Month: August 2019

We would like to thank really very much to our foreign volunteers that participated in our excavations and experimental archaeology program that we have realized this year in Paliwodzizna. You were able to create such a wonderful atmosphere and participate in our works with such great interest that we can easily consider you as the best volunteer group for years! We hope to see all of you participating in the experimental archaeology camp that we are going to organize in spring or summer 2020. Of course, please feel welcome also in our next year excavations :-)! We would also like to thank Harry Robson and Mesolithic Miscellany for support and information about our excavations! It is also thanks to You we had such great volunteers! On behalf of our entire excavation team! Grzegorz

This year’s excavations are slowly coming to an end. Despite many organizational problems, thanks to the great team, and in particular to numerous volunteers from all over Europe, they can certainly be considered successful, although of course, unfortunately, we have not managed to do everything (but we still have time 😊). The attached photos explore the Mesolithic stone structure used at least partly as a hearth. The feature is part of the hearths complex and is huge for our conditions because it is over 2.5m in diameter! Unfortunately, it was partly destroyed by a prehistoric fallen tree ☹ The hearth probably has a ritual origin, because as it seems it is associated with the ritual pit discovered next to it, containing more than 2,000 intentionally crushed flint, numerous bones and elements of the wooden construction. Interestingly, this pit was filled up intentionally very quickly and another hearth was built on it, under which (as a kind of deposit) we have discovered a collection of the selected big Late Palaeolithic flints (this practice was also observed for other objects of this type). The same 14C datings were obtained from the bottom of the pit (depth about 130 cm) and the hearth built on it, which confirms the homogeneity of the structure. Great discovery and we want more! 🙂

From 25 to 31 of June 2019 in Dublin (Ireland), a 20th INQUA (International Union for Quaternary Research) Congress took place. Members of the project prepared for this meeting one oral presentation: ” Relation of human activity and the environment in the young-glacial landscape: the Paliwodzizna site (central Poland)” (authors Michal Jankowski, Piotr Weckwerth, Grzegorz Osipowicz, Agnieszka Noryśkiewicz and Monika Badura) and one poster: “Sedimentary processes in lake nearshore areas and their interaction with human activity of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic communities in young-glacial landscape” (authors Piotr Weckwerth, Michał Jankowski, Grzegorz Osipowicz, Agnieszka M. Noryśkiewicz).