Stone head tools from the hunter-gatherer Stone Age sites of Dudka and Szczepanki, NE-Poland

A large collection of 75 stone head tools coming from the Stone Age hunter-gatherer sites of Dudka and Szczepanki in NE-Poland is presented. The tools, which are exceedingly diversified, were divided into 14 taxa. Most taxa reveal a long chronology from the Mesolithic to the Late Neolithic, although the majority of tools belong to the Para-Neolithic Zedmar culture. Tools were characterized regarding shape, proportion, size, mass, raw material and processing. The analysis shows that almost every taxon is intrinsically diversified regarding the position of maximum width and thickness, size and mass or kind and colour of rocks, and these variabilities do not show connections with the chronology. Instead, some secondary stylistic features such as the edge protrusion and separation from the trunk or form of sides and butts reveal chronological trends. Unexpectedly, the contexts in which tools appeared at both sites were different, at Dudka three quarters of finds come from the cemetery, whereas at Szczepanki three quarters come from the lake shore zone. It is argued that in both cases this arose from the custom of the intentional deposition of stone head tools.