Chronostratigraphy of Jerzmanowician. New data from Koziarnia Cave, Poland

Abstract

26Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (LRJ) sites are sparse, and Koziarnia Cave in Poland is one of 27 only few such sites situated at the eastern fringe of LRJ. The aim of the recent study was to obtain new 28 chronostratigraphic data for the LRJ industries due to their extreme scarcity in Central Europe. Although 29 the new fieldworks did not bring new fossil directeur such as bifacial leafpoints, a detail debitage 30 analysis enabled identifying a presence of the ventral thinning chips in layer D, which could be identified 31as the LRJ assemblage-containing stratum. Besides the LRJ assemblage, strata with traces of Late 32Middle Palaeolithic and Early Gravettian occupation were found at the site. The radiocarbon dates of 33 Koziarnia samples show that the archaeological settlement represent one of the oldest Gravettian stays 34 north to Carpathians. What is more, these dates demonstrate that the cave had been alternately occupied 35 by humans and cave bears. Additionally the radiocarbon dates indicate rather young chronology of the 36 Jerzmanowician occupation in Koziarnia Cave (c.a. 39-36 ky cal. BP). The results confirm the 37 possibility of long chronology of the LRJ technocomplex, exceeding the Campanian Ignimbrite event. 38 Keywords: 39 Cave site, Middle/Upper Palaeolithic transition, leafpoint industries, Lincombian-Ranisian-40 Jerzmanowician, early Gravettian, 41 42 7713, which he claimed did not contain any stone artefacts, was black in colour due to the high amount of 78 charcoal [27]. Chmielewski called it a "cultural layer", and by comparing it to layers 4 and 6 in 79Nietoperzowa Cave, he initially suggested that it was a Jerzmanowician horizon [20]. No radiometric 80dates were obtained at that time to confirm the hypothesis. 81Even though the determination of the Jerzmanowician culture was based mostly on the Nietoperzowa 82Cave assemblage, the Koziarnia and Mamutowa caves were also included. A single radiocarbon date 83(38 160 ± 1250 BP, Gro-2181) obtained for a wood charcoal from layer 6 in Nietoperzowa Cave was 84presented by Chmielewski in 1961 [20], and since then it has been treated as the major chronological 85 framework of the whole technocomplex. It was later proposed that all the assemblages containing 86bifacially-worked blade leafpoints from the European Plains can be merged into one category -87Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (LRJ), a term widely used till today [28]. 88The chronology of Jerzmanowician has been restudied several times since then [14, 29, 30, 32]. The 89analyses were in most cases conducted on the animal fossil collection. The most recent results of 90 multiple radiocarbon dating obtained on the basis of cave bear remains from Nietoperzowa Cave [33] 91 showed the limitation of the possible use of the old collection. The radiocarbon range of each stratum 92 shows all the chronological spectra observed in the cave, which might indicate problems resulting from 93 the exploration, documentation or mixing of the collection. Only a new detailed fieldwork would help 94to re...

Where the snags are: Looking into bird bones

“…The snags were noticed only recently during a re‐examination of the collection of bird remains for a new project that aimed to determine and re‐evaluate the stratigraphy and chronology of the cave and track human and animal activity therein (Kot et al, 2019, 2020).…”

“…Twelve bones with snags were found in the entrance zone of the cave in a loess Layer VIII‐3 (Figure 1b,c), dating from the Late Pleistocene (MIS 3/2) (Berto et al, 2021; Kot et al, 2020). Single flint artifacts found in this layer, which can be attributed to the Gravettian technocomplex, indicated human occupation in the Upper Paleolithic (Kot et al, 2020). One bone with a snag came from Layer 2 in Trench IV inside the cave; a cave bear's bone from the same layer was radiocarbon dated to 31–29 ky cal (Kot et al, 2020).…”

“…Single flint artifacts found in this layer, which can be attributed to the Gravettian technocomplex, indicated human occupation in the Upper Paleolithic (Kot et al, 2020). One bone with a snag came from Layer 2 in Trench IV inside the cave; a cave bear's bone from the same layer was radiocarbon dated to 31–29 ky cal (Kot et al, 2020). Both Layers VIII‐3 and IV‐2 were regarded as a single chronostratigraphic unit (Layer 11) by Chmielewski et al (1967), but new results did not confirm the previous correlation of the layers from the inner and outer part of the cave (Kot et al, 2020).…”

“…One bone with a snag came from Layer 2 in Trench IV inside the cave; a cave bear's bone from the same layer was radiocarbon dated to 31–29 ky cal (Kot et al, 2020). Both Layers VIII‐3 and IV‐2 were regarded as a single chronostratigraphic unit (Layer 11) by Chmielewski et al (1967), but new results did not confirm the previous correlation of the layers from the inner and outer part of the cave (Kot et al, 2020). For this reason, in the paper, we use a unified layer numbering for the inner part of the cave, whereas the layers found in the entrance zone (Trench VIII) are enumerated separately.…”

Sepulchral use of caves in Lusatian culture: Evidence from the Sąspówka Valley in the Polish Jura

“…Direct dating of human remains from cave sites allowed to confirm the presence of Eneolithic funeral practices on the cave sites such as Tunel Wielki Cave (Wojenka et al 2017) or Ciemna Cave (Valde-Nowak -Stefański -Szczepanek 2018), but also revealed some new cave funeral practices occurring in later periods. Radiocarbon dating allowed identifying a 17 th -century unusual child burial in Tunel Wielki Cave (Wojenka et al 2021).…”