Małgorzata Kot

Małgorzata Kot
University of Warsaw | UW · Faculty of Archaeology

Doctor of Philosophy
Somewhere between Central Europe and Central Asia

About

91
Publications
28,973
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
356
Citations
Additional affiliations
September 2013 - September 2015
University of Warsaw
Position
  • Senior Researcher

Publications

Publications (91)
Article
Full-text available
We aimed to experimentally test the credibility of the diacritic analysis, which is one of the methods used to study lithic knapping technology. A series of blind tests conducted by lithic experts and students on experimentally knapped artefacts were used to estimate the reliability and validity of the method. The estimated average error rate was 2...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the Baltic Basin and a large part of northern Europe were covered by ice and glaciers, making it impossible for fish to spread into newly formed freshwater sources. Moreover, researchers observed the scarcity of archaeological sites in general and laying fish assemblages in particular during the Paleolithic in...
Chapter
With the undeniable shift in knowledge about the technology of stone industry production, the classification of lithic collections can be in some cases complicated despite the existence of typical fossiles directeurs. This problem clearly arises, for example, in two transitional industries of the EUP complex. Traditionally, the Micoquian is charact...
Article
This study describes a multi-proxy approach toward a newly discovered open-air loess site, Ertash Sai 2, located in the western piedmonts of the Tian Shan in Uzbekistan. Technological analyzes enabled the identification of an asymmetric core reduction scheme accompanied by a Levallois-like predetermined knapping scheme, along with the production of...
Article
Full-text available
One of the methods of analysing the manufacturing process of lithic tools is by "reading" the scars of removals visible on the surface of cores or bifaces. The paper aims to review the limitations of this approach, by answering the question as to how much information from the original knapping process is still preserved in the cores and bifaces. To...
Article
Full-text available
The paper presents artefacts found in 1962 during archaeological fieldwork conducted in Garncarskie Rockshelter in Sąspów Valley in Ojców National Park. The site is located only 5 m above the bottom of the Sąspówka River and offers an opportunity to study the use of cave sites located low in river valleys. Besides the rich traces of a 19th-century...
Article
Full-text available
The paper aims to report a surface find of a Final Palaeolithic tanged point discovered at the entrance zone of Szczelina w Aptece Cave located near Podlesice in the northern part of the Polish Jura. The broken point was found accompanied by a piece of a wide blade detached from a bidirectional blade core. Both pieces are highly patinated. The arte...
Article
Full-text available
Although caves have been used for funerary purposes almost since the dawn of time, there is very little evidence of such use in Central European Barbaricum. This paper presents newly obtained results from the Cracow Upland (southern Poland) concerning multiple skeletal remains that apparently share a similar third-fifth centuries AD chronology, cor...
Article
Full-text available
Confirming ephemeral human occupation is a crucial issue in cave archaeology. The project 'Tracing human presence in caves of Polish Jura' focuses on the application of molecular methods to decode the history of past human activities in cave sediments in the Kraków-Czestochowa Upland. The results will be compared with archaeological and palaeoecolo...
Article
The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between coarse and fine material in sediments at four archaeological sites in Central Asia, which share a common characteristic of coarse clasts dispersed within a silty matrix. By using micromorphology and grain size analysis, the study aims to understand the microscale processes that have a...
Article
Full-text available
The remains of 12 canid species that date back ca. 4.9 myr have been found at 116 paleontological localities. Among these localities, eight are dated to the Pliocene age, 12 are dated to the Early Pleistocene age, 12 are from the Middle Pleistocene age, while the most numerous group includes 84 sites from the Late Pleistocene–Holocene age. Some, es...
Article
Full-text available
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 mi...
Article
Full-text available
Peopling of Central Europe by Middle Pleistocene hominids is highly debatable, mainly due to the relatively harsh climatic and environmental conditions that require cultural and anatomical adjustments. At least several archaeological sites certify human occupation in the region dated back to MIS 13-11, but they represent open-air settlements. Based...
