Stone-Age Poland
History of Poland |
---|
The
The Stone Age era lasted 800,000 years, and involved three different
Paleolithic
Glaciation
The
Homo heidelbergensis
Finds in the Tunel Wielki cave suggest the remnants of Homo heidelbergensis dated by 450,000-550,000 BP.[3]
Homo erectus
Human settlements on Polish lands occurred later than in the more climatically hospitable regions of southern and western Europe and were dependent on the recurring episodes of glaciation. Gatherer-hunter Homo erectus campsites, together with their inhabitants' primitive stone tools (choppers and microliths), bones of the large mammals they hunted and the fish they caught, were found below the San River glaciation period sediments in Trzebnica and are about 500,000 years old. Younger sites related to the same species were found at Rusko near Strzegom, located, like Trzebnica, in the Lower Silesia region. This represents the microlithic complexes of the Lower Paleolithic period. Homo erectus, earlier known as Pithecanthropus erectus, was a species of early humans.[4][5]
Homo neanderthalensis
Now often also considered a distinct species,
Homo sapiens
Upper Paleolithic people specialized in organized, group hunting of large mammals; they sometimes pursued and drove entire herds into traps. Their nutritional needs were met largely by meat consumption, as the vegetation was limited to tundra and steppe and the land was covered by ice and snow (Vistula final glaciation) for long periods. More sophisticated tool making methods resulted in the production of long (some over two feet), narrow and sharp flintstone splits. In a cave near Nowy Targ (East-Gravettian culture), a 30,000-year-old boomerang, the world's oldest, was found. It is a crescent-shaped 70 cm long object with a fine finish, made of mammoth tusk. Mammoths were hunted in the Kraków area during 25,000-20,000 BCE.[6] Also 30,000 years old are the so-called Mladeč-type blades of the Aurignacian culture, made of bone, found in Wierzchowie, Kraków County.[9]
A 27,500-year old burial of an 18-month old child, complete with burial gift decorative artifacts, pendant or necklace elements made of teeth of large ungulates, was discovered in Borsuk Cave near Kraków (southern Kraków-Częstochowa Upland). It is believed to be the oldest intentional burial located in Poland.[10]
A rich source of Late Paleolithic sites and artifacts (the
Mesolithic
The
Neolithic
Introduction of agriculture - Danubian cultures of farming communities
Early Neolithic era began around 5500 BCE with the arrival from the middle Danube area of people, who kept livestock, cultivated crops, made pottery and smooth-surface tools. Their land tilling predecessors had been coming into the Balkans and then the Danube region from Anatolia beginning a thousand years earlier. They formed the first settled rural communities, thus forging the most fundamental civilizational advance.[17]
The original newcomers represented the Linear Pottery culture. Their uniform culture survived in Poland in its original form until about 4600 BCE. Despite the big impact they made, the first waves came in small numbers - hundreds, or at most a few thousand people, judging by the sizes of the known settlements. They populated mainly fertile soils of southern highlands and river valleys further north, all the way to the Baltic Sea. They lived alongside the more numerous native people who were still pursuing the Mesolithic lifestyle, but during the Linear Pottery culture times there wasn't much interaction, as the two groups inhabited different environments.[18] Their villages consisted of several, but sometimes up to a dozen or so rectangular communal long-houses,[19] some over 30 meters long, supported by wooden posts, the oldest of which come from the Lower Silesia region. One such location from about 5000 BCE was also unearthed at Olszanica, which is now at the west end of Kraków just within the city limits.[20]
Large Danubian complexes were in recent years excavated in the Targowisko and Szarów (Wieliczka County) area of fertile loessial hills. The settlements, which included massive post construction houses even over 50 meters long as well as industrial facilities, extended continuously over a stretch of land more than three kilometers long. Some of the identified structures functioned together, as was the case when the buildings were connected by a courtyard and protected by a common fence.[21]
Plants were cultivated mostly in small nearby gardens, but wheat and barley were also grown on small fields obtained by burning the forest. In the absence of animal-drawn plowing devices, soil was being hoed manually.
