Janusz Kruk’s settlement archaeology: inspirations and determinants

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the inspirations and intellectual determining factors of Janusz Kruk's settlement archaeology. For this purpose, the article focuses on the well-known literary theory of "the Death of the Author". It has been assumed that Kruk's scientific output should be assessed in the light of his most important work -and not his last work. Kruk's scientific output is dominated by the view that functional relations between settlement, economy, and natural environment are of key importance for the historical process. Equally vital is the opinion that settlement, economic, and environmental changes are affected by human influence on the natural environment (anthropopressure), inspired indirectly by George Perkins Marsh and directly by the first report of the Club of Rome. Janusz Kruk's settlement archaeology is permeated by the principles of functionalism, but its originality is determined by the presence of the elements of "geographical possibilism".

Detecting and explaining technological innovation in prehistory

“…Due to the rushed nature and research methods used then, the settlement traces registered there do not meet current expectations. The system of small and narrow excavation units made it impossible, for example, to document the presence of long houses in the majority of the sites surveyed there, with the exception of site 34 in Rzeszów (Kadrow 1990b(Kadrow , 1990c. Fortunately, on one of the Neolithic settlements of this region, modern excavations were carried out in recent years (Zwięczyca, site 3 -cf.…”

“…At site 20 in Rzeszów (Kadrow 1990c), the small group of the oldest population of MC appeared in the centre of the region (phase Ia of MC), while in the southern part of the region the population of the youngest LBK still lived (at site 3 in Zwięczyca).…”