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Mats P. Malmer’s and Otto Frödin’s excavations – some comparisons

Hans Browall has studied the flint from the older excavations (2011:173-203; tabell 22-48), analysing such aspects as typology and vertical or horizontal distribution. A large proportion of this flint assemblage has been registered in the museum database, where it consists of 2612 records.

Fig. 1. Flint from all trenches in Mats P. Malmer’s excavations (file will be downloaded shortly).

Fig. 2 . Flint from Otto Frödin’s excavations (file will be downloaded shortly).

 Points

The database for Mats P. Malmer’s excavations contains 23 points. Two of these are drill points. Of the remaining 21 projectile points, two are tanged (9,5%) and 19 are transverse (90,4%).  These proportions are very similar to those recorded for Frödin’s assemblage (Browall 2011:196) One of the transverse points derived from the excavation of Frödin’s spoil heaps which took place during the 1976-1980 excavations. The two tanged points came from the Eastern trench and are both made of burnt flint.

Cores

The flint assemblage from Malmer’s excavations contains 43 cores. 32 of these have been classified as bipolar cores. Three are platform cores with one (2) or two platforms (1). The rest are unclassifiable core fragments. Interestingly, the percentage of bipolar cores (74.4%) in this assemblage is very similar to that for the cores found during Frödin’s excavations. There 173 of the 219 cores documented were bipolar. This is 78.9% (Browall 2011:181ff). It is obvious that this is an interesting circumstance to be taken into consideration when more research into the flint technology of the site is undertaken.

Cylindrical blade cores were included in the assemblage from Frödin’s excavations – 16 of 219 cores. A very small percentage – 7.3%. No such cores were found during the later excavations. One core with two platforms was registered but it is not cylindrical. Hans Browall is of the opinion that at Alvastra the flint axes served as cores for the production of blades (2011:187). 115 blades were found during Malmer’s excavations and 342 during the earlier excavations (Browall 2011:185).


The following reference cited on this page has no web link:

Browall, H., 2011. Alvastra pålbyggnad. 1909-1930 års utgrävningar. Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. Handlingar. Antikvariska serien 48. Stockholm.