Paper short abstract:

During the 5th millenium BC axes made from flint are produced by tell sites belonging to the KGKVI-complex. Considering morphological and spatial data from ongoing excavations and comparisons with ethnographic data, I conclude that they were used as status symbols.

Paper long abstract:

The KGKVI-complex (ca. 4600-4000) in South-eastern Europe is especially well known for the rich burials at Varna including gold and copper axes.

Even though metal was known, the settlements still produced a number of stone axes. One type made from silex is not known in the preceding Late Neolithic. Its size and weight as well as its morphology differ drastically from contemporary stone axes and finds comparisons only in copper types. They were made from the same raw-material as the super blades commonly found in many rich graves.

Axes of that type however are not produced in all contemporary settlements although the traceable activities of the inhabitants do not show great differences. By referring to ethnographical data, the axes are interpreted with special focus on their social uses as gifts during exchanges, marriages etc.

When copper axes had an impact on Neolithic societies, as it is commonly accepted, then they must have provoked either a substitution of axes used as status signs or lead prehistoric societies to refuse copper entering the cycle of prestige good exchange. By showing that the contexts and find numbers of silex and copper axes are mutually exclusive in certain regions, I argue that some communities seemed to be aware of the danger, that the addiction to copper would bring. They chose instead to take on in flint mining and produce a similar axe that was mainly used as a means of showing off one's status and forge alliances via exchanging the axes.