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Title:

Site stratigraphy and palaeogeography

Subject and Keywords:

Mołstowa River   ostracod analysis   grain size analysis   radiocarbon dating   geoarchaeology

Abstract:

The aim of the geoarchaeological studies was to specify the geological contextof the ornamented artefact and identify living conditions of forager groups of the LateGlacial period living in the upper reaches of the Mołstowa River. The study area coveredthe immediate vicinity of the original find-site.Works undertaken had an interdisciplinary character. To reconstruct the palaeoenvironmentalconditions, geological fieldwork was carried out (a borehole sunk to the depth of11 m), followed by laboratory analyses of grain size, ostracod and mollusc, hydrogeology,geomorphology and radiocarbon dating of the obtained samples,The interdisciplinary studies have added to our understanding of the palaeogeographicalevolution in the study area. During the Allerød and the Younger Dryas, a large waterbody sheltered by surrounding high hills was found here, creating a local environmentalniche with conditions favouring human settlement. Lacustrine sediments (lake chalk)accumulated in the shallow freshwater palaeolake in conditions of cold climate and theornamented artefact passed into the lake at this stage. As a result of the melting of blocksof dead ice, the water levels in the palaeolake rose.Accumulation of lacustrine deposits started in the Alleröd (ca 11800 BC) and continueduntil the middle Subboreal (ca 2100 BC) when the palaeolake grew over and peat startedto accumulate. The peat deposit is spread across the entire area, overlying depressionsfilled with lacustrine deposits and the sandy hills separating them.

DOI:

doi:10.23734/22.18.102

Language:

eng

Rights holder:

Copyright by Uniwersytet Wrocławski, Wydział Nauk Historycznych i Pedagogicznych