Article
Full-text available
This article presents preliminary results from mountain survey in the Chatkal Range in the western Tian Shan piedmonts, eastern Uzbekistan. In 2021, several new Palaeolithic sites were discovered, including a single, multi-layered, open-air site—Kuksaray 2—located near a flint outcrop. The authors’ initial investigations have recovered a stone tool...
Article
Full-text available
Archaeological findings from the Neolithic open-air location Ayakagytma ‘The Site’, situated in the south-eastern part of the Kyzyl-kum Desert in Uzbekistan, can potentially shed new light on the camel domestication process in the Central Asian drylands and help to connect it to regional changes of paleoclimate. Detailed analyses of composition and...
Preprint
Loess-debris sediments are featured by two modes of accumulation, that are aeolian and colluvial. In Central Asia, such sediments are common at archaeological sites, where the ‘debris’ component is represented by geogenic pebble-sized clasts of colluvial origin and archaeological artefacts. Therefore, the understanding of microscale processes affec...
Article
Full-text available
Points from the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician complex (LRJ) evoke numerous comments regarding their cultural patterning and their typo-technological characteristics. The unceasing interest in this group of tools is additionally stimulated by the fact that, in light of the most recent chronometric data, the development of the LRJ complexes in E...
Article
Full-text available
The Western Tian Shan piedmont, due to its high mountainous nature, is an exceptionally difficult areain which to conduct systematic surface research. In response to the specificities of the landscape, we decided toattempt to use predictive modelling to select sites with the greatest potential for the occurrence and preservation ofPleistocene layer...
Article
Full-text available
If any of you would like to be added as a co-author of this message, let me know. ------------- Call to action to stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine by any means necessary. Заклик до дій, щоб зупинити російське вторгнення в Україну будь-якими необхідними засобами.
Article
Full-text available
The paper presents the results of multidisciplinary studies on the open-air loess site Katta Sai 2 located in the western piedmonts of Tian Shan in Uzbekistan. Two archaeological horizons contain features associated with the Initial Upper Palaeolithic (IUP) - both Levallois and blade/bladelet volumetric technology, together with an Upper Palaeolith...
Article
Full-text available
Throughout the 19th century, caves of the Polish Jura have become of interest to both businessmen and amateur archaeologist. The landlord of Ojców, Jan Zawisza, explored the caves in search of traces of ancient man and conducted his excavations which were subsequently published. At the same time, neighbouring landowners started cooperation with the...
Article
Full-text available
Funeral and ritual practices in cave sites during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age have been recognised 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 identif...
Article
The Holocene has always been considered a crucial epoch where the major cultural steps of humankind took place. Understanding past Holocene climatic variability, shifts in vegetation, and faunal communities are among crucial challenges in predicting the upcoming changes of the natural environment. In Central Europe, the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland i...
Article
Full-text available
The paper presents the results of the analyses of broken bifacial tools, described thus far as broken leafpoints and broken Keilmesser. They come from 20 Central and Eastern European Middle Palaeolithic and transitional Middle Palae olithic/Upper Palaeolithic sites. Several different approaches were used to investigate the accidental/intentional ch...
Article
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 see...
Article
Cave burials are generally absent from historical periods in Europe. Consequently, the discovery of a post-medieval inhumation of a child buried with at least one bird head placed in the mouth in Tunel Wielki Cave (southern Poland) is an exceptional find. The aim of this paper is to discuss this unique burial based on multiproxy analyses conducted...
Article
Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (LRJ) industries are extremely scarce in Central Europe. Therefore, each LRJ site is of great importance. One of them is Koziarnia Cave in Poland situated eastwards relative to other LRJ sites. Our investigations of this cave provided new chronostratigraphic data for the LRJ industries. A detail debitage analysis...
Article
Full-text available
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 ai...
