The Former Gestapo Headquarters and the Provincial Office of Public Security in Anstadt Avenue in Łódź Interdisciplinary Site Research

The paper discusses the research me­thods and the most important results of the interdisciplinary project “The Former Gestapo Headquarters and the Provincial Office of Public Security in Anstadt Avenue in Łódź. Interdisciplinary Site Research” conducted in 2019–2021. Considering the challenges faced by the archaeology of the contemporary past, a subdiscipline of archaeology, an attempt was made to link the results of archaeological research to the relatively well-known historical context of structural and functional transformations of the site explored, mostly the establishment of a Jewish school in Anstadt Avenue at the end of the 1930s, the operation of the Gestapo headquarters during the Second World War and of the communist Provincial Office of Public Security after the war, and the division of the site into police and school sections in 1957, which has been preserved to date. Also ethno­graphic research was carried out, which identified sources referring to the forms of remembrance and commemoration of places, events, and people. The Authors hope that the archaeological research will be soon resumed on account of the planned investments, allowing to publish a complementary and interdisciplinary monograph of the site explored

Biomolecular evidence reveals mares and long-distance imported horses sacrificed by the last pagans in temperate Europe

Horse sacrifice and deposition are enigmatic features of funerary rituals identified across prehistoric Europe that persisted in the eastern Baltic. Genetic and isotopic analysis of horses in Balt cemeteries [1st to 13th centuries CE (Common Era)] dismantle prevailing narratives that locally procured stallions were exclusively selected. Strontium isotope analysis provides direct evidence for long-distance(~300 to 1500 kilometers) maritime transport of Fennoscandian horses to the eastern Baltic in the Late Viking Age (11th to 13th centuries CE). Genetic analysis proves that horses of both sexes were sacrificed with 34% identified as mares. Results transform the understanding of selection criteria, disprove sex-based selection, and elevate prestige value as a more crucial factor. These findings also provide evidence that the continued interaction between pagans and their newly Christianized neighbors sustained the performance of funerary horse sacrifice until the medieval transition. We also present a reference 87Sr/86Sr isoscape for the southeastern Baltic, releasing the potential of future mobility studies in the region

Animal bone remains from Terqa and Tell Masaikh

The aim of this paper is to present the animal economy of Terqa and Tell Masaikh sites in south-east Syria in the Middle Euphrates valley. Terqa site was inhabited since the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC until today. The settlement of Tell Masaikh is attested since the Chalcolithic Period (5th millennium BC) until the Islamic Period, however with long interruptions. MATERIAL AND METHODOLOGY The examined material consists of post-consumptional animal bone remains. There are 18,176 animal ..

Dietary preferences of the inhabitants of ancient Akrai/Acrae (south-eastern Sicily) during Roman times and the Byzantine period

This paper presents new insights into the ancient inhabitants of Akrai and seeks to confront the Roman literary tradition and iconography with bioarchaeological data and archaeological artifacts. The paper also contributes to the debate regarding the nature of the Roman diet – with the traditional view (based solely on written and iconographic sources) emphasizing luxurious consumption, extravagant feasts and exoticism. These considerations apply only to the newly available data from recent studies of the ancient town of Akrai/Acrae, located in the interior of south-eastern Sicily, in a strategic location atop a naturally-fortified hill. Although the town has a very long history (it was founded as a Greek colony in the middle of the 7th century BC), the discussion pertains solely to the Roman Empire and Byzantine periods. The chapter is mainly concerned with the osteological material, supplemented by descriptions of certain botanical and archaeological artifacts which provide a complementary picture of the diet. The osteological evidence is also used to address the possible relationship between diet and landscape. Our main findings are that the diet of the inhabitants of Akrai/Acrae was not as varied and elaborate as it is illustrated in ancient written sources and iconography. The diet was based primarily on meat and other products of domesticated animals (especially cattle, sheep and goats, and less frequently pigs and chickens), supplemented by local wild mammals and birds, and by commonly-available plants, and was only slightly diversified by seafood produce from the sea

Medieval wicker fish trap ('wiersza') from the area of the west bridge in Ostrów Lednicki

