During fieldwork in the early 1990s at the then still active quarry near Nasiłów, on the left bank of the River Vistula (Wisła), accompanied by Professor Andrzej Radwański, some lobster remains were collected. A fragmentary anterior portion of a decapod crustacean carapace, recovered from a level about 2 m below the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K/Pg) boundary, in a siliceous chalk unit locally referred to as ‘opoka’, constitutes the oldest record of the thaumastocheliform genus Dinochelus Ahyong, Chan and Bouchet, 2010, D. radwanskii sp. nov. The other, more complete, individual is from c. 3 m above the K/Pg boundary, coming from marly gaizes or ‘siwak’; this is ascribed to a new species of Hoploparia M’Coy, 1849, H. nasilowensis sp. nov., the first to be recorded from Danian (lower Paleocene) strata. Although both ‘opoka’ and ‘siwak’ facies in the Nasiłów area are very rich in diverse biota, including some brachyurans, no macruran remains had so far been recorded from the region.
When it comes to research into changes which took place in Poland in the 10th and the first half of the 11th century and the emergence of the Piast dynasty’s state, the presence of an ethnically foreign population, its conditioning and effects have not been fully recognised. The few historiographical sources do not devote much attention to the arrival of foreign tribes; the single mentions typically pertain to the representatives of the elites, especially dynasties. Attempts have been made to analyse the phenomena by means of toponomastics and archaeology. Due to their ambiguity and late source confirmations, the results of toponomastic surveys do not allow to resolve the issue of migrations or displacement from the 10–11th centuries independently. However, the archaeological research carried out to date has revealed (beside a number of single historical objects related to the culture of Poland’s southern neighbours) grave fields and strongholds which could be potentially related to the representatives of foreign ethnic groups. The Poznań-Sołacz grave field (2nd half of the 10th century) and the Morawy grave field in Kuyavia (2nd half of the 11th century or possibly earlier) are related to a population from (Great) Moravia. Presence of a Hungarian population is traditionally attributed to the “old Hungarian” grave field in Przemyśl-Zasanie (dating back from the late 9th to the first quarter of the 11th century). On the other hand, the stronghold and the grave field in Niemcza in Silesia (dated back to the 970s and 980s) are connected with a Czech population. Unconfirmed grave fields and a handful of artefacts of Great Moravian origin are typical remains of strongholds in Gilów in Silesia and Czerchów near Łęczyca where presence of foreign warriors has not been ruled out. A question remains to what extent the material determinants of a foreign culture indicate presence of representatives of different ethnic groups and to what extent they are imports or copies. Undoubtedly, in a discussion of a foreign population genetic research may prove helpful, especially in grave fields associated with foreign populations. However, in order to analyse the issue in a comprehensive way, an interdisciplinary approach is required i.e. a combination of the methods of historical, archaeological and genetic research.
We describe a new echinoid assemblage, composed of specimens of Bolbaster sp., Cyclaster danicus (Schlüter, 1897), Diplodetus vistulensis (Kongiel, 1950) and Linthia? sp. in a distinctive phosphatic preservation, from the so-called Greensand, a marly glauconitic sandstone horizon at the base of the Danian succession in the Kazimierz Dolny area (central Poland). This assemblage presumably is of early Danian age, with Cyclaster danicus occurring in the lower Danian of Denmark and southern Sweden. The specimens are preserved as internal moulds, composed of phosphatised glauconitic sandstone, occasionally with some test material adhering. The genesis of these moulds involved the following steps: (1) infilling of tests of dead echinoids with glauconitic sand; (2) penetration of the infills by coelobiotic deposit-feeding organisms that produced burrows along the inner test surface; (3) early-diagenetic cementation of infills by calcium phosphate; and (4) exhumation and intraformational reworking of specimens, leading to abrasion, fragmentation and loss of test material in some individuals. Co-occurring are unphosphatised moulds of Echinocorys ex gr. depressa (von Eichwald, 1866) and Pseudogibbaster cf. depressus (Kongiel in Kongiel and Matwiejewówna, 1937), which may represent a younger (middle to late Danian) assemblage. Additionally, the presence of derived late Maastrichtian echinoids, e.g., Temnocidaris (Stereocidaris) ex gr. herthae (Schlüter, 1892), Pleurosalenia bonissenti (Cotteau, 1866) and Hemicara pomeranum Schlüter, 1902, is confirmed for the Greensand, based on new material and re- examination of previously recorded specimens. In summary, members of three echinoid assemblages of different age and preservation occur together in the Greensand. Our results are compatible with former interpretations of this unit as a condensed, transgressive lag with mixed faunas of different age and provenance. However, they are incompatible with the hypothesis that phosphatised Danian fossils preserved in the Greensand are derived from a facies equivalent, now gone, of the lower Danian Cerithium Limestone in eastern Denmark, because all moulds are composed of phosphatised glauconitic sandstone that is utterly different from the calcareous dinocyst-dominated, fine crystalline matrix of the Cerithium Limestone.