Article
Full-text available
The purpose of this paper is to present the results of multidisciplinary analyses of the clay rattle found in 1919 in Koziarnia Cave in the Sąspów Valley (Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, southern Poland). The artefact is cylindrical and holds a broken handle. On one side the rattle contained a small hole sealed by the dirt, which was accidentally remove...
Article
Full-text available
This paper aims to reconstruct the general knapping scheme in the Katta Sai 1 assemblage dated to around 40 kya. The site was excavated within a large -scale fieldwork project of interdisciplinary studies on Middle Paleolithic settlements in the western Tian Shan piedmont. The technological analyses allow the identification of a new variant of huma...
Article
A study of bird remains from Koziarnia Cave (Poland) revealed the presence of nearly a dozen bony shreds (snags) projecting from the natural canals in bones; the snags were made of a material that accumulated during the Late Pleistocene. This paper describes this phenomenon and determines the most probable agent responsible for its occurrence by ut...
Article
Full-text available
The paper examines the possibility of recognising leafpoint industry in the case that its most characteristic feature is missing. The conducted research aimed at identifying whether it is possible to determine Jerzmanowician assemblage based on the small debitage solely. To answer this question, leafpoints were experimentally knapped and all the pr...
Article
Marine Isotope Stage 3 is considered a period with several climate oscillations that drove the environments to rapid changes. To understand how these stadial-interstadial cycles affected southern Poland, we combined the results of eight proxies analysed in the samples from the old excavations and a new 2017 trench of Koziarnia Cave (Ojców National...
Article
Full-text available
Jeszcze raz o badaniach archeologicznych w dziurawcu MalesowyM about archaeological fieldworks in dziurawiec Malesowy rockshelter one more time abstract. The article presents recently rediscovered artefacts from the site of Dziurawiec Malesowy in Sąspów Valley, surveyed by Waldemar Chmielewski in 1994. Previous conclusions concerning the site's chr...
Article
Full-text available
The paper deals with survey data recorded in 2021 in Uzbekistan by joint team of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography SB RAS, Warsaw University, and National Center of Archaeology Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Based on 2018-2019 data, we carried out local excavations, and the Paleolithic artifacts were recorded in the cr...
Article
Full-text available
Among the well-known small mammal assemblages of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, the one from Tunel Wielki Cave is one of the most interesting for the Pleistocene biochronology of Poland. As a new trench was opened in 2018, it was possible to reanalyse the entire sequence. Its complex stratigraphy is divided into two phases: the Holocene–Late Pleist...
Article
The paper presents the newly established radiocarbon dates of the Late Upper Palaeolithic (LUP) settlement in Gvardjilas Klde in the Imereti region in Georgia. The analysed samples were collected by Stefan Krukowski in 1916 during his fieldwork in the cave. Krukowski identified two separate UP cultural horizons. The older one was connected with wha...
Preprint
Full-text available
Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (LRJ) sites are sparse, and Koziarnia Cave in Poland is one of only few such sites situated at the eastern fringe of LRJ. The aim of the recent study was to obtain new chronostratigraphic data for the LRJ industries due to their extreme scarcity in Central Europe. Although the new fieldworks did not bring new foss...
Article
This paper presents the results of the study of raw material procurement on two late Middle Paleolithic sites, Katta Sai 1 and Katta Sai 2, located in the western Tian Shan piedmont. The previous studies allowed to identify an unknown Levallois variant of human cultural adaptation in the regional Middle Paleolithic. Predetermined flake technology f...
Article
Full-text available
This article presents the results of petromagnetic and paleomagnetic research of geological sediments at the Kattasai-1 and -2 Paleolithic sites located in the Western Tien Shan piedmonts (Uzbekistan). The geological study of these sites has revealed the signs of deluvial genesis of culture-bearing deposits whose absolute age, determined using AMS,...
