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Rejowiec flint from the Chełm Hills occur among glacigenic sediments of the Odranian glaciation and is referred to as erratic flints. The authors, based on the analysis of the sedimentary succession of a kame in Lechówka – within the boundaries of the largest outcrop, in so-called ‘Region I’ (Rejowiec region) – indicate that: (1) the probable source of the flints were older series of glacigenic sediments – from before the Odranian glaciation, (2) their great accumulation directly under the surface and – as a result – their considerable accessibility for exploitation in prehistory were caused by the ‘upfreezing of stones’ in the conditions of a periglacial environment during successive glacial periods (Odranian, Wartanian and Vistulian glaciations). The analysis of archaeological data confirmed the use of the local flints as early as in the Middle Palaeolithic and their most intense exploitation during two main periods – the final stage of the Palaeolithic and a period from the Late Neolithic to the Early Iron Age.

Neolithic flint mines are well-studied in the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland. However their spatial structure and diachronic history is still poorly understood especially due to the poor preservation of the mine relief on the surface. The paper presents results of ALS data analyses conducted on the Dąbrówka-I site which is the first Prehistoric flint mine in the region that has been studied recently on the basis of the surface relief. LiDAR analyses combined with technological analyses of collected cores gave us grounds to identify two phases of flint mining at the site dated to Lengyel-Polgar cycle and Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age. The obtained results show the extent to which a multiproxy non-destructive approach may give ground for in depth studies of flint mines.

Funeral and ritual practices in cave sites during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age have been recog-nised 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. V mnoha jeskynních lokalitách jižně od Karpat byly rozpoznány doklady pohřebních a rituálních praktik z pozdní doby bronzové a starší doby železné. Tento článek představuje první důkaz takového jednání severně od Karpat. Nespálené lidské ostatky datované do Ha B a Ha C/D byly identifikovány ve dvou lokalitách Polské Jury (Zbójecka jeskyně a převis Bramka), vzdálených 500 m od sebe. Kromě toho bylo ve třetí jeskyni ( jeskyně Ciasna), která se nachází poblíž jmenovaných, nalezen depot keramiky datované do Ha B2-C. Příspěvek tyto nálezy začleňuje do kontextu místního osídlení lužické kultury a již známých dokladů využití jeskynních lokalit ve zkoumaném krasovém regionu. Výsledky poskytují podklad pro iden tifikaci dalších důkazů rituálního využití jeskyní v pravěku

The inflow of the Carpathian obsidian into the areas on the northern side of the Carpathians and the Sudetes is confirmed as early as in the Palaeolithic. However, its greatest intensity occurred in the Early Neolithic, i. e. in the late 6th and in the first half of 5th millennia BC. During that period, the phenomenon was closely related with the development of the Danubian cultural groups in the upper Vistula river basin, including especially Linear Pottery culture (LBK) and Malice Culture. The constant presence of this raw material products in mentioned areas is documented from the classical (musical-note) phase of LBK, constituting one of the most expressive pieces of evidence of permanent and intense intercultural contacts with communities of the northern Carpathian Basin. This phenomenon has been repeatedly emphasized in the literature. One of the most numerous LBK obsidian inventories in the upper Vistula river basin was obtained at site 6 in Tominy, located in southern Poland, in the non-loess zone of the Sandomierz Upland northern foreground. The above-mentioned collection, its non-destructive elemental analysis, using Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis (PGAA) and also traceological analysis, is the subject of this article. The results supplement the published data to a significant extent, simultaneously providing partial verification and updating of the current state of knowledge on the basic issues related to the Early Neolithic obsidian inflow into areas located North of the Carpathians, including primarily the origin of the raw material, the scale of its processing and distribution ways, as well as the range of its use by the LBK communities.

Due to the presence of multiple caves and rock shelters as well as flint outcrops, Ojców Upland is a region with an exceptionally high concentration of prehistoric human settlement traces. It has attracted archaeologists for over 150 years, leading to what was considered to have been a proper prospection of the area. Nonetheless, the analysis of airborne laser scanning has recently brought surprising results. In the very centre of the upland, on the densely forested hill ‘Złota Góra’ (Golden Hill), the remains of an exceptionally large defensive structure in the form of several rows of embankments were found. The use of magnetic methods made it possible to confirm their anthropogenic origin and the likely type of embankment construction. In turn, the layout of embankments combined with the results of a surface survey and the analyses of the acquired artefacts and the settlement context speak in favour of linking this defensive structure with a high degree of probability with the Neolithic or Eneolithic, most likely the Lengyel-Polgár cycle or Baden culture. The presence of such a large fortification in the immediate vicinity of flint mines could shed new light on the image of the Late Neolithic-Early/Middle Eneolithic period in this part of Europe.

Although multiple Mesolithic cave sites have been recognised in Europe, the use of such sites by Early Holocene hunter gatherers was extremely scarce north of the Carpathians. Single Mesolithic artefacts have been found thus far only in six cave sites in Poland. The rich Early Mesolithic assemblage found in Bramka Rockshelter in southern Poland seems to be quite extraordinary in such a context. The site was excavated over 50 years ago, but the results have never been published or analysed beyond a short mention of child burial found in the Mesolithic context. The paper presents new radiocarbon dates obtained for the Mesolithic occupation and the child burial, showing the Early Holocene chronology of the Komornician assemblage and the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age chronology of the burial. The assemblage's techno-typological analysis allowed us to identify six human occupation phases at the site, with the most intensive phase connected to the Mesolithic. Comparative analyses of other Mesolithic assemblages from the region, together with an extremely high percentage of debitage found in the Bramka Rockshelter assemblage, allow us to discuss the possibility of identifying the site as a knapping workshop located in the vicinity of Jurassic flint outcrops.

