Quartz industries from Kovačevo (Bulgaria), Madžari (FYROM), Promachonas-Topolniča and Dikili Tash (Greece) : reconstruction of technical systems in the context of neolithization of southeastern Europe ; Les industries en quartz de Kovačevo (Bulgarie), Madžari (ARYM), Promachonas-Topolniča et Dikili Tash (Grèce) : reconstitution des systèmes techniques dans le contexte de la Néolithisation de l’Europe du Sud-Est

Scientific publications dealing with the use of quartz in Prehistory are rare compared to those dealing siliceous cryptocristalline rocks such as flint, chert and obsidian. Yet, human populations have extensively used the various materials gathered under the appelation « quartz » for making their tools since the remotest times of the Lower Palaeolithic to modern times. The reasons for this preferential selection of flint tools as study materials are multiple. Besides the weight of traditional approaches to prehistoric times where the study of flint is predominant, quartz materials present difficulties of studies that are both related to the texture of the material and its mechanical properties, but also to the use of derivative methodologies of analysis of the study of flint that prove inadequate or unsuitable for vein quartz materials.An introductory chapter is thus intended to present the main causes of the lack of interest from prehistorians towards quartz materials. We then propose to deliver the main mineralogical and petrographic elements that characterize what is commonly called “quartz”.The second chapter is fully intended to unite and confront the main results of some pioneers specialists who have worked on the use of quartz for the manufacture of stone tools. This collection of informative data will help us establish the main features of vein quartz in terms of knapping behavior and also to list the main technological, morphological and typological criteria enabling its analysis.The third chapter is devoted to the presentation of the methodology used in this study. It consists of a typo-technological analysis mainly based on the various criteria outlined in chapter 2.The fourth and final chapter is fully devoted to the analysis of the quartz series from Neolithic sites Kovačevo (Bulgaria), Madzari (FYROM), Promachonas-Topolnica (Greek-Bulgarian border) and Dikili Tash (Greece). The objective is to recognize the choices made by the Balkan Neolithic societies in the management and production of their ...