After 5000 BCE new waves of immigrants arrived from the south again, which accelerated the process of differentiation of the agrarian society into several distinct cultures during the first half of 5th millennium BC and afterwards. In the
A settlement and cemetery of the Lengyel-Polgár cultural zone, dated around or after 4600 BCE, was discovered in Ślęza,
The Malice farming culture of southern Poland (all of 5th millennium and until 3800 BCE, named after a site in Malice near Sandomierz) was the first Neolithic culture to originate north of the Carpathian Mountains and spread south.[26] A rare discovery of 5th millennium Malice culture buildings and decorated pottery was made in Targowisko, Wieliczka County.[21][24]
Neolithic cultures developed by native populations
After 4500 BCE the
The native Mesolithic populations were slow in gradually assimilating the agricultural way of life, beginning with just the use of ceramics. It took a thousand years into the Neolithic period before they adopted animal husbandry (which became especially important to them) and plant cultivation to any appreciable degree. When they eventually developed interest in the more fertile areas utilized by the late Danubian cultures, they became the threat that compelled the Danubian farmers to fortify their settlements. The native post-Mesolithic groups expanded beyond the traditional Danubian areas of agricultural development, moving also into ecologically less favorable environments, which included utilization of sandy soils.[28]
The first truly native Neolithic culture was the
Originating from central European lowlands, the Funnelbeaker people were able to utilize large expanses of less fertile soils, obtained by extensive reduction of forested areas, with the increased role of livestock.[15] They moved south into the regions previously developed by the Danubian cultures, all the way to Bohemia and Moravia. Being more numerous, better fit for the environment, organized and economically more productive, the Funnelbeaker culture people replaced the Danubian cultures in their late phase.[31]
The Globular Amphora culture was the next major Neolithic culture. It originated in the Polish lowlands during the first half of 4th millennium BC, lasted to about 2400 BCE in parallel with the Funnelbeaker culture, and is named after the bulging shape of its representative pottery. They specialized in breeding domestic animals and lived in a semi-settled state, seeking optimal pastures and moving as needed. This semi-nomadic lifestyle was probably necessitated by the poor condition of the soils, by that time depleted and rendered infertile because of the preceding centuries of forest burning and extensive exploitation. Globular Amphora were the first culture in Poland known for utilizing the domesticated horse, and swine became important as the source of food. Ritual animal, especially cattle burial sites, often with two or more individuals buried together and supplied with objects as strange as drums have been discovered, but their role is not well understood. Globular Amphora people were involved in the north-south amber trade. Their megalithic burials included ceramics, stone tools and ornamental gifts.[32]
The Baden culture in southern Poland was the latest of the Danubian ancestry cultures and continued between 3200 and 2600 BCE. They made vessels with characteristic protruding radial ornaments. A large fortified Baden culture settlement of around 3000 BCE was found in Bronocice near Pińczów.[33]
Finally there were still in existence the forest zone cultures, representing the ceramic phase of hunting and gathering communities. Some of them lasted into the early Bronze Age.[34]
The major industry of this period was flintstone mining. One of the largest Neolithic (middle to late periods) flint mines in Europe with over 700 vertical shafts and preserved underground passages was located in Krzemionki Opatowskie near Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski. The axes produced from the material obtained there were exported to distant parts of the continent.[35][36]
Late Neolithic arrivals from eastern and western regions of Europe
The Corded Ware culture, in existence in central Europe between 3000 and 2000 BCE, originated most likely from Proto-Indo-European nomadic people of the Black Sea steppes. It was a pastoral culture at least in its early stages, for the most part lacking permanent settlements and known primarily from the burial grounds (a large one with many richly furnished graves was discovered in Złota near Sandomierz). They moved together with their herds of cattle, sheep, goats and horses along the river valleys of southern Poland, but also engaged in flint mining and manufacturing of tools and weapons for their own use and trade.[37]
A Corded Ware culture princely burial was found in
The Rzucewo culture (named after the village near Puck where the discoveries took place) developed from northern populations of the Corded Ware culture as an offshoot specialized in exploitation of the sea resources and lasted in parallel with their mother culture for a comparable period of time. Their settlements consisting of characteristic sea erosion reinforced houses were located along the Bay of Gdańsk and east of there. They engaged in fishery and hunting, especially of seals, then numerous along the Baltic coast. The Rzucewo culture people produced in special shops the widely used and traded amber decorative items.[39]
From the opposite end of Europe (the
See also
- Prehistory of Poland (until 966)
- Bronze and Iron Age Poland
- Poland in Antiquity
- Poland in the Early Middle Ages
Notes
a.
b.^ Final Paleolithic terminology also used and the period sometimes given as lasting until 8000 BC, as in Archaeological Motorway by Ryszard Naglik, Archeologia Żywa (Living Archeology), special English issue 2005
References
- ^ ISBN 83-08-02855-1.
