Tüllingen silexite

Sampled sites:
• Tüllinger Berg

We have to correct here two imprecisions in the literature where the material from Tüllingen is mentioned as "chalcedony": Zimmermann 1995 (pages 44 & 147) and Löhr 1990 (fig. 46). Even if the main constituting mineral is chalcedony, it should be called a lacustrine chert or Tertiary silex to distinguish it from volcanic-related chalcedony like the material from Slanec and similar sources.

As "Type 341" artefacts of Tüllingen chert have been published from three sites in Northern Switzerland: Pleigne/Löwenburg (which itself is a prehistoric mining site) and Alle/Pré-Monsieur (another known source of Jurassic chert), both mousterian sites (Affolter 2002: 168), and the excavation of the Late Neolithic megalithic tomb at Aesch near Basel (Aesch-Dolmengrab, Affolter 2002: 200).

We hope that by describing this raw material in some detail here, local researchers will be more aware of the presence of this type of chert, and might be better able to recognise it in their assemblages. Any information on this silex and its prehistoric use is very much appreciated, so if you know of other publications mentioning it, or know of archaeological sites where it has been found, please let us know via the webmaster e-mail address at the bottom of the page.

In cooperation with our technical partner I/O-graph, we offer a transformation-service for the coordinates of the sampled sites. Just click here to send a mail.

For those among you that are interested in non-flint-related trivia, and have noticed that sources of flint are often located at or near (ancient) battlegrounds: The Tüllingerberg/Käferholz is another example. Here a fierce battle was fought between forces of France and the (German) Holy Roman Empire during the War of the Spanish Succession in October 1702. This battle is known in German as "Schlacht am Käferholz", in English as the Battle of Friedlingen, and depending on whose side you take, either side was victorious, which means that many lives were lost for no gain at all. There is a small monument for the not-so-victorious but unbeaten Grand Duke of Badenia commemorating this historic event.

The small flake in the right-hand photo, first row below is an example of corser, more crystalline chert with an irregular fracture pattern. The colour is mainly 10YR7/2 (light gray) with some specks of 10YR6/3-4 (pale brown to light yellowish brown). In the second row below there is a piece of a more orange variety, 10YR6/6 (brownish yellow) with some lighter patches 10YR6-7/3-4 (pale brown to light yellowish brown and very pale brown) and the slightly darker areas 10YR5/3 (brown) and piece of slightly more translucent material of reasonable quality, main colour 10YR7/1-2 (light gray), the darker matrix 10YR5(-6)/1-2 (gray to grayish brown/light brownish gray) and the browner part 10YR6/6 (brownish yellow)

The large flake at the bottom consist mostly of the lighter, slightly crystalline variety, colour 10YR7(-8)/2-3 (light gray to very pale brown). The darker areas are denser, more fine-grained and show a better conchoidal fracture, even though there are numerous cavities present. In the slightly underexposed area in the left-bottom corner there are again numerous fossils, some of which are certainly of gastropods. The darker material varies from 5N and 10YR5-6/1 (both plain gray) to 10YR6/2, light brownish gray.
As this flake was struck from a fragment of a nodule with hardly any cortex, it shows that there must have been quite large nodules present.