Piotr Kittel

University of Lodz · Department of Geology and Geomorphology

The Rozprza stronghold functioned as a seat of a noble family since at least the early14th century AD in the form of the motte-and-bailey residence. The remains of the residence are situated in the central part of mid-Luciąża River valley, on the river terrace remnant adjoining a strongly expanding floodplain. The situation and state of preservatio...

During archaeological excavations of a medieval stronghold in Rozprza, a buried thick deposit of deep black (Dark Earth type) soil was discovered. A multianalytical (sedimentological, geochemical and archaeobotanical) study was carried out in order to identify traits the Rozprza Dark Earth. The analyses demonstrated that the soil was formed as an e...

The paper presents the results of a palaeoecological study of Neolithic archaeological layers from a wetland, multilayer site, Serteya II (Western Russia). It contains , domestic structures, rich organic artefacts, skeletons, and ecofacts preserved within lacustrine deposits that are extremely important on a European scale. We employed a set of spe...

The Wietrzychowice Cultural Park protects one of the last preserved megalithic barrows constructed by the Funnel Beaker Culture societies at the Kuyavia Lakeland (Central Poland). The nearby archaeological site at Śmieły located on the shore of Karaśnia Lake provided numerous Mesolithic and Neolithic remains such as flint artefacts, potsherds, arro...

The vicinity of the Rozprza archaeological site (central Poland) has been the area of a series of palaeoecological studies tracking the environmental history of the Luciąża River valley up to ca. 13,200 cal. BP. Numerous subfossil palaeomeanders of different sizes have been discovered in the valley floor. Here, we present the first results of multi...

Duże kontynentalne torfowiska ombrotroficzne w Europie Wschodniej, takie jak torfowisko Gorodziecky Moch, są unikatowym archiwum informacji o regionalnych zmianach środowiska, dlatego są ważnym źródłem rekonstrukcji warunków klimatycznych w przeszłości. Pomimo wielu badań paleoekologicznych, w dalszym ciągu (jednak) niewiele wiemy na temat aktywnoś...

In the rich of archaeological sites dated from the late Palaeolithic to the Modern Period region of the Serteyka River, deposits of an extensive accumulative fan were studied in detail. In the lower sector of the present-day Serteyka River valley, the strict chronology and depositional conditions of an extensive accumulative fan deposits were studi...

The vicinity of the Rozprza archaeological site (central Poland) has been the area of a series of palaeoecological studies tracking the environmental history of the Lucią˙ za River valley up to ca. 13,200 cal. BP. Numerous subfossil palaeomeanders of different sizes have been discovered in the valley floor. Here, we present the first results of mul...

The subject of the work is a reconstruction of environmental conditions in the Lower Oder River Valley in the early Middle Ages with use multi-proxy research. This was considered in terms of natural determinants of the development of hydrogenic habitats in the estuary section of a large lowland river, but at the beginning of a headland of natural m...

The transition to the Neolithic on the East European Plain was a very different process to the Western model, featuring a long-lasting hunter-gatherer economy and late introduction of agriculture. The authors present results from multiproxy research on a 13.5m-deep core of organic deposits from the Serteya mire as part of an international research...

Moats and other historical water features had great importance for past societies. The functioning of these ecosystems can now only be retrieved through palaeoecological studies. Here we aimed to reconstruct the history of a stronghold’s moat during its period of operation. Our spatio‑temporal approach allowed mapping of the habitat changes within...

The paper reports on the results of radiocarbon dating of archaeological sites and natural features (lacustrine and palustrine deposits, buried soils) accompanied by anthracological and pollen analyses. The key results are described below: 1) remains of a Bronze Age settlement attributed to the Corded Ware culture were identified at Sobornaya Hill...

East European lake-river systems have hydrological regimes typical for continental climate zones. The Postglacial development of the basins and regional palaeoclimatic pattern in the Holocene implied a specific succession of biota communities passing through lakes’ subsequent stages in the water level, trophic state and habitat availability. The Gr...

The proposed method has been applied to a multi-phased settlement complex and pottery manufacturing centre in Ostrowite in northern Poland. In this study the radioactive isotope ratios method has been applied to a set of ceramic pottery specimens from the same multi-layered archaeological site and probably produced from local raw material. The pilo...