- ISBN 83-7023-954-4, p. 8-53
- ^ Michelle Starr, Half-a-Million Year Old Signs of Extinct Human Species Found in Poland Cave, ScienceAlert, October 18, 2022
- ^ a b c d e f U źródeł Polski, p. 10-25, Jan M. Burdukiewicz
- ISBN 83-85719-34-2, p. 55-58
- ^ a b Kalendarium dziejów Polski (Chronology of Polish History), ed. Andrzej Chwalba, p. 7, Jacek Poleski
- ^ Kaczanowski, Kozłowski p. 43, 61, 381
- ^ U źródeł Polski, p.18-19, Jan M. Burdukiewicz
- ^ U źródeł Polski, p. 19-23, Jan M. Burdukiewicz
- ^ W jaskini koło Krakowa odkryto najstarszy pochówek w Polsce (Oldest burial in Poland was discovered in a cave near Kraków), Nauka w Polsce (Science & Scholarship in Poland), Polish Press Agency internet service, 2010-12-17
- ^ Rydno, Polish Wikipedia
- ^ Rydno by Katarzyna Gritzmann, Fundacja Kultury Wici web site
- ^ Nauka w Polsce web site April 11, 2008, Adam Lisiecki; also Archeowieści web site, Wojciech Pastuszka
- ^ Archaeological Rescue Excavations by Wojciech Chudziak, Archeologia Żywa (Living Archeology), special English issue 2005
- ^ a b c Kalendarium dziejów Polski (Chronology of Polish History), ed. Andrzej Chwalba, p. 9, Jacek Poleski
- ^ U źródeł Polski, p. 26-31, Jan M. Burdukiewicz
- ^ U źródeł Polski, p. 32-33, Ryszard Grygiel
- ^ Europe's 1st Farmers Were Segregated, Expert Immigrants. National Geographic Sept. 2009
- ISBN 0-06-097468-0
- ^ a b U źródeł Polski, p. 33-34, Ryszard Grygiel
- ^ a b c d Archaeological Motorway by Ryszard Naglik, Archeologia Żywa (Living Archeology), special English issue 2005
- ^ U źródeł Polski, p. 34-39, Ryszard Grygiel
- ^ The Archaeology of the Route of A-4 Motorway in Silesia by Bogusław Gediga, Archeologia Żywa (Living Archeology), special English issue 2005
- ^ a b U źródeł Polski, p. 32-39, Ryszard Grygiel
- ^ Archaeological Research at Oslonki, Poland by Peter Bogucki, Princeton University web site
- ^ Kaczanowski, Kozłowski, p. 112
- ^ U źródeł Polski, p. 40 and 44, Ryszard Grygiel
- ^ U źródeł Polski, p. 40-41, Ryszard Grygiel
- ^ U źródeł Polski, p. 40-44 and 46-47, Ryszard Grygiel
- ^ Archaeological Rescue Excavations by Mirosław Fudziński and Henryk Paner, Archeologia Żywa (Living Archeology), special English issue 2005
- ^ Kaczanowski, Kozłowski, p. 123
- ^ U źródeł Polski, p. 42-44, Ryszard Grygiel
- ^ U źródeł Polski, p. 44, Ryszard Grygiel
- ^ U źródeł Polski, p. 44-45, Ryszard Grygiel
- ^ Large Salvage Excavations in Poland by Jerzy Gąssowski, Archeologia Żywa (Living Archeology), special English issue 2005
- ^ U źródeł Polski, p. 46-47, Ryszard Grygiel
- ^ U źródeł Polski, p. 48-50, Ryszard Grygiel
- ^ Sensacja archeologiczna. Książę leżał na trasie A4 (Archeological sensation. The prince laid along Highway A4), Magdalena Mach, Gazeta Wyborcza internet portal, 2010-10-18
- ^ U źródeł Polski, p. 50-51, Ryszard Grygiel
- ^ U źródeł Polski, p. 51-53, Ryszard Grygiel
- ^ U źródeł Polski, Synchronization of archeological cultures, p. 212-215 by Adam Żurek and chronology tables p. 218-221 by Wojciech Mrozowicz and Adam Żurek used throughout the article
Further reading
- Various authors, ed. ISBN 83-7023-954-4
- ISBN 83-85719-34-2