23 3 Grinding tools and circular enclosures: Activities on late Neolithic settlements Jaroslav Řídký, Markéta Končelová, Pavel Burgert, Radka Šumberová, and Roman Hadacz This paper discusses the issue of the occurrence of grinding tools in the flls of the pits from the frst half of the ffth millennium BC and their possible application to the study of ritual activities at Neolithic settlements. We examine whether artefacts from the category of grinding tools, unearthed in ditch flls of circular enclosures - rondels (Kreisgrabenanlagen) can somehow help us in the search for activities tied to the original function of rondels. We look at how often and in what form grinding tools appear in archaeological contexts and what information they provide about the “life cycles” of stone artefacts. During various analyses we compare the assemblages from two types of settlement contexts – i.e. from those in which rondels were found, and subsequently also from other settlements where their existence has not been confrmed. According to our fndings fragments of used tools - both grinders and querns - are often concentrated in the inflls of rondel ditches on our processed sites. It could therefore be that the evidence of ritual activity concentrated in the vicinity of these objects is striking in terms of their shape and size. At the same time we should also add that a similar handling of tools also occurs on other explored areas of settlements where, during the feld research, the rondels were not documented. The accumulation of deliberately broken grinding tools can therefore represent some unique remnant of certain forms of rituals taking place at the Neolithic settlements of that period. If there were an area or an object suitable for implementing rituals (e.g. a rondel) within the settlement, a part of these activities were concentrated within its vicinity. the functional groups, the technological categories and the raw materials that are used in the production of tools that are designed for crushing and milling a variety of products, particularly those that are used for food preparation (e.g. Hamon 2008). We will look at how often and in what form GT appear in archaeological contexts and what information they provide about the “life cycles” of stone artefacts, and specifcally about the handling of tools during the Neolithic period. In the following section we will compare the sets of GT from two types of settlement contexts dating from the Late Neolithic period – i.e. from those in which rondels were found, and subsequently also from other settlements where their existence has not been confrmed. Vital information will be drawn in particular from large-scale salvage excavations taking place in the territory of the Czech Republic, with fndings from the Stroked Pottery culture period (hereinafter referred to as STK). Rondels and grinding tools First we will describe the rondels more closely and also explain why it is that using the artefacts from the GT group is most suitable for studying the activities that took place on the settlements where there were rondels. Up till now in the territory of temporal Europe we have recorded more than 150 structures of the rondel type. Of Introduction In this work we will discuss the issue of the occurrence of bipartite grinding tools in the inflls of the sunken features from the frst half of the ffth millennium BC and their possible application to the study of ritual activities at Neolithic settlements. We will focus on the territory of Central Europe, when at that time circular ditched enclosures, which we most often refer to as Kreisgrabenanlagen or rondels (Figure 3.1), appeared in several archaeological cultures. These are enclosures with an anticipated socio- ritual function that in terms of their uniform shape layout and larger sizes noticeably deviate from the range of normally unearthed settlement pits of various shapes, sizes and functions (e.g. Petrasch 2012; Podborský ed. 1999). We will examine whether artefacts from the category of grinding tools, unearthed in ditch inflls can somehow help us in the search for activities tied to the original function of rondels (e.g. Pavlů 2012; Graefe et al. 2009) or whether they are fndings that refect normal activities (including rituals) on late Neolithic settlements (in accordance with the Czech chronology specifcally its late stage 4900/4800 – 4500/4400 cal. BC; e.g. Pavlů and Zápotocká 2013, 46). After providing the more detailed characteristics of objects of the rondel type, in our work we will summarise the information that is available to-date about those artefacts that are included in the grinding tools group (which hereinafter are referred to as GT). We will also introduce This material has been published in The Life Biography of Artefacts and Ritual Practice, BAR S2991 edited by Mathias Bjørnevad-Ahlqvist and Peter Bye-Jensen, published by BAR Publishing (Oxford, 2020). This version is free to view and download for personal use only. It cannot be reproduced in any form without permission of the publisher. To order this book online please visit: www.barpublishing.com.