Osadnictwo paleolityczne na Wyżynie Ryczowskiej (środkowa część Wyżyny Częstochowskiej)

Artykuł omawia zagadnienie osadnictwa paleolitycznego na Wyżynie Ryczowskiej w oparciu o wyniki interdyscyplinarnych badań. Stanowi on przyczynek do rozważań nad relacjami między człowiekiem a niektórymi aspektami uwarunkowań środowiskowych w paleolicie

Graweckie stanowisko w Haliczu (Halycu) na Ukrainie. Wyniki polsko-ukraińskich badań wykopaliskowych

The Halych site is located on a cape of a high (4th) terrace on the right bank of Dniester River (fi g. 3). During the survey, the Polish-Ukrainian expedition explored 340 m2. It is a non-defi ned closely fragment of a site largely destroyed by industrial exploitation of loess for the local brick plant (fi g. 2, 3). The relics of Paleolithic settlement appeared on 3 levels, at a depth of 200–230 cm from the surface. They constituted 1st cultural stratum in the lower part of the Rivne type fossil soil (fi g. 5, 6), created during warming and humidizing of the climate, related to the Lascaux interstadial in Western Europe. The oldest of the discovered levels (Ic) has remained in a form of gray spots, single bones and dispersed fl int products (365 specimens). The middle settlement level (Ib) was best preserved and included the largest number of fi nds. It included the hearth no 2, fl int products grouped around it (2132 specimens) and a concentration of more than 800 bones, almost exclusively mammoth ones (fi g. 13). The youngest settlement level (Ia) has remained in a form of hearth No 1, concentration of fl int objects (2199 specimens) and dispersed, single bones (fi g. 14). The inventory from Halych shows close typological links both to the Dniester Molodova culture sets (for instance Molodova V, ex. VII and VIII and Mežygircy I), being a result of spreading of Gravette tradition from Western to Eastern Subcarpathian after 25 kyr. As a result of this process Molodova culture appeared in the area of middle and upper Dniester River. Also typological similarities of mid-European Pavloviene (Pavlov, Dolní Věstonice), should be noted. Considering the radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dating it can be assumed, that the upper cultural stratum from Halych has three phases, and the youngest settlement phase (Ia), should be dated for the period between 19th and 21st millennium BC., the middle phase (Ib), between 23rd and 24th millennium BC, while the oldest (Ic), from 24th to 25 000 years BC. Thus what remains, are relics of a local sequence of Gravettian culture, from the period between 19 to 25 000 years ago. Upper Paleolithic settlement process had three phases there, and the youngest settlement phase can be dated for 19 and 21, 23 and 24 thousand years BC while the oldest for 24 to 25 thousand years BC.Artykuł omawia wyniki polsko-ukraińskich badań prowadzonych w latach 2000– 2004 na stanowisku kultury graweckiej w Haliczu, położonym na wysokiej, lessowej terasie Dniestru. W jego obrębie odkryto koncentrację około 800 fragmentów kości mamuta oraz inwentarz składający się z ponad 6000 wyrobów krzemiennych zlokalizowanych w sąsiedztwie dwóch palenisk. Na podstawie analiz termoluminescencyjnych i radiowęglowych wyznaczono trzy fazy zasiedlenia tego miejsca datowane od 25 do 19 tysięcy lat p.n.e

Graweckie stanowisko w Haliczu (Halycu) na Ukrainie. Wyniki polsko-ukraińskich badań wykopaliskowych

The Halych site is located on a cape of a high (4th) terrace on the right bank of Dniester River (fi g. 3). During the survey, the Polish-Ukrainian expedition explored 340 m2. It is a non-defi ned closely fragment of a site largely destroyed by industrial exploitation of loess for the local brick plant (fi g. 2, 3). The relics of Paleolithic settlement appeared on 3 levels, at a depth of 200–230 cm from the surface. They constituted 1st cultural stratum in the lower part of the Rivne type fossil soil (fi g. 5, 6), created during warming and humidizing of the climate, related to the Lascaux interstadial in Western Europe. The oldest of the discovered levels (Ic) has remained in a form of gray spots, single bones and dispersed fl int products (365 specimens). The middle settlement level (Ib) was best preserved and included the largest number of fi nds. It included the hearth no 2, fl int products grouped around it (2132 specimens) and a concentration of more than 800 bones, almost exclusively mammoth ones (fi g. 13). The youngest settlement level (Ia) has remained in a form of hearth No 1, concentration of fl int objects (2199 specimens) and dispersed, single bones (fi g. 14). The inventory from Halych shows close typological links both to the Dniester Molodova culture sets (for instance Molodova V, ex. VII and VIII and Mežygircy I), being a result of spreading of Gravette tradition from Western to Eastern Subcarpathian after 25 kyr. As a result of this process Molodova culture appeared in the area of middle and upper Dniester River. Also typological similarities of mid-European Pavloviene (Pavlov, Dolní Věstonice), should be noted. Considering the radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dating it can be assumed, that the upper cultural stratum from Halych has three phases, and the youngest settlement phase (Ia), should be dated for the period between 19th and 21st millennium BC., the middle phase (Ib), between 23rd and 24th millennium BC, while the oldest (Ic), from 24th to 25 000 years BC. Thus what remains, are relics of a local sequence of Gravettian culture, from the period between 19 to 25 000 years ago. Upper Paleolithic settlement process had three phases there, and the youngest settlement phase can be dated for 19 and 21, 23 and 24 thousand years BC while the oldest for 24 to 25 thousand years BC.Artykuł omawia wyniki polsko-ukraińskich badań prowadzonych w latach 2000– 2004 na stanowisku kultury graweckiej w Haliczu, położonym na wysokiej, lessowej terasie Dniestru. W jego obrębie odkryto koncentrację około 800 fragmentów kości mamuta oraz inwentarz składający się z ponad 6000 wyrobów krzemiennych zlokalizowanych w sąsiedztwie dwóch palenisk. Na podstawie analiz termoluminescencyjnych i radiowęglowych wyznaczono trzy fazy zasiedlenia tego miejsca datowane od 25 do 19 tysięcy lat p.n.e

Tracing ephemeral human occupation through archaeological, palaeoenvironmental and molecular proxies at Łabajowa Cave

Confirming ephemeral human occupation is a crucial issue in cave archaeology. The project ‘Tracing human presence in caves of Polish Jura’ focuses on the application of molecular methods to decode the history of past human activities in cave sediments in the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland. The results will be compared with archaeological and palaeoecological proxies

Diversity of muskox Ovibos moschatus (Zimmerman, 1780) (Bovidae, Mammalia) in time and space based on cranial morphometry

Muskox Ovibos moschatus is a Pleistocene relic, which has survived only in North America and Greenland. During the Pleistocene, it was widely distributed in Eurasia and North America. To evaluate its morphological variability through time and space, we conducted an extensive morphometric study of 217 Praeovibos and Ovibos skull remains. The analyses showed that the skulls grew progressively wider from Praeovibos sp. to the Pleistocene O. moschatus, while from the Pleistocene to the recent O. moschatus, the facial regions of the skull turned narrower and shorter. We also noticed significant geographic differences between the various Pleistocene Ovibos crania. Siberian skulls were usually larger than those from Western and Central Europe. Eastern Europeanmuskoxen also exceeded in size those from the other regions of Europe. The large size of Late Pleistocene muskoxen from regions located in more continental climatic regimes was probably associated with the presence of more suitable food resources in steppe-tundra settings. Consistently, radiocarbon-dated records of this species are more numerous in colder periods, when the steppe-tundra was widely spread, and less abundant in warmer periods

The oldest Middle Palaeolithic finds in the northern foothills of the Carpathians

The north-eastern Carpathian foothills is an upland area interspersed with valleys. The largest number of Middle Palaeolithic sites are situated on the Lesser Polish Upland and the Podolian Upland. The Polish Jura is characterised by a typically Jurassic landscape marked by large relief variations, dry valleys and a number of outcrops of Upper Jurassic rocky limestone with numerous caves. Podolia, on the other hand, is an upland territory with a dense network of wide and deep river valleys cutting into thick layers of loess. An important element of this landscape is the range of hills made up of neogene limestone (Towtry) with poorly preserved karst forms. In this article, the oldest phases of the Middle Palaeolithic have been compared on the example of two benchmark sites of a multi-phase character: the Biśnik Cave (BC) and Velykyi Glybochok. They are both located in a similar favourable geographical position. Lower sections of chrono-cultural sequences from both sites have been presented and compared with the chronostratigraphy of the Korolevo site in Transcarpathian Ukraine. The oldest occupation phases in the Biśnik Cave have been preserved in the complex of the following layers: 19a – d, and 19. The oldest of those (layers 19 b – d), dated to over 500 ka, were re-deposited within the area of the cave. They are characterised by the proto-Levallois technique, the occurrence of side-scrapers, denticulate-notched tools and inserts of composite tools. A well-developed Levallois method, the La Quina method, side-scrapers and denticulate-notched tools are the features of the assemblage from layer 19a, discovered in the primary context and dated to OIS 7. From the same phase comes layer III in VG. It is characterised by the presence of the Levallois method, discoid method, the La Quina method, side-scrapers, denticulate-notched tools and Mousterian points. In Korolewo, the Levallois method is accompanied by bifacial technique in the form of Middle Palaeolithic points, there are also side-scrapers and denticulate tools. Both in VG (III B) and BC (layers 18 and 15) the bifacial technique does not appear before OIS6. The above observations allow us to regard the Carpathian region as an independent centre of the initial Levallois method of lithic raw material processing, regardless of Western Europe. The analysed assemblages, along with several others from southern Germany, may be traces of the oldest phase of the Mousterian culture of the Acheulean tradition in Central-Eastern Europe, distinguished by the co-occurrence of the Levallois and bifacial methods

Preliminary suggestions on the Pleistocene palaeovegetation around the Biśnik Cave (Częstochowa Upland, Poland) based on studies of molecular fossils from cave sediments

Bioenik Cave is an im por tant site of Mid dle Palaeo lithic, with the lon gest se quence of Neanderthal set tle ment phases in Cen tral Eu rope. In the pre vi ous stud ies of the Bioenik sed i ments, dif fer ent el e ments of palaeoenvironment in the pe ri - ods of Neanderthal oc cu pa tion have been re cog nised, ex cept of palaeovegetation, which could not be de rived be cause of lack of pre served plant mi cro- or macrofossils. The cur rent work is an at tempt to re con struct palaeovegetation in vi - cin ity of the Bioenik Cave, us ing anal y sis of com po si tion of plant-de rived n-al kanes, pre served in sed i ments. In our study, we an a lyzed one sam ple from each of the sed i ment’s lay ers 11 – 19c (early Late Pleis to cene and late Mid dle Pleis to cene). Abun dant n-al kanes (mostly n-C27, n-C29 and n-C31) were found in all the sam pled lay ers ex cept for the lay ers 12, 16 and 19d, show ing no al kanes at all. There is clear di ver si fi ca tion of n-al kanes com po si tion and CPI (car bon pref er ence in dex) val ues be tween lay ers. Anal y sis of this com po si tion, al lows us to claim that the lay ers 11 and 14 were ac cu mu lated when the cave’s vi cin ity was cov ered by dense co nif er ous for ests, hence upon warm cli mate. The lay ers 19, 19a lower, 19b and 19c, pre sumably orig i nated dur ing cold pe ri ods when open wood lands or grass lands dom i nated. The other an a lyzed lay ers could be con nected with in ter me di ate veg e ta tion in form of open wood land. How ever, not all of the achieved re sults stay in com pli ance with the ac tual stra tig ra phy, es tab lished bas ing on lithological data and palaeo ec ol ogy of fos sil fauna, and we hope that ex pla na tion of this dis crep ancy would be pos si ble af ter more ex ten sive stud ies of mo lec u lar fos sils are done

Middle Palaeolithic cultural levels from Middle and Late Pleistocene sediments of Biśnik Cave, Poland

Biśnik Cave is situated in the limestone rock, 6 m above the bottom of the currently dry Wodąca valley. It is located in the Smoleń–Niegowonice Range, in the southern part of the Częstochowa Upland (Poland). The stratigraphic sequence, which encompasses middle and upper Pleistocene sediments, is unique in Central Europe. It enabled the reconstruction of changes occurring in the Middle Palaeolithic in the Polish Jura. Middle Palaeolithic cultural levels at the Biśnik Cave are discussed in the context of spatial analysis of the site\u27s utility zones, with regard to hearths in particular phases of cave inhabitation. The results were linked with typological and use wear analysis of separate assemblages of artefacts. Microstratigraphic analysis revealed a far more complex character of settlement processes, especially with reference to older cultural horizons (A6-A5). Several sub-levels have been distinguished, phases of inhabitation in each layer. It was possible to indicate tendencies in the location of hearths in “cool” and “warm” layers, as well as point to a steady tendency of the shift of the site\u27s utility space towards the entrance of the cave. The functions of particular zones of the site have been determined whenever possible, with the help of the results of traseological analysis. It was possible to characterise the technology and typology of assemblages found in particular layers and provide the description of their cultural character against the background of other Middle Palaeolithic sites in central-eastern Europe

Excavation in the Deszczowa Cave (Kroczyckie Rocks, Częstochowa Upland, Central Poland)

Interdisciplinary excavation undertaken in the Deszczowa Cave and the Upper Rock Shelter between 1989 and 1997 have yielded Palaeolithic artefacts and abundant vertebrate fauna. Sediment sequence consists of 11 layers marked from the bottom to the top I–XI. Layer IV probably represents the warmest period due to important amount of organic carbon, phosphates and iron compounds. Generally, the lower part of the section (layers I–VI) could be correlated with the Early Vistulian and/or Interplenivistulian. Loess layer VIII originated during cold and dry period and it probably corresponds to the Upper Pleniglacial. The fossil fauna of snails and vertebrates belong to ca. 130 species. In the almost whole profile (except of layers X and XI), the most abundant are steppe–tundra species (65–76%) accompanied by forest faunas (especialy in layers VI and XI, 22% and 29%, respectively), and species connected with water or moist environments (10–23%). Three Middle Palaeolithic cultural horizons have been distinguished in layers IV–VI, Aurignacian assemblage in layer VIIa, Epigravettian one in layer VIIIa, and Late Palaeolithic or Early Mesolithic at the surface of the layer X