The objective of this paper is to construct hypotheses on the relief formation in the vicinity of Lake Sporovskoye during the last glaciation period and Holocene, based on cartographic, carpological, spore-pollen, lithological and radiocarbon data.

Mineral particles included in biogenic deposits are of great interest to researchers. This is evidenced by a number of papers in which the ash obtained after Loss-On-Ignition procedure is used for sedimentological analysis. However, in the sedimentological study of such ash authors often do not take into account the fact that during ignition in a m...

The objective is to construct hypotheses on the relief formation in the vicinity of Lake Sporovskoye during the last glaciation period and Holocene, based on cartographic, carpological, spore-pollen, lithological and radiocarbon data.

Mineral particles included in biogenic deposits are of great interest to researchers. This is evidenced by a number of papers in which the ash obtained after Loss-On-Ignition procedure is used for sedimentological analysis. However, in the sedimentological study of such ash authors often do not take into account the fact that during ignition in a m...

Published version available: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/365873722_The_spatial_and_temporal_reconstruction_of_a_medieval_moat_ecosystem

The Białowieża Forest is one of the few relics of temperate, old-growth woodlands in Europe considered “natural”. Recent research revealed there the presence of numerous anthropogenic landforms associated with prehistoric, medieval and modern-era human activities. They include systems of rectangular plots separated by embankments – linear forms up...

Fens have been forming in the river valleys of central Poland since the Bølling and went through a transformation from fully aquatic to semiterrestrial habitats during the Younger Dryas/Holocene transition. This drove plant and invertebrate communities and left a distinct pattern in chemical sediment composition, which is why river valley peatlands...

The large continental ombrotrophic peatlands in European Russia are unique archives of high-quality information about regional climate and environmental changes. There is, however, a lack of multiproxy records that allow to understand environmental regional changes (response of peatlands to climate change and human impact) during the Holocene perio...

A multi-proxy record derived from sediments collected from an infilled lake basin within the area of the Serteya II site, Western Russia, was used to reconstruct the palaeoenvironment development of this site over the past ca. 9000 years. Despite there being archaeological evidence of a human presence in this area spanning several millennia, the re...

Peatlands are important records of past environmental changes. Based on a multiproxy analysis, the main factors influencing the evolution of a peatland can be divided into autogenic and allogenic. Among the important allogenic factors, apart from climate change, are deforestation and drainage, which are directly associated with human impact. Numero...

Although extensive archeological research works have been conducted in the Serteya region in recent years, the Holocene climate history in the Western Dvina Lakeland in Western Russia is still poorly understood. The Neolithic human occupation of the Serteyka lake-river system responded to climate oscillations, resulting in the development of a pile...

Chironomid (Diptera: Chironomidae) larvae play an important role in a wide range of aquatic ecosystems. The study focuses on Chironomidae trophic guilds and morphological types as indicator traits in reconstructions of habitat changes in shallow water bodies. Mentum and ventromental plates are important mouthparts whose shape depends on food type a...

The proposed method has been applied to a Striatemulti-phased settlement complex and pottery manufacturing centre in Ostrowite in northern Poland. In this study the radioactive isotope ratio method has been applied to a set of ceramic pottery specimens from the same multilayered archaeological site and probably produced from local raw material. The...

Subfossil trunks of pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) from the Late Weichselian were discovered in the site Koźmin in the Koło Basin, central Poland (Dzieduszyńska et al., 2014a). Another part of organic sediments with trunks was excavated in the frame of the research project. Altogether 224 samples from Koźmin were analysed dendrochronologically; they re...

The excavations extended over an area of 185 sq m, located in the early post-glacial zone of the Kuyavian Lakeland. The highest point of the excavated area reaches 146.5m AMSL and is situated on the slope of the hills at Izbica Kujawska. The lowest point – 91.9 m AMSL is located at the valley floor of the Sarnówka river. Terrain inclination runs fr...

The article presents the results of a study on sediment deposition processes in the palaeolake shore zone, at the multilayered Serteya II archaeological site in Western Russia. In recent years, geomorphological, palaeopedological and palaeoecological research was undertaken in strict cooperation with archaeological fieldwork. The Serteya II site oc...

