A flint dagger from Brzoza, Nowa Wieş Wielka com., Bydgoszcz dist., Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship

Abstract

At the beginning of the 1980s, a single find of a flint dagger was made in Brzoza (northern Kuyavia, Poland). The dagger was investigated in terms of raw material profile, typological, technological and use-wear analyses. It was established that it was made of Scandinavian Cretaceous flint and may be classified into the subtype VIA (acc. Lomborg) or subvariant BBII2a (acc. Libera). The chronology of the dagger tends to be placed towards the end of the Early Bronze Age or the beginning of the Older Bronze Age in Poland (ca 1700-1500 cal BC). By means of use-wear analysis, diversified and well-developed usage traces were recognized on the surface of the dagger. Some of them resulted in an obverse and inverse retouch indicative of secondary treatment. Here it appears that the dagger from Brzoza may be considered as an import from the western-Baltic production centre. Before deposition, the dagger had also been frequently used as a strike-a-light.