The Past Societies 1

Opis

As far as Polish archaeology is concerned, the time has clearly come for preparing such a synthesis, since the previous work of this kind (Prahistoria ziem polskich l-V) was published over 25 years ago. The new discoveries, new interpretations, and new research approaches developed by the new generation of scholars studying the material remains of the past urgently require a proper synopsis. [...]
The present volumes are the work of 60 authors formally divided into five teams. In order to curb the "separatist" effects of the traditional systematization of prehistory and protohistory (into the Palaeolithic Era, the Mesolithic Era, the Neolithic Era, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, and the Early Middle Ages), we employed a strictly chronological criterion: volume one encompasses the period between ca. 500,000 BC and 5,500 BC; volume two - between 5,500 BC and 2,000 BC; volume three - between 2,000 BC and 500 BC; volume four - between 500 BC and 500 AD; and volume five - between 500 AD and 1000 AD. Such an artificial division mitigates the sharpness of the traditional "pivotal moments" and at the same time emphasizes the accelerating nature of socio-cultural changes. [...]

Spis treści

Preface
Jacek Kabaciński

Chapter 1 - Changes in the natural environment in Polish territory in the Pleistocene and Early Holocene
Paweł Socha, Dorota Nalepka, Adam Nadachowski
Introduction
1. Sources
2. Changes in the natural environment in Polish territory
3. Final remarks
Bibliography

Chapter 2 - Fauna and humans in the changing climate and environment of the Pleistocene and Early Holocene
Adam Nadachowski
Introduction
1. Review of the most important species exploited by hunter-gatherer societies in Poland
2. Other mammals and vertebrates
Bibliography

Chapter 3 - The First humans. Societies of the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic
Andrzej Wiśniewski
Introduction
1. Evidence of human presence in the territory of Poland from more than 300,000 years ago: questions
2. The Middle Palaeolithic
3. Settlement of Polish territory by archaic human groups from a time and space perspective
Bibliography

Chapter 4 - The Early Upper Palaeolithic in Poland
Andrzej Wiśniewski, Jarosław Wilczyński
Introduction
1. Age, climate, natural conditions, and site distribution
2. Colonization, mobility, and site function
3. Technological and stylistic differentiation: cultural units
4. Final remarks
Bibliography

Chapter 5 - A new beginning: modern humans in Poland
Jarosław Wilczyński
Introduction
1. Aurignacian (40,000-34,000 cal BP)
2. Gravettian (38,000-24,000 cal BP)
3. Epigravettian (22,000-18,000 cal BP)
Bibliography

Chapter 6 - On the peripheries of the Magdalenian world. Magdalenian hunters north of the Carpathian and Sudety Mountains
Marta Połtowicz-Bobak
Introduction
1. The spread and range of Magdalenian settlement in Poland
2. Settlement chronology
3. Magdalenian settlement and economy in Polish territories
4. Material culture
5. Phasing out of the Magdalenian
Bibliography

Chapter 7 - The first hunters of the Lowland
Jacek Kabaciński
Introduction
1. Palaeo-environment in the Late Pleniglacial and the beginning of the Late Glacial
2. Recolonization of the European Plain after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM)
3. Hamburgian culture from the perspective of the European Plain
4. The Hamburgian in Poland
5. Subsistence and chronology of the Polish Hamburgian
6. Final remarks
Bibliography

Chapter 8 - Hunter-gatherers in the Allerød forests
Iwona Sobkowiak-Tabaka
Introduction
1. History of the research into and the origin of the Allerød societies
2. Arch Backed Piece assemblages
3. Settlement of Bromme culture
Bibliography

Chapter 9 - The last Late Glacial hunter-gatherers
Iwona Sobkowiak-Tabaka
Introduction
1. The history of research into and the origin of Swiderian hunter-gatherers
2. Environmental conditions, assemblages and chronology
3. Spatial organization of sites
4. Subsistence strategies
5. Art
6. Raw materials
7. The end of Tanged Points Technocomplex occupation
Bibliography

Chapter 10 - The mutual influence and intergroup contacts of hunting and gathering communities in Polish territory between 14,000 and 6,000 cal BP
Zofia Sulgostowska
Introduction
1. Transitional zone
2. Boundary zone
3. Contact zone
4. Final remarks
Bibliography

Chapter 11 - After the Ice Age
Jacek Kabaciński
Introduction
1. Environmental changes at the dawn of the Holocene
2. Origin of Mesolithic communities in Polish territory
3. Mesolithic societies in Poland
Bibliography

Chapter 12 - Mesolithic hunter-gatherers of the Atlantic forests
Mirosław Masojć
Introduction
1. Environment, sites and a cultural division of the early Atlantic period
2. Beuron-Coincy Culture in the southwestern Polish uplands
3. Differentiation of Early Atlantic flint assemblages, settlement geography and dwelling structures
4. Sites without biogenic context
5. Sites associated with biogenic deposits
6. Raw material economy
7. Flint technology of Janislawician
8. Final remarks
Bibliography

Chapter 13 - Burial rituals in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic in Polish territories
Zofia Sulgostowska
Introduction
1. Material
2. Material analysis
3. Final remarks
Bibliography

Chapter 14 - The symbolic world of foragers
Tomasz Płonka
Introduction
1. The dawn of symbolic culture
2. Symbolic systems of Palaeolithic hunters and gatherers
3. Symbols of Mesolithic hunters and gatherers
4. Symbols of the hunters and gatherers
Bibliography

List of radiocarbon dates mentioned in the volume

List of volume contributors