In the 2015 season, the underwater research in Lake Lednica focused on further exploration of two exploration plots of the Poznań bridge — 7 in the XCV area and 5 in the XCIII area and on the opening of a trial trench in the area of Ostrów Lednicki island. During the exploration of plot 5 in the XCIII zone, the wicker object in a radiating out shape was localised. Because of its archaeological value and the need of further exploration, the object was excavated and handed over to the Museum of the First Piasts at Lednica for preservation. The excavated object is probably a trap, a type of fish trap called ‘wiersza’ (a wicker fish trap). During examination of the object and cleaning after excavation, a great number of animal bone remains were collected and analysed. They almost exclusively came from fishes. In the bone material, the remains of several fishes were found: a catfish, eight perches, a pike, the fishes of the Cyprinidae family, including at least two roaches, as well as three remains of a pig. In the case of a catfish and the perches there were elements from all parts of the skeletons, while several bones belonged to two roaches and there was one pike tooth. The latter element was probably included in the assemblage accidentally. The conducted analysis shows that the catfish with SL (standard length) 70–75 cm and the perches, in most cases the large ones with SL=35–45 cm, were trapped in the fish trap. It is, however, not certain whether the roaches caught in the trap or had earlier been caught by predatory fish or fishes found in the trap. It is suspected that a phalanx and two ribs of a young pig, which probably come from the same animal, are the remains of a fishing bait placed in the wicker fish trap. Radiocarbon dating of the organic material which the object was made of indicates that it was placed after the bridge was no longer in use, probably in the late 12th or the early 13th century. For unspecified reasons the described wicker fish trap was not emptied and was left among the relics of the early medieval bridge. The discovery of the remains of the wicker fish trap and the analysis of its contents brought new information about one of the ways of fish harvesting used by the inhabitants of the area of Lake Lednica and its efficiency

Unwrapping the micro-history of a house cistern from ancient Akrai/Acrae (southeastern Sicily)

The paper looks into the turbulent history of the ancient town of Akrai/Acrae in a mountainous part of southeastern Sicily, encapsulated in the assemblage of finds from a domestic cistern, which was remodeled and adapted in the course of its use. The cistern is considered as an architectural feature against the background of the ancient town, and the assemblage recovered from it is exmined thoroughly category by category, giving insight into the life of the ancient inhabitants of this island in the Mediterranean

Stable isotopes unveil one millennium of domestic cat paleoecology in Europe

The domestic cat is the world's most popular pet and one of the most detrimental predators in terrestrial ecosystems. Effective protection of wildlife biodiversity demands detailed tracking of cat trophic ecology, and stable isotopes serve as a powerful proxy in dietary studies. However, a variable diet can make an isotopic pattern unreadable in opportunistic predators. To evaluate the usefulness of the isotopic method in cat ecology, we measured C and N isotope ratios in hundreds of archaeological cat bones. We determined trends in cat trophic paleoecology in northern Europe by exploiting population-scale patterns in animals from diverse locations. Our dataset shows a high variability of isotopic signals related to the socio-economic and/or geomorphological context. This points toward regularities in isotopic patterns across past cat populations. We provide a generalized guide to interpret the isotopic ecology of cats, emphasizing that regional isotopic baselines have a major impact on the isotopic signal

Akh Purattim 3

Akk Purattim, ou « les rives de l'Eupkrate », est une des expressions utilisées au xviiie siècle av. J.-C. pour désigner le royaume de Mari, qui s'étendait de la confluence du Khabour au verrou de Baghouz, actuellement à la frontière syro-irakienne. La série ainsi dénommée, précisée par son sous-titre « Mémoires d'archéologie et d'histoire régionales interdisciplinaires », est destinée à devenir le point de rencontre des recherches historiques, archéologiques, épigraphiques ou archéométriques sur la région, en faisant en priorité appel aux travaux engagés par les diverses missions, françaises (comme Mari et Terqa) et étrangères, en particulier pour la publication de leurs rapports préliminaires. Mais le titre peut également être pris dans une acception géographique beaucoup plus vaste et héberger des études qui s'intéressent le plus largement possible au rôle de cette confluence dans le jeu syro-mésopotamien tout au long de l'Antiquité.Akh Purattim, or "the banks of the Euphrates", is one of the expressions used m the 18th century BC to designate the kingdom of Mari, which extended from the confluence of the Khabur to the glacial cross cliff of Baghuz, today the Syrian-Iraqi border. The series thus named, defined by its subtitle "Mémoires d'archéologie et d'histoire régionales interdisciplinaires", is intended to become the meeting point for historical, archaeological, epi'graphic and archaeometric research on. the region, with priority given to the work conducted by the various missions, French (Man, Terqa for instance) as well as foreign, in particular the publication of their preliminary reports. But the title can. also include a larger geographic area and cover studies which are concerned as widely as possible with the role of this confluence in Syro-Mesopotamian history throughout Antiquity