Fülöp Éva – Cseh Julianna szerk.: „Die aktuellen Fragen des Mittelpaläolithikums in Mitteleuropa”. „Topical issues of the research of Middle Palaeolithic period in Central Europe”. Tata, 20-23 October 2003. (Tudományos Füzetek 12. Tata, 2004)

Jan Michal Burdukiewicz–Andrzej Wisniewski: New Evidence of Middle Palaeolithic in South Poland

light brown clay (layer 15). It comprised just 32 flint artefacts. Climatic and stratigraphic studies show that the layer may have formed during the Lublinian interglacial. Artefacts discovered in the layer of greyish-yellow dusty clay (layer 14) were classified on the basis of typological attributes to Acheulean assemblages with knives (including forms similar to Pradnik knives), with the Levallois technique (assemblage A

3

), and are dated stratigraphically to the Wartanian glaciation. K. Cyrek

2 notes that this is the oldest assemblage in Poland with a so-called "representative group of asymmetrical knives". The next site which produced traces of human occupation dating from OIS

y , is in Wroclaw, Haliéra street (SW Poland), It was discovered in 1990 during earthwork. Geological analyses helped to establish that the site occupies a small elevation

—fragment of an erosion "terrace" formed during the Odranian glaciation. It's core is built by two till series from the San and Odranian glaciation, separated by fluvioglacial formations. The first stage of investigation at Haliéra street, completed in 1992, covered the margin of the elevation joining in the north on the fossil valley. The finds (155 artefacts and over 1000 chunks and isolated bones rested on a secondary deposit, dispersed within several layers,

3 In successive seasons (1995, 2000-2002) excavation extended to the area of the plateau, which lies to the south of the curve of the slope;

4 the area was found to contain a less disturbed stratigraphie sequence with two easily distinguished traces of Middle Palaeolithic occupation episodes (fig. 5.). Artefacts were contained within two neighbouring layers. The lower, recorded as layer 11, was the remains of a moraine pavement and rested on the folded surface of an erosion remnant. Analysis of stratigraphy helped to date the layer to the Lublinian interglacial or, possibly, the Wartanian glaciation. But the stratigraphie dating is not consistent with the recently secured EPR date, which suggests links with the Wartanian glaciation (i40±3,9 ka, spoken communication from M. Wencka). The layer was covered by slope sediments (silty mud, sands and gravels) as much as 4 metres thick in places. The sediments originated from the erosion of the uppermost layer of moraine clays of the Odranian glaciation. The layer was found to contain bone remains of fauna, with an over-representation of dentition. We believe that this may be the result of the impact of secondary biostratinomic factors. Animal species identified included the horse (Equus sp.), woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis), bison (Bison priscus), and Cervidae sp.,

5 indicating that humans were exploiting an open (steppe or tundra) environment. The substantial accumulation of bones outside the valley suggests that a part of it could have been associated with hunting practices. The set of lithic artefacts comprises 687 pieces, including 23 tools. Implements are represented by side scrapers, notched and denticulated, flakes and retouched blades as well as single examples of knives and choppers. Most of them were fashioned from 2 CYREK 2002, 54. 3 WISNIEWSKI et al. 1994. 4 WISNIEWSKI 2001.; WISNIEWSKI-KUFEL 2002. 5 WISZNIOWSKA et al. 2002. 136