The article raises the issue of the nature, intensity and environmental conditions of the settlement processes occurring on the borderline of the loessic Sandomierz Upland and the sandy-clay areas of the Iłża Foothills, between the end of 6th and the beginning of the 4th millennia BC. The results of previously conducted research confirm the high settlement activity in these areas, throughout the period of development of the Danubian cultural groups. The obtained data document the phenomenon of the formation and functioning of the early-agricultural settlement centres in upland areas, located outside the range of compact loess cover, i.e. within ecological and landscape zones that diverge from the basic preferences of the Danubian communities, inhabiting the upland areas of the upper Vistula basin.

The article is an attempt to characterize and assess the intensity of far-reaching, intercultural contacts of the LBK community from the Sandomierz Upland and its northern foreland with the Eastern Linear cultural groups from the northeastern part of the Carpathian Basin. The basis for these considerations was the discovery of diagnostic material (pottery, obsidian products) from the Sandomierz region—in particular, from one of the largest inventories of this type in the Vistula basin: the settlement site Tominy 6. Important data in this context were also provided by products made of Chocolate and Świeciechów flints from the Świętokrzyskie Mountains Region discovered within the Transcarpathian zone. The entire collection of findings reveals the previously unknown and very large-scale bilateral, intercultural relations between the LBK communities of the Sandomierz settlement cluster and the younger phase of Alföld-LBK groups, especially the Bükk Culture, settled in eastern Slovakia, or more precisely in the Košice Valley and East-Slovak Lowland.

The article includes the presentation and preliminary characterisation of the obsidian inventory obtained during the five research seasons (2014–2018) at the site in Podlesie, Staszów district, Świętokrzyskie voievodship. Currently, it is one of the largest collections of artefacts of this raw material related to the Linear Pottery culture (104 examples), and at the same time the first obtained from the Połaniec Basin mesoregion. In the light of the current state of research, it is also one of the few inventories of this culture (outside the Rzeszów settlement cluster), in which the share of obsidian exceeded 4%. Its homogeneous nature and large size, as well as the obtained radiocarbon dates, to a very significant extent supplement the current knowledge about the initial phase of the Neolithic obsidian influx into the Upper Vistula basin area, at the end of the 6th millennium BC.

This article is an attempt to initially characterize the oldest phase of the LBK in the Lublin region, or more precisely – within its eastern part, where all related discoveries are concentrated. The main point of reference is the inventory discovered in 2011-2012 in Świerszczów (Hrubieszów Basin), which is currently the largest homogenous collection originating from this region, related to the early phase of the LBK. The artefacts described herein, as well as the stylistic differentiation of other similarly dated ceramic inventories from the eastern Lublin region (and from neighbouring Volhynia) currently allow us to distinguish two essential stages of the colonisation of this area in the oldest phase of the Neolithic. The older stage corresponds to the Gniechowice-Milanovce horizon (moderte and ephemeral settlement), and younger (Zofipole style), should be correlated with the Moravian phase Ib, including at least the younger section of its development (sub-phase Ib2).

There are 171 sites known from the interfluvial of the Vistula and Bug Rivers that attest to settling it between the Gniechowice and early Želiezovce phases of the Linear Pottery culture (LBK). The earliest finds concentrate only in the south-eastern part of this area, mainly in the Hrubieszów Basin. The intensification of settlement occurred in the music-note phase, along with the colonisation of the whole Lublin region and the emergence of the settlement oecumene proper. It mainly encompassed the loess zones and was a network of clusters located along small and medium rivers. Their development is corroborated, e.g., by traces of far-reaching, multidirectional contacts. The current state of research limits the scope of interpretations concerning the development of individual settlement clusters (especially the chronology and scope of the development of the LBK and the character and scale of colonisation and economic activity). Field research needs to be intensified to obtain new archaeological and environmental data on particular microregions.

Excavations in marginal areas of the loess uplands in southern Poland have revealed that the northern periphery of the Sandomierz Upland was intensely colonised in the sixth and fifth millennia BC by Linearbandkeramik and Malice Culture Danubian communities. This research suggests that analogous settlement clusters may exist in other marginal regions of the Central European loess belt, previously thought to be uninhabited.

This paper presents the preliminary results of mineralogical-petrographical investigations of several basic types of Turonian flints from the north-eastern margin of the Holy Cross (Świętokrzyskie) Mountains. To discriminate the character and degree of individual types of flints based on their mineralogic and petrographic features, microscopic analyses of series of representative samples of flint raw material from different parts of the Turonian outcrops and archaeological artefacts found at the early Neolithic site in Tominy (Opatów district) were performed. The microscopic investigations were conducted using a petrographic microscope and a scanning electron microscope (SEM–EDS). The results enable us to determine some characteristic properties of individual types of Turonian flints, and to identify the so-called Zawada flint in the Linear Pottery Culture inventory from Tominy.