The Department of Stone Age Archaeology of the Institute of Archeology of Jagiellonian University in the last half-century

The Department of Stone Age Archaeology of the Institute of Archeology of Jagiellonian University was established in 1985. Its first director was Professor Bolesław Ginter. In the first years, the focus was on fieldwork in Egypt. Further activity covered the Palaeolithic layers of caves in today’s Bulgaria (Bacho Kiro, Temnata) and Greece (Klissoura) and southern Poland (Ciemna and Obłazowa Caves). Upper Palaeolithic open sites in the Váh River valley, as well as in the upper Vistula River basin (Kraków-Spadzista Street), were also studied. A different direction was related to the issue of Neolithisation, both in the Danube and Vistula River basins. Some were carried out in close cooperation with archaeobotanists (in Mozgawa and Biskupice). The issue of identifying stone raw materials used in the Stone Age is constantly being developed. New initiatives have been undertaken related to the prehistory of Jordan’s terrain.