Zdenek Mazac

Moon-shaped idols comprise a very specific and variable category of ceramic, rarely even stone, artefacts. The beginnings of their occurrence and spread in Central Europe can be connected with the cultures of Urnfields, especially the Upper Danube and Middle Danube groups. Their development subsequently continued in the Early Iron Age, when they spread beyond Central Europe to northeast Spain and north Italy. The total number of finds currently exceeds the estimate from 2004, which was around two thousand individual items. The find environment of these products is relatively variable. They usually appear in settlements, but also in situations that can be considered manifestations of cult behaviour. In southeast France and south Germany, some of the moon-shaped idols are found in the context of graves from the Late Bronze Age. Graves equipped in this way can be recorded at the burial grounds of the Bylany and Kalenderberg cultures and in the environment of the Lusatian Urnfields of t...

ABSTRACT Sources of raw materials and identification of the provenance of ancient ceramics as well as the estimation of the firing temperatures of ceramic findings are two principal problems archaeologists solve with material scientists. These two problems are closely interconnected. This paper is focused on the identification of clay mineral kaolinite in a ceramic body of archaeological ceramic idol in comparison with a reference kaolinitic raw material. Kaolinite identified in studied ceramic samples can be from a primary source or a product of rehydroxylation of metakaolinite of the ceramics. The rehydroxylation process is simulated here in laboratory conditions in an autoclave by modifications of standardized test methods. The rehydroxylation process was studied on a kaolinitic raw material and the acquired results were then applied to evaluate samples of a unique archaeological object from the Late Bronze Age — a moon-shaped ceramic idol, which was found at an archaeological site near Prague in the Czech Republic. XRF, XRD, TG-DTA, TG-DSC and IR analyses were used to study this process. XRD and TA proved the presence of the clay mineral kaolinite in its end parts. A small amount of kaolinite was also detected in the central part, but only by TA. It was proved that kaolinite in the end parts originated from raw material and that its presence in the central part was caused by the rehydroxylation of the metakaolinite. It was probably due to the use of the moon-shaped ceramic idol as an andiron in an open fireplace.

Měsícovité podstavce tvoří velmi specifickou a variabilní kategorii keramických, vzácně i kamenných artefaktů. Počátky jejich výskytu a rozšíření lze ve střední Evropě spojovat s kulturami popelnicových polí, zejména hornodunajského a středodunajského okruhu. Jejich vývoj následně pokračuje také ve starší době železné, kdy se rozšířily mimo středoevropský prostor až do severovýchodního Španělska a severní Itálie. Celkový počet nálezů v současné době převyšuje odhad z roku 2004, který se pohyboval kolem dvou tisíc jedinců. Hlavní úkol práce spočíval v souborném zpracování dosavadních výsledků bádání v rámci této problematiky. Současně také došlo k pokusu o kritické posouzení vlastností artefaktů a nálezového prostředí vzhledem k potenciální funkci měsícovitých podstavců. Nálezové prostředí těchto výrobků je poměrně variabilní. Zpravidla se objevují na sídlištích v sekundárním uložení jako odpad, ale také v situacích, které lze považovat za projevy kultovního jednání. V severovýchodní...