Archeological reconnaissance surveys on site 16 in Powidz, Powidz commune from 2017

Since at least the 13th century Powidz has functioned as an important though small urban centre. The fact that it was located at the intersection of the trade routes and at a water reservoir, were important factors which influenced the development of the town. Archaeological and environmental surveys conducted in 2017 throw light on the modern stage of the development of the discussed centre. The turbulent changes through which the historical centre of Powidz and Castle Hill underwent in the last 200 years are clearly marked in the layerings recognised in both trenches. What is more, some of them were not documented, and the interviews with the inhabitants of the town are mostly the source of knowledge about them. Hence, determining the chronology of some of the layerings is signifi cantly hindered. For instance, the presence of single and partially preserved human bones suggests the presence of burials in the layers leveled from the immediate surroundings to T 2/17, though the soil in which they were registered could have been brought from a larger distance away as well. It seems that in T 2/17 the layering arrangements were registered, which provide evidence of a moat. It probably bordered the residence of the Powidz starost in the past. Information about the presence of such an assumption on the so-called Castle Hill can be found in numerous written sources [cf. e.g. Ganińska 1993]. The presence of a moat on the other hand is confirmed not only by the documented systems of layerings, but also the results of the analyses of plant macro-remains suggest it. Th e presence of a moat is confi rmed among others by the fact that it was filled with the ground brought in the 20th century. Simultaneously, the layerings registered in both excavations seem to confirm numerous levellings of the surrounding terrain and the Castle Hill itself. More diversified materials were gathered from T 2/17 than from T 1/17, though most of them come from backfill layers. Nevertheless, the presumption that the backfill is made of materials from the adjacent elevation seems justified. Both the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the artifacts (window glass, glass vessels, richly ornamented plate tiles, ceramic vessels), animal bones or plant remains, seem to confirm the initial assumption that there was a residence of a representative of a wealthier bourgeoisie, probably the Powidz starost, on the so called Castle Hill. The presence of post-consumer remains or broken pottery suggest significant activity in the modern period if it is assumed that they come from the layers levelled at the cone. Unfortunately, in the light of the present data, backfilling and lowering of a terrain (moat) with the ground from another part of Powidz cannot be excluded. Nevertheless, the presence of a window glass, richly ornamented plate tiles or, finally, written sources are in accord with the earlier hypothesis. The conducted natural analyses enrich our knowledge about the past of Powidz, but they also significantly influence the perception and proper reading of a history of the formation of the particular layers, and hence, a better analysis of cultural processes, even if they occurred recently. Despite the not numerous collections and rather small area which was examined, environmental studies can be the source of interesting conclusions

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