Rakushechny Yar site is a floodplain multi-layer archaeological site encompassing strata dated to Early Neolithic – Bronze Age. It is characterized by complex stratigraphy, presence of different deposits, buried soils and cultural layers. Fluvial deposits interlay different settlement strata, which provide an opportunity to elaborate precise chrono...

The article presents the results of a study on archaeological structures and horizons developed in the palaeolake shore-zone of the Serteya II site that was occupied intermittently and to a greater or lesser intensity from the Mesolithic up to the Middle Ages. The Serteya II site is a multilayer complex used by hunter–fisher–gatherer communities in...

This paper presents the results of multiproxy research (pollen, charcoal, plant macrofossil and testate amoebae) on the biogenic deposits core from Gorodetsky Moch, an ombrotrophic peatland in western Russia (Western Dvina Lakeland). We reconstructed the impact of disturbance on peatland development in the last 300 years by using chronology of the...

Abstracts of the 4th Paleolimnological Conference, Irkutsk, Russia, 2-4 September 2020

A system of erosion cuts has developed on the slopes of the Serteyka River Valley. The beginning of the development of gullies is dated to the 2nd half 17th century AD –during the pessimum of the Little Ice Age. The paper presents geological, morphologicaland geospatial characteristics of gullies and accumulative fans. Gullies were cut into easilye...

In the region of the Serteyka River, an extensive accumulative fan was studied. The main goal of the research is an attempt to reconstruct the palaeogeographic development of erosive cuts in Western Russia. The geological structure of the fan and its surroundings was recognized. The fan is built by deluvium sediments, which can be divided into: low...

The Wietrzychowice Cultural Park protects one of the last preserved megalithic barrows of the Funnel Beaker Culture people at the Kuyavia Lakeland (Central Poland). Archaeological excavations of the lake palaeolittoral zone were conducted on the nearby Karaśnia Lake shore. Numerous Mesolithic and Neolithic remains were excavated including: flint ar...

The Serteyka River valley is one of the most important archaeological localities in North- Western Russia. The State Hermitage Museum has conducted research in Serteya since the 1970s. The pile-dwelling remnants located within the Great Serteya Palaeolake Basin (GSPB) are the most prominent excavation. The investigation using precise underwater tec...

The fast sedimentation rate of Rozprza palaeo-oxbow deposits gives a chance for tracking environmental changes in the end of the Late Vistulian very thoroughly. The range of palaeoecological analyses were done, resulting in reconstructions of vegetation history, climate and habitat changes. The chironomid-inferred summer temperatures indicate the s...

The multilayer settlement Rakushechny Yar situated in the lower Don River (Rostov region, Russia) is one of the oldest early Neolithic sites in this region, dated to the 7th and 6th millennia BC. Recent investigations have shown a particular importance of this site in the study of the spread of the Near Eastern "Neolithic package" and the neolithis...

The accumulative fan was formed at the mouth of a well-developed system of erosive cuts in the lower Serteyka River valley in western Russia. The length of the fan reaches 70 m, and its thickness is up to 2 m. The erosive cuts (gullies) were formed on the steep and short slopes of the tunnel valley (transformed later into the river valley) and diss...

The first results of paleogeographic study at estuary of the Katynka river allow to reconstruct the dynamics of vegetation in this part of the Dnieper floodplain for about 5 millennia and identify some traces of Neolithic, Early Iron Age and Medieval human activity. The most prominent anthropogenic transformation of landscapes (signs of slash-and-b...

W trakcie trwających od 2013 do 2016 roku nieinwazyjnych badań terenowych realizowanych w ramach łódzkiego oddziału Stowarzyszenia Naukowego Archeologów Polskich przebadano łącznie 12 wczesnośredniowiecznych zespołów osadniczych związanych z grodziskami (ryc. 1). Kompleksowe badania, których celem było nie tylko pozyskanie wiedzy o samych reliktach...

Dr. Ganna Zaitseva participated a lot in researches conducted within the North-Western archaeological expedition of the State Hermitage Museum and elaborating the chronological timeframes for Neolithic in this region. Multidisci- plinary investigations of the last five years changed a lot historical schemes and environmental reconstructions made fo...