Prehistoric polished stone implements from northwestern Croatia

Polished stone tools are a highly important kind of movable archaeological material from prehistoric sites. The Archaeological Museum in Zagreb keeps about 220 unpublished finds of this kind from the territory of northwestern Croatia. This paper brings the typological, chronological and spatial analysis of these finds, with the aim of expanding knowledge on the Neolithic and Copper Age periods on the discussed territory. Although the material made its way to the Museum on different occasions at the beginning of the 20th century, with no data on the context of discovery, the number of finds and their typological diversity testify to the intensive settling of the area in the aforementioned periods. The material originated from 71 locations and was divided into eight typological groups that were then chronologically defined. Based on the typological characteristics and comparisons to other, well-dated finds, some of these finds were ascribed to the Neolithic Starcevo, Linear Pottery and Sopot, the Copper Age Lasinja, Retz-Gajary and Vucedol cultures, noting that some of the traits indicate a part of the material could be dated to the Bronze and the Early Iron Age. In addition to the typological analysis of polished stone tools, the aim was to establish the archaeological topography of the studied area and to create a plan for future field surveys and archaeological research.