The paper presents results of studies focused on occurrence and correlation of four main horizons of Younger Loesses: Lowest Younger Loess (LMn – after Maruszczak, 2001), Lower Younger Loess (LMd), Middle Younger Loess (LMs), and Upper Younger Loess (LMg) recorded in five sections (Politów, Wąchock, Nietulisko Małe, Komorniki and Bodzechów) in the Holy Cross Mountains area. All analysed loesses were accumulated during the Vistulian Glaciation (Weichselian). The horizons were distinguished based on separating interstadial tundra soils, coupled with thermoluminescence dating, and correlated with marine oxygen-isotope stages MIS 5d−2. The Lowermost Younger Loess (LMn) covers the Nietulisko I soil complex (Jersak, 1973), developed on deposits of the Odranian Glaciation (MIS 6) and representing a forest soil of the Eemian Interglacial (MIS 5e) and the Brørup warming (MIS 5c). A thin horizon of the Oldest Younger Loess and a thin sandy horizon, both probably corresponding to the Herning cooling phase (MIS 5d) at the boundary with the Eemian Interglacial, were distinguished within this complex. Based on previously performed grain-size and heavy mineral analysis of the Upper Younger Loess (LMg) and a topographic position of the loesses in four loessy islands of diverse regional extent, accumulation of this loess in the Holy Cross Mountains area is found to have been stimulated by the western winds. The proposed model of loess accumulation takes into account the influence of the topography of the area and its geological structure.
An accumulation of glacial sediments is located near Písečná village in the depression between the Sokol Ridge
and Zlaté Hory Highlands NNE of Jeseník town (Eastern Sudetes). The accumulation lies at the lateral side
of the mountain valley of the Bělá River and fills a preglacial palaeovalley of this river. Research combining
facies analysis of outcrops, ground penetrating radar survey, interpretation drilling survey, and modelling of
the preglacial relief was undertaken at the site. According to the results obtained, the upper part of the sedimentary
accumulation represents a coarse-grained terminoglacial glaciofluvial delta of the Gilbert type. The
development of the accumulation has dominantly been driven by the preglacial morphology. Facies typical for
foresets of coarse-grained deltas represented mainly by high-density flows, cohesionless debris flows, debris
falls and less common low-density flows were found in the outcrops. The delta near Písečná prograded into
a lake dammed by the ice-sheet front in the north. The lake was bounded by the slopes of Sokol Ridge, Zlaté
Hory Highlands and Góry Parkowe on other sides. The lake level reached an altitude of up to 430 m a.s.l., as
the coarse-grained delta plain base lies at this level.
In this article, we wish to address the potential of cities and built environments as important sites for international education. We will introduce Urban Labs Central Europe, methodological concept that frames our pedagogies, which we practice in the context of international education, more specifically, American University study abroad programs in Poland and Central Europe. We will begin by considering several dimensions in which cities are important for international education and how they are central to our pedagogies. We will then explain our concept of Urban Labs and give some examples from our work with students.
The communicative turn in historiography has extended source criticism within historical studies by examining sources as products of human action. This article presents some source critical considerations regarding travel reports as documents of their time, and reviews their narrative perspective taking point of departure in theoretical approaches from literary studies. The overriding question here is how and to what extent the supposed and simultaneously strenuous objectivity of the historical sources is provided in three selected international travel reports written by travellers, observers and intellectuals, who visited Poland during World War I.
Fin-de-siècle Central European scholarship takes on a different complexion, if it is approached from the perspective of politically responsible action. The article analyses neither scholarship involved into party politics nor apolitical scientific and scholarly activities but focuses on a specific approach: The scholars I am concerned with in this article strove for the strict division of science and politics; they nevertheless remained committed to political objectives such as improving social conditions. The approaches of Bernard Bolzano, Ernst Mach, Alois Riegl, Sigmund Freud, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Otto Neurath, Hans Kelsen are taken into account.