Kraków Spadzista trench C2: New research and interpretations of Gravettian settlement

Abstract

This article summarizes results of the 2011–12 excavations of trench C2 at the Kraków Spadzista Street site, expanding upon the published stone inventory and animal remains discovered there in 1980. The earlier excavations provided important data about the Gravettian settlement of southern Poland, but this more recent analysis has led to revision of the earlier information. Based on stratigraphic and planigraphical studies, the previous cultural classification of the discovered inventory has been corrected. Most importantly, the site area is now known not to have Pavlovian (early Gravettian) and Epigravettian occupations, as previously thought, and the Gravettian inventory from layer 6 is found to be richer and more diverse, with dates around 24–20,000 14C BP. The once thought presence of Early Gravettian settlements in the western part of Lesser Poland is hereby refuted, and a more complex interpretation of the larger Kraków Spadzista sites' multiple loci has been synthesized.