Project

The main project objective is to determine the detail location of chocolate flint in the entire Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, the sites of its exploitation as well as its use and the role it has played in particular periods in prehistory.

The Kraków-Częstochowa Upland features numerous siliceous rocks outcrops and sites with siliceous inventories which originated from the Palaeolithic to the Modern Period. Intensive works aimed at the inventorying of siliceous raw materials deposits were conducted in the central part of the Upland in the last decade. They demonstrated the occurrence of several varieties of flint, of which chocolate flint deposits can be classified as exceptional due to the fact that, until recently, they have been thought to occur exclusively in the Holy Cross Mountains. It was discovered that the outcrop area included pits, which are the remnants of chocolate flint extraction, and workshops where this raw material was initially processed.

An important component of the project is a comprehensive examination of the newly discovered chocolate flint mine in Poręba Dzierżna and the surrounding workshops (Ryczów Upland, the central part of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland). This will enable specification of regional chronology of its extraction and referring of the results to previously known sites with products made from this raw material (archival query).

The adopted research hypothesis assumes that chocolate flint outcrops occur in the entire belt of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland or in its part, in a similar geological position as in the Ryczów Upland where they were found. Potentially, throughout the belt of outcrops there may be other places of its extraction, workshops and other sites with products made from this raw material. Another research task will be to verify the petrological characteristics of this raw material and attempt to create a key to distinguish it from the chocolate flint outcrops located in the Holy Cross Mountains.

The results of the project will be of significance for the development of knowledge about prehistoric societies in Poland. Detailed study of chocolate flint on the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland will supplement the knowledge about its distribution and use as well as its role in local communities of particular periods.