Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jasrep Ludowice 6 site, western habitation: A silica plant processing female gatherer campsite? Grzegorz Osipowicz Institute of Archaeology, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Szosa Bydgoska 44/48 Street, 87-100 Torun, Poland ABSTRACT This article presents the results of an interdisciplinary study of the Late Mesolithic site of Ludowice 6 in Central Poland. Here, the remains of three shelters/huts were identified, each with a clearly organised functional space, in which zones for various activity types could be distinguished. It is suggested that the camp was seasonally used in the early autumn. Most probably, it served as a location for conducting the highly specialised processing of silica plants. The functional structure of an excavated tool assemblage indicates that this place might have been used to acquire plant material seasonally, which was later transported to a base camp situated elsewhere. The location and characteristics of individual activity zones, as well as the manner in which projectile points were dispersed, together with the characteristics and the intensity of flint processing allowed us to test a hy- pothesis that it could have been used mainly by women. 1. Introduction The objectives faced by the modern archaeology of the Stone Age undoubtedly exceed the technological-typological analysis of an as- semblage that is usually conducted in a customary manner, which steps beyond determining the relative chronology of that assemblage. More and more often, the scope of work involves studies aiming at inter- preting functions of individual sites and the clear differentiation be- tween them, both in terms of internal organisation and their position in micro- and macro-regional settlement networks. Nevertheless, this type of research is relatively rare, as it requires the application of many methods, which often involve expensive analyses and ensuring colla- boration between experts in various fields of science. This article presents the results of a multifaceted spatial study with the aim of interpreting the function and the internal organisation of a Mesolithic settlement excavated in the western habitational area at the site of Ludowice 6 in Central Poland. The analysis involved technolo- gical and stylistic analyses (including refitting), raw material analyses and use-wear analyses of the collected stone (flint and other) artefacts, an archeozoological and taphonomic analysis of the recovered bones, as well as distribution analyses of specific artefacts and ecofacts. The complete results of the individual types of analysis, together with the information on the applied methods, procedures, terminology and equipment, as well as a detailed photographic and drawing doc- umentation of the performed works can be found elsewhere (Osipowicz et al., 2014; Osipowicz, 2015; Osipowicz, 2017a). The presented studies constitute part of a broader research programme conducted by the author on the functional structure and organisation of Holocene hunter- gatherer settlements in Central Poland. 2. Ludowice, site 6, western habitation The Ludowice 6 site is located in the central part of the Chełmno Lake District (Fig. 1A), on a hill slope up to 100 m a.s.l. high (Fig. 1B). It is situated in a contact area between a sandur and a large kettle – both presently filled with biogenic sediments. Excavations were conducted between 2009 and 2014. In sum, the excavations covered an area of 756 m 2 (Fig. 1C). Mesolithic artefacts occurred within two habitational areas, one of which (the western one) is the subject of the article. The majority of the source materials were found in the uppermost layers of a rusty soil. These occurred within five unclear flint scatters, three of which were only partially examined (Fig. 1D). Of the earth- bound features, attention should be paid to the central facilities in flint scatters 1 and 2 (fully explored), i.e., feature 10 (a hearth made using pebbles 2–5 cm in diameter, arranged in several layers to resemble an inverted cone – Fig. 2A, B) and feature 2 (a large utility pit with a trough-like profile and a single-layer with a spotted fill, containing mainly humus and burnt material), respectively. The total number of artefacts collected in the area of the settlement was: 4026 flint products, 353 stone products and 230 bone fragments. The morphological structure of the flint products' collection is pre- sented in Table 1. Attempts at refitting this material yielded only six blocks of individual products made from the Baltic-erratic flint (Osipowicz, 2017a), which when combined with the collection http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2017.08.019 Received 4 May 2017; Received in revised form 29 July 2017; Accepted 25 August 2017 E-mail address: grezegor@umk.pl. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx 2352-409X/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Osipowicz, G., Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2017.08.019