Quartz was an important and widely used lithic material in the prehistory of circumpolar Eurasia. While ethnographic and other data indicate that quartz has been invested with special qualities and meanings in various cultures around the world, archaeological studies in circumpolar Europe have tended to discuss quartz use in exclusively practical and technological terms. This article takes a “nontechnological” approach to quartz finds from the boreal zone of northeastern Europe. We identify spatiotemporal variations in quartz use and explore how quartzes were perceived and signified in the cultural and cosmological context of Stone Age eastern Fennoscandia, concentrating particularly on what we call “high-quality quartzes.” More specifically, we analyze and interpret patterns of quartz use in relation to the Neolithization of northern Eurasia. We discuss our findings against the animistic-shamanistic cosmologies of circumpolar communities and especially in regard to the emerging Neolithic worldview in the north.

中文翻译：

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在世界表面之下：极欧洲的高质量石英，晶体腔和新石器时代

在圆极欧亚大陆的史前时期，石英是一种重要且广泛使用的石器材料。人种学和其他数据表明，石英已在世界各地的各种文化中投入了特殊的品质和意义，而欧洲极地的考古学研究倾向于仅以实用和技术的角度讨论石英的使用。本文采用了一种“非技术性”的方法来对来自北欧东北部寒带地区的石英进行发现。我们确定石英使用的时空变化，并探索在石器时代的东部芬诺斯坎迪亚的文化和宇宙学背景下如何感知和指示石英，特别着重于我们所谓的“高质量石英”。更具体地说，我们分析和解释了与北部欧亚大陆新石器时代有关的石英使用模式。