Program > By author > Cieśla Magda

In the research of MP of central Europe, it has often been noticed, that in some areas it is more probable to find neanderthal settlements than in others. To some extent, it results from the research possibilities and the state of preservation of the sites and inventories, but it can be assumed with some certainty, that it is also partly due to the neanderthal preference of such areas. In most cases, sites are found in karstic regions, with numerous rock shelters and caves formed in the type of rock that accumulates heat during the day and radiates it in the night thus providing protection from the cold. Such a geological formation also provides usually sedimentary silica rocks, suitable for knapping and tool production. Yet there are some obvious differences between those site-yielding areas. The differences of landscape, climatic zone, also the presence of different species of fauna – all those can be observed on a diachronic and regional scale. Ultimately, in the conditions of the Middle Palaeolithic, such differences have led to technological and typological differences between stone artifact inventories. Those differences will be shown at an example of inventories from Obłazowa Cave site (single neanderthal site in the northern zone of the Carpathians mountain range), varying between one another and also different from the ones on the sites located in other central European clusters of MP sites. Landscape, faunