The Neolithic sequence of the Middle Dunajec River Basin (Polish Western Carpathians) and its peculiarities

For some time, there has been more information about the Neolithic settlement on the left bank of the middle Dunajec in the Wiśnicz Foothills. In addition to the intense traces of Linear Pottery Culture, there are clear traces of the continuation of the settlement here at the fifth millennium BC and the beginning of the fourth, which represent groups of the Lengyel-Polgar cycle. These discoveries confirm the high qualities of this part of the Polish Carpathians for early agricultural colonization. Also, the selection for the settlement of the highest landscape zone and hilltops is very characteristic and tells a lot about the specificity of this mountain group for prehistoric settlement, also in the context of the old approaches to the existence of trans-Carpathian passages in the Neolithic

Nowa Biała and Sromowce Niżne : Late Palaeolithic Central Carpathian sites with arched-backed points

This article may be viewed as an attempt of summarizing research results of two Late Palaeolithic sites from the Central Western Carpathians located in the following places: Sromowce Niżne on the Dunajec river in the Pieniny Mts. and Nowa Biała on the Białka in the Podhale region. The discovery of these sites in the late 70s and 80s of the last century changed the common view that mountains areas located north of the Tatras were settled relatively late and that the settlement began in the Late Medieval. Both sites were excavated shortly after having been discovered. Although rich inventories of stone remains obtained during excavations are typical for technocomplex with arched-backed points but they differ with respect to stone processing technology, typology and raw materials structure. A thesis about the existence of very classical relations between them and the so-called Witów-complexes as well as typical connections with the Federmesser enviroment is proposed in this article

Archaeological reconnaissance pre-survey of the Lejowa and Kościeliska Valleys, Tatra National Park, Poland

The authors draw on their experience and past mountain landscape studies to describe an emerging collaborative research project designed to conduct advanced field studies and generate (and test) archaeological landscape models of past hunter-gatherer populations as well as pastoralist and early farming community seasonal transhumance migrations between lowland river valleys of Poland’s Podhale Basin and high altitude forests and meadows its adjacent High Tatra Mountain

Neolithic deposit of flint cores in Zagórzyce, Kazimierza Wielka district

The purpose of this paper is presentation of flint materials from the pit number 92 discovered at multicultural site 1 in Zagórzyce. During the exploration a group of five flint cores were revealed, whose layout indicates an intentional deposit. They were accompanied by few ceramic fragments and several animal bones. In spite of the fact the flint artifacts represented different stages of exploitation, they have a relatively high potential and, after the necessary remedial treatments, could still have been exploited. It seems that the group of cores can be interpreted as a deposit of a utilitarian character. Three of these were formed on the nodule of chocolate flint, the rest were made of Jurassic flint. The size of the obtained blades and the technique of core processing speak for the feature's affiliation to the Lublin- Volhynian culture. Currently, considering only the partial examination of the site 1 in Zagórzyce, making a statement as to whether the presence of the L-VC in the discussed site was only a single episode or had more stable character is sadly not feasible. The reason of separated publication of this deposit is justified since discovery of this assemblage of cores contributes greatly to the picture of flint knapping in the the L – VC

Magdalenian figurine from Obłazowa Cave

Obłazowa Cave was first excavated in 1985, and is best known for the discoveries of remains of settlement from the time of Middle and Upper Palaeolithic. The traces of most recent settlement in the cave, found in the uppermost part of the stratigraphy can be attributed to Magdalenian settlement. Results of latest excavation brought more precise date this occupation face. In years 2016 and 2017 in layer III of the cave a series of artifacts, and a small sandstone female figurine were found

The Beginning of the Early Upper Paleolithic in Poland

Research on the timing of Homo sapiens dispersals in Central Europe is pivotal for understanding the behavioral trajectories of human adaptation to low biomass environments and cold climates. Previous studies on the Early Upper Paleolithic of Poland described a different scenario from the European panorama characterized by the local development of a laminar/lamellar technology from the foregoing Middle Paleolithic and the coexistence of different Aurignacian variants after 35 ka BP. In this paper, we examine this technical diversity by reassessing and revising the chronological and technological information of the key Aurignacian sites in Poland. Our study reveals that the distinctive techno-typological features of the different Aurignacian types are most likely the result of the mixing of artifacts from different chronologies. In our view, Poland was visited intermittently by Homo sapiens since the Early Aurignacian. The deterioration of the climatic conditions during the second half of MIS 3 converted the Polish territories into a satellite area of the Aurignacian settlement system

Hučivá Cave: a Magdalenian hunting camp in the Tatra Mountains

This article discusses the objectives of the Stone Age Man in Caves of the Tatra Mountains project, which aims to explain the mysterious absence of evidence for the Palaeolithic in the Tatra Mountains of Eastern Europe. We present preliminary work from Hučivá Cave, which demonstrates clear traces of Magdalenian settlement within this region

The impact of major warming at 14.7 ka on environmental changes and activity of Final Palaeolithic hunters at a local scale (Orawa-Nowy Targ Basin, Western Carpathians, Poland

There is a widespread belief that the abrupt warming at 14.7 ka had a profound impact on the environment. However, the direct correlation between the global climatic event and changes in local environments is not obvious.We examined faunal succession in an intra-mountain basin of theWestern Carpathians to assess the potential influence of the climatic change between Greenland Stadial-2a and Greenland Interstadial-1e on the local environment.We investigated three vertebrate assemblages (total number of identified specimens = 18,745; minimumnumber of individuals = 7515; 138 taxa) from Obłazowa Cave (western entrance) and a Rock overhang in Cisowa Rock, radiocarbon dated to the period before and after the global warming, between ca. 17.0 and 14.0 ka. Our data revealed that the major abrupt warming that occurred 14.7 ka had little impact on the local environment, which could suggest that ecosystems in Central Europe were resilient to the abrupt global climate changes. The increase in fauna population sizes and species diversities in local biotopes was gradual and began long before the temperature increase. This was supported by the analysis of ancient DNA of Microtus arvalis, which showed a gradual increase in effective population size after 19.0 ka. The results of palaeoclimatic reconstruction pointed out that the compared sites were characterized by similar climatic conditions. According to our calculations, the differences in the annual mean temperatures did not exceed 0.5 °C and mean annual thermal amplitude changed from 22.9 to 22.4 °C. The environmental changes before 14.7 ka had no impact on the activity of Final Palaeolithic hunters in the studied area