Lehrende/r: Prof. Dr. Andrzej Wisniewski
Veranstaltungsart: Seminar
Anzeige im Stundenplan: 07.012.16_310
Semesterwochenstunden: 2
Unterrichtssprache: Englisch
Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl: - | 15
Inhalt: The region located north of the Carpathian Mountains in the Oder and Vistula River arms is part of a Central European niche used by various species of archaic man and anatomically modern humans. It is located at the crossroads of routes running from east to west and from south to north. As such, the area accumulates a great variety of Paleolithic hunter-gatherer remains. The course will focus on issues relating to the most important periods, such as Lower, Middle, Upper and Late Palaeolithic. During the course, we will explore the oldest traces of occupation in this region against the background of central Europe to answer the question of which human species and what type of technology can be related to them. We will discuss a problem that is still alive, the so-called geofacts or pseudo-sites of the Lower Palaeolithic. We will answer the question of when a change occurred in these areas that resulted in new technological solutions characteristic of the Middle Palaeolithic. We will look more closely at the dominant adaptive patterns among Neanderthal groups as they related to resource exploitation against the background of the wider European context. We will study /we will survey/ issues of the so-called Early Upper Palaeolithic, which is linked to the disappearance of Middle Palaeolithic industries and the spread of distinct strategies. Behind the changes in material culture is the appearance of anatomically modern humans in central Europe already ca. 45-47,000 years ago. In the context of the Upper Palaeolithic (Gravettian, Epigravettian and Magdalenian), we will discuss issues of hunting strategies and symbolic culture. Finally, we will learn about the period of the settlement explosion in the upland-northern regions at the end of the Pleistocene. The seminars are based on studies of the most recent publications on particular archaeological sites or selected issues.
