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.     

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.     

Spatial organization of the Gravettian mammoth hunters' site at Kraków Spadzista (southern Poland)

One of the largest and best known sites of the Central European Gravettian is the Kraków Spadzista site. This article summarizes archaeological, palaeontological, and zooarchaeological data from the site, obtained in the course of more than 40 years of excavations and studies. The site is known mainly from the discovery of the large mammoth bone accumulation in trench B. During field work conducted in a few trenches located close to this assemblage, numerous human artifacts and faunal remains were found. On the basis of analyses of lithic materials, faunal remains, and radiometric data it is concluded that the Krakow Spadzista site was frequently re-occupied during a few weeks or months, by groups of Gravettian hunters in the period 24–22,000 rcyBP This short-term camp site was related to mammoth hunting. The analysis allowed identification of three possible activity zones, characterized by the presence of different groups of flint tools, fireplaces, and different faunal assemblages: a camp area, a lithic workshop, and an animal-processing area, besides the well known accumulation of mammoth bones.     

Distribution and origin of organic matter in the Baltic Sea sediments dated with <Superscript>210</Superscript>Pb and <Superscript>137</Superscript>Cs

Organic carbon deposited in marine sediments is an important part of the global carbon cycle. The knowledge concerning the role of shelf seas (including the Baltic Sea) in the carbon cycle has increased substantially, however organic carbon accumulation rates in the Baltic sediments still require clarification.     

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.     

Inappropriate object: Warsaw and the Stalin‐era Palace of Culture after the Smolensk disaster (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

This article is about the shifting relationship between the city of Warsaw and the Palace of Culture and Science – a gigantic Stalinist skyscraper which dominates the city centre – in the aftermath of the 10 April 2010 plane crash that killed the Polish president and 95 others (mostly very senior military and political figures) in the woods outside Smolensk in western Russia. The crash's victims had been on their way to a ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of a massacre in the Katyń forest, near Smolensk, during which thousands of Polish army officers were shot on the orders of Stalin. Despite its status as Warsaw's most obvious material relic of Russia's historical domination over Poland, the Palace of Culture has in the last two decades been gradually reappropriated into the city's own landscape and everyday life. In fact, since the fall of communism, the Palace has eclipsed the city's traditional emblems and monuments to become regarded as the most identifiable marker, or ‘symbol’, of the contemporary city. Further, the Palace has consolidated the tangible and powerful impact it exerts on the city's architecture and urban layout, on its political, bureaucratic, ‘cultural’, commercial and educational life, and on the bodies and minds of its citizens. The very word ‘palace’ is normally understood in Warsaw to refer to the Palace of Culture. For a time after Smolensk, however, the word acquired a new association with the Presidential Palace, where crowds gathered to lay flowers, light candles and stand vigil. The markedly muted presence in Warsaw of the Palace of Culture during the mourning period after Smolensk demonstrated that the happy interaction between post‐socialist Warsaw and the rehabilitated Palace does not extend into every domain. The topography of mourning in Warsaw in the days after 10 April seemed to highlight the abject dimension of the Palace's uncanny presence in the city. This article explores why, how and for how long the Palace withdrew and was withdrawn from the life of the Warsaw after Smolensk.