The aim of this paper is twofold: first, we strive to find routes of flint supply that may have been used systematically on the northern Alpine Foreland during the fourth millennium BCE, based on the origin of the siliceous raw materials; second, these routes will be interpreted as a part of cultural entanglements. Using the sedimentary microfacies method for sourcing the raw materials of artefacts recovered in prehistoric sites makes it possible to study the provenances of large series’ pieces in a non-destructive manner. Besides insights into the economy of flint raw material supply practices of single precisely-dated sites, this cross-regional comparison allows us to gain a deeper understanding of the economic relations and thus the mobility pattern of the respective settlement communities in different time periods. The method used for raw material sourcing is described in Affolter et al., 2021 (this issue) in detail. In this paper, we present as a first research step new raw material determinations from four Late Neolithic wetland sites on the northern Alpine Foreland that encompass several dendrochronologically-dated settlements: Twann Bahnhof (3838–3532 BCE) and Sutz-Lattrigen Hauptstation innen/Hafen (3827–3566 BCE) at Lake Biel and Hornstaad Hörnle IA (3919–3902 BCE) as well as Sipplingen Osthafen A and B (3919–3904 and 3857–3817 BCE) at Lake Constance. Thanks to the precise dating of the settlements and the finds deriving from the respective stratigraphic layers, not only regional differences but also transformations over time in raw material supplies can be approached with an extraordinarily high temporal resolution. Hence, this article demonstrates the interpretative potential of flint provenance determination to study the spatial mobility of prehistoric settlement communities. In addition to the presentation of previously unpublished materials, the aim here is to show an initial approach to the study of spatial mobility and entanglements using flint data, which is to be expanded in the future.

本文的目的有两个：首先，我们根据硅质原材料的来源，努力寻找在公元前四千年期间可能在阿尔卑斯前陆北部系统使用的燧石供应路线；其次，这些路线会被解读为文化纠葛的一部分。使用沉积微相方法来采购在史前遗址中回收的文物的原材料，可以以非破坏性的方式研究大系列文物的来源。除了了解单个精确日期地点的燧石原材料供应实践的经济性外，这种跨区域比较使我们能够更深入地了解经济关系，从而了解不同时期各个聚居社区的流动模式。用于原材料采购的方法在 Affolter 等人，2021（本期）中有详细描述。在本文中，作为第一步，我们介绍了来自阿尔卑斯前陆北部四个新石器时代晚期湿地遗址的新原材料测定，这些遗址包括几个按树木年代学确定的定居点：Twann Bahnhof（公元前 3838-3532）和 Sutz-Lattrigen Hauptstation innen/Hafen （公元前 3827-3566 年）在比尔湖和 Hornstaad Hörnle IA（公元前 3919-3902 年）以及在博登湖的 Sipplingen Osthafen A 和 B（公元前 3919-3904 年和 3857-3817 年）。由于对定居点的精确年代测定和来自各个地层的发现，不仅区域差异而且原材料供应随时间的变化都可以以极高的时间分辨率进行处理。因此，本文展示了燧石出处测定对研究史前聚落社区空间流动性的解释潜力。除了介绍以前未发表的材料外，这里的目的是展示使用燧石数据研究空间移动性和纠缠的初步方法，未来将进一步扩展。