Jindřich Wankel’s collaboration with the k. k. Central-Commission zur Erforschung und Erhaltung der Kunst- und historischen Denkmale is not a widely known area of the scholar’s activities. And yet, in doing so he significantly contributed to the protection of archaeological heritage in Moravia: first as the commission’s correspondent (1883/1884–1885) and later as a conservator (1885–1893). His position enabled him to act in favour of the Olomouc Patriotic Museum Association and the Museum run by them. His activities were hindered by the legal framework of the time. Archaeological finds and sites were considered the property of the landowner and access to such required negotiations with the landowner and calling on their goodwill. This is clearly illustrated by the individual cases in which Wankel was involved.
This article presents the results of a 2019 rescue excavation of an Upper Palaeolithic settlement at Kouty III in Hlinsko u Lipníka in Central Moravia. The excavation took place due to a planned enlargement of the local greywacke mine. Lithic artefacts were found in Quaternary sediments redeposited by slope processes. The density of artefacts was quite low; therefore, it was not possible to recover them using a standard archaeological excavation and most of them were collected on the mounds of dirt beside the trenches excavated by a mechanical excavator, or during an excavation of the Eneolithic barrows situated in the south-western part of the site. A total of 106 lithic pieces were found during this excavation. Eighteen of the artefacts lacked a patinated surface, thus they were attributed to the Eneolithic period. A collection of 88 patinated lithics was classified as Aurignacian based on technological and typological characteristics. Most of the artefacts were made on erratic flint, however radiolarite, quartzite, spongolite and Moravian Jurassic chert were present as well. The technology was based on production of blades and bladelets from Upper Palaeolithic prismatic cores. These bladelets could have been used as components of composite tools. One tool set is similar to the neighbouring site Kouty I (Škrdla 2007) and consists of nine burins, three splintered pieces, one thick end scraper and two tool fragments. A bifacial triangular point that was found at Kouty I (Demidenko et al. 2018) and at several other surface sites in the surrounding area, were not found here. Despite this fact it is possible to classify this site as Evolved Aurignacian of the so-called Morava River type (Klíma 1978), which is quite common in this region.