic and geochemical analyses. For geochemistry, Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) was applied which
allows for the detection of main-, side-, trace- and ultra-trace elements. The comparison of microfossil inclusions and
trace element concentrations from Baiersdorf raw material and the Annastift-Krummnußbaum sickle blade
unequivocally established the origin of this artefact from the Baiersdorf chert source area.
ER  -