Loess, flints and bones: Multidisciplinary research at Jaksice II Gravettian site (southern Poland)

Abstract

The Jaksice II Gravettian site was occupied when the landscape was a mosaic of steppe, tundra, and parkland (having rare groups of trees). Results from new excavations show that the site was part of a hunting camp inhabited by groups of Late Gravettian hunters 24,000–20,000 14C BP. Archaeological and palaeontological assemblages consist of, among others, ivory artefacts and manufacturing debris, mollusc shell pendant, hematite fragments, and numerous backed lithic artefacts. The site also yielded a great quantity of bone remains from woolly mammoth and reindeer, which vastly outnumber the remains of other mammal species. These two species were the main sources of meat and raw material for the Gravettian hunter-gatherers at this site. The lithic assemblages include certain forms characteristic of Eastern European Gravettian sites (such as numerous backed artefacts, especially rectangles), but also lack diagnostic Gravettian tool forms such as Kostienki knives and shouldered points. The assemblage from Jaksice II site is widely different from the assemblage recovered in Kraków Spadzista, only 40 km away, and dated to the same period. This makes the recently investigated site at Jaksice II invaluable for improving our state of knowledge of the variability to be expected in Gravettian occupations, not only in Poland but in Central Europe.