This project aims to reconstruct the settlement patterns and palaeoenvironment of the Saspów Valley in the Polish Jura by combining unpublished archaeological fieldwork with results of recent excavations at 13 cave sites.
Cave burials are generally absent from historical periods in Europe. Consequently, the discovery of a post-medieval inhumation of a child buried with at least one bird head placed in the mouth in Tunel Wielki Cave (southern Poland) is an exceptional find. The aim of this paper is to discuss this unique burial based on multiproxy analyses conducted on the human and avian remains, including genetic and isotopic analyses as well as CT scans, radiocarbon dating, and anthropological and paleontological assessment. The results reveal the burial was that of a 10–12 year old girl of likely Fennoscandian or Baltic genetic ancestry, who died in the post-medieval period and was buried in the cave with the placement of one, and possibly two, bird heads in the mouth of the deceased. We propose that the girl is associated with Finno-Karelian troops of a Swedish garrison stationed at the adjacent Ojców Castle during King Carl Gustav’s invasion of Poland in 1655–1657.
Funeral and ritual practices in cave sites during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age have been recognised in multiple sites south of the Carpathians. This paper presents the first evidence for the funeral and ritual use of cave sites with such chronology north of the Carpathians. Unburned human remains dated to Ha B and Ha C/D have been identified in two cave sites (Zbójecka Cave and Bramka Rockshelter) located 500 m apart, in the Polish Jura. Additionally, a pottery deposit dated to Ha B2-C has been found in a third cave (Ciasna Cave) situated near the aforementioned sites. The paper analyses these finds in the context of the local Lusatian culture settlement and the already recognised traces of Lusatian cave site use in the studied karstic region. The results give ground to search for more evidence of ritual cave use in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age.
A sample of six cremated graves from the Lusatian Culture cemetery from Podlesie, site 5, has been subjected to a spatial analysis aimed at recognising anatomical provenance of bone fragments within the layers of the urn burial. Even though individual features have shown damage ranging from slight to severe, most of the burials have shown an indication of a repeated pattern, with skull fragments predominantly present in the upper layers (Chi2 = 43.968, df = 16, p < 0.001) and lower limb fragments accumulated in the lower parts of the urn (Chi2 = 28.635, df = 16, p = 0.027). In the case of the torso (the term used to describe postcranial axial skeletal fragments together with pectoral and pelvic girdles’ elements) and upper limb, the analysis has not shown statistically significant distribution between the layers. The analysis confirmed the advantage of the proposed method in determining the presence of the so-called ‘anatomical order’ within cremation burials.
This paper presents the trilobate arrowhead of Sarmatian origin found in 2014 in Podlesie, Oleśnica district, site 6 by the expedition of the Institute of Archaeology at the University of Warsaw, conducted under the guidance of Artur Grabarek. It was found in a Przeworsk culture grave (feature 109) together with weapons, tools, pottery and costume elements (i.a. brooch Almgren 236c). It is dated to the beginning of Phase B1, i.e. much earlier than the chronology of such arrowheads from the territory of Poland assumed earlier. Similar items from the Przeworsk culture and the Bogaczewo culture are mentioned. The find is discussed within the context of Germanic-Sarmatian contacts at the turn of the eras and slightly later.
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