Article
Full-text available
Post-Neolithic cave occupation in Poland remains insufficiently recognised. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of the analysis of pottery and metal objects discovered in Tunel Wielki Cave (Ojców area, SE Poland). The artefacts were collected during three fieldwork campaigns in 1967–68 and 2018. The results show that the cave was oc...
Article
Full-text available
Our paper aims at presenting an archaeological cave site called Dziurawiec Malesowy in Sąspów Valley, which Waldemar Chmielewski test-excavated in 1994. Scarce archaeological materials found during the fieldworks were lost, but a single-page profile description, as well as the inventory of the artefacts, allowed us to include this rockshelter into...
Article
Full-text available
The purpose of our paper is to present the results of an analysis of tourists inscriptions that have been found on walls of Złodziejska Cave. The site is located in Sąspów Valley, in the southern part of the Polish Cracow-Częstochowa Upland. Overall, 205 inscriptions were found and documented. Inscriptions were written in pencil, pen or carved on t...
Article
Full-text available
This paper presents the results of Stefan Krukowski’s unknown and unpublished excavations, conducted in 1919–1923 at four cave sites located in the Sąspowska Valley (Ojców area, S Poland): the Koziarnia Cave, the Łokietka Cave (Fig. 1, 6), the Złodziejska Cave (Fig. 4) and the Tunel Stromy Cave (Sadlana) (Fig. 2). The knowledge we had thus far abou...
Chapter
Full-text available
The paper discusses the problems raised by the location of the kiln in a rock shelter. Pottery kilns were usually placed in separate buildings with opening roofs. In this case the potter decided to use a rock shelter, which has its pros and cons. The rock shelter and a vicinity of the rocks have their influence on the moisture conditions. On the ot...
Article
Full-text available
This project aims to reconstruct the settlement patterns and palaeoenvironment of the Sąspów Valley in the Polish Jura by combining unpublished archaeological fieldwork with results of recent excavations at 13 cave sites.
Article
Full-text available
В статье освещается история изучения палеолитических местонахождений в долине р. Ахан- гаран (Восточный Узбекистан), а также приводятся данные, полученные в результате современного цикла работ. На изучаемой территории выделяется три зоны концентрации археологических объектов, на основе материалов которых возможно составить представление об особенно...
Poster
Full-text available
Koziarnia Cave is one of a few Jerzmanowician sites in Poland. It is located in Saspów Valley in the southern part of Polish Jura. In the XIXth century Oscar Grube exploited cave sediments and sold it as a field fertilizer. He found multiple Prehistoric animal bones and artefacts. Ferdinand Römer studied the collection (1883) and found a Jerzmanowi...
Article
Full-text available
The article covers a previously unpublished bifacial knife which had been accidentally discovered years ago by a denizen of Osełków village in the Holy Cross Mountains. The artefacts under scrutiny is a thin oval plano-convex bifacial form with a clearly defined base, cutting edge, back and distal posterior edge. The scar pattern analysis allowed f...
Article
Full-text available
The paper presents the results of airborne laser scanning (ASL) data analysis for Złota Góra (Golden Hill) located at the confluence of Prądnik and Sąspów Valley in Southern part of Polish Kraków-Częstochowa Uppland in Ojców. In 1923 the concept of the new garden city and spa located in Złota Góra was created in order to protect the Ojców and the k...
Article
Full-text available
Discussion of differences and possible links between bifacially and unifacially shaped tools has quite a long tradition. Certain techno-complexes are distinguished due to the presence or absence of bifacial technology (e.g. Keilmesser group, MP/UP transition leafpoint industries). The paper draws attention to a problem of defining bifacial and unif...
Article
Full-text available
This paper presents the results of a large-scale fieldwork project of interdisciplinary studies on the Middle Paleolithic settlement in the western Tian Shan piedmont. A complex of newly discovered "loess Paleolithic" open-air sites near Yangiobod (Uzbekistan), Katta Sai, was excavated. The excavations allowed identification of a new variant of hum...