“To This Day”: Aetiology,Rhetoric, or Literary Motif?

ABSTRACT

Many biblical stories exhibit an intentional association between “subjective facts” deriving from the narrative and “objective facts” belonging to external historical reality. This article examines stories belonging to the “departure on a journey” pattern which contain references to objective facts which follow a virtually fixed formula and occur at a standard location in the narrative. Both the frequency with which these facts are adduced and their formulaic nature make it difficult to adopt external criteria such as those proposed by either of the two conventional models (aetiological and communication), suggesting rather an inner—literary—link between the two sets of facts.     

The oldest human traces north of the Carpathians (Kończyce Wielkie 4, Poland)

In the area of the Kończyce Wielkie quarry (middle-southern Poland), the Quaternary deposits of different genesis crop out. The lower fluvial series is overtopped with the glacigenic sediments occurring below the Matuyama–Brunhes boundary. This ice-sheet advance is correlated with the Günz and with the oldest traces of glaciations in Western Europe. Culture materials were located within layer of fluvial sands with fine-grained gravels, below the boulder pavement and diamicton – interpreted as till. Raw materials inventory are local flint and hornstone, also foreign flint, hornstone, quartzite, opalite and gneissose granite. The inventory contained macrolithic and microlithic cores, flakes and tools. The tools are made from pebbles, flakes and microlithic-flakes.     

Interdisciplinary studies of spring mire deposits from Radzików (South Podlasie Lowland,East Poland) and their significance for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions

The paper presents the results of interdisciplinary (multiproxy) palaeoenvironmental studies of peat — calcareous tufa depositional sequences of spring mire from Radzików site (east Poland). Analyses of three biotic proxies (plant macrofossils, pollen, molluscs) were supplemented with sedimentological, geochemical, oxygen and carbon stable isotopes analyses and radiocarbon dating and used for reconstruction of environmental changes in Late Glacial and Holocene. The obtained results enable us to (1) reconstruct main phases of mire development and (2) determine environmental factors influencing changes of water supply.     

The results of thermoluminescence dating in the Halych IIC (Ukraine) profile as the expression of the conditions of mineral material deposition

Many studies conducted in the last few years in Poland indicate that the results of thermoluminescence dating of loess are reliable and correspond well to their geological ages. They can form the basis for determination of the chronology of changes of palaeoenvironmental conditions. In this paper we report dating results from the Halych IIC profile (Halych Prydnistrov’ja region, Ukraine). Thermoluminescence dating of this profile gives new information about the influence of local conditions on the results of TL analysis. As much as 75% of the obtained results are distinctly overestimated, even by several hundred per cent, that is untypical of regional loess profiles. However, in the Halych Prydnistrov’ja region it is the second loess site in which such incompatibility of the expected age and thermoluminescence age is found. This fact indicates how this region is unique among the loess areas of SE Poland and NW Ukraine in respect of the conditions of mineral material transport and deposition. Further investigations are necessary to identify the reasons for regular overestimating of the TL results obtained for loess deposits of the Halych Prydnistrov’ja region.     

Climate influence on radial increment of oak (Quercus SP.) in central Poland

The study investigates the influence of climate conditions on radial increment of oak, with special concern to the situations when analysed trees formed conspicuously wider or narrower tree-rings. The research material was collected in four locations in central Poland within natural range of pedunculate and sessile oaks. The elaborated residual chronologies were correlated with CRUTS 2.1 climate data. The analyses included thermal and pluvial conditions spanning from April of the year prior to ring formation to September of the current growth year. Special interest was paid to simple water ability index that combined both temperature and precipitation during the vegetation season. Additionally, pointer year analysis was carried out to determine situations when conspicuously smaller or larger increment was formed. Investigated chronologies cover the period of 1927?C1992 (?ochów), 1845?C1992 (P?o??sk), 1868?C1992 (Pu?tusk), and 1796?C1992 (Soko?ów). The analysed oaks from sites in central Poland exhibit growth patterns comparable with those known form previous studies concerning that species, where influence of precipitation (higher and positive) and temperature (negative) have been observed. Extreme growth reactions expressed by negative and positive pointer years turned to present high dependence of analysed oak?? growth on water availability during vegetation season.     

From the discovery of radioactivity to the development of the K-Ar dating method

In this paper I try to explain why the potassium-argon dating method was developed much later than other radiometric methods (like U-He and U-Pb), which were established at the beginning of the 20^th century. In fact the pioneering paper by Aldrich and Nier (1948) was published 50 years after the discovery of polonium and radium, when nearly all the details concerning potassium isotopes and radioactivity of potassium-40 had been investigated. The role of Marie Curie’s concept of the nature of radioactivity in the discovery of the radioactivity of potassium is emphasized.     

The application of the tree-ring chronologies in assessing ecological requirements of Metasequoia glyptostroboides growing in southern Poland

Metasequoia glyptostroboides is considered to be a species highly resistant to harmful environmental factors. For this reason it has been introduced to the cities. The climate of Krakow differs from that in its natural range in China. The research was focused on 40-year-old trees, planted in Kraków on fertile alluvial soils with a low level of ground water, in the vicinity of the steelworks. During the period of the highest level of air pollution in the 1970s and 1980s, the radial increment of investigated trees showed an increasing trend. At the end of the 1980s, when the emissions were reduced, a decreasing trend in radial growth was recorded. Throughout the entire period of their life the investi-gated trees have shown high homogeneity of short-term growth reactions. The sensitivity chronology of the trees was characterized by a high representativeness and a strong high-frequency signal. This may indicate that the investigated trees have shown a large sensitivity to climatic factors. The positive effect on the radial growth of Metasequoia had a cold September in the previous year, and also a cold January, April and May in the year of ring formation. Positive impact on the growth of trees had also the high precipitation occurring in April and August, as well as high air humidity in the spring of the year of ring formation. In the period 1974–2011 fifteen signature years were found. The analysis of the climatic conditions in these years confirms the results of the statistical analyses.     

Attempts at thermoluminescence dating of fired materials from the Przeworsk Culture settlements

The thermoluminescence (TL) dating method has a significant measurement error margin reaching almost 10%. Due to this fact it could be considered as little effective in case of such sites from the Roman period as burial grounds with many artefacts useful for archaeological dating. However, for many settlements from this period, where pottery is the only kind of artefacts, the TL method can give notable results. The main purpose of the study was to make an attempt at TL dating of pottery and clay daub samples from the Nieszawa Kolonia and Kręcieszki sites and to compare the obtained dates with the results of archaeological dating of selected features from the Przeworsk Culture settlements. In the Kręcieszki site the fragments of burnt clay daub were dated by the TL method for the first time in the Lublin laboratory. It turned out that clay daub is an equally good dating material as pottery. It can be found that the TL dating of pottery from Nieszawa Kolonia confirms two stages of settlement. The first settlement stage is related to the phases B2-B2/C1-C1a of the Roman period, i.e. from the beginning of the 2^nd to the beginning of the 3^rd century. The second group of TL dates corresponds to the phases C2D that is to the second stage of settlement, from the second half of the 3^rd century to the half of the 5^th century AD. The results of TL dating of pottery and clay daub in the Kręcieszki site are rather similar and correspond to the phase B1/B2 of the period of Roman influence, determined from pottery style, but can also indicate the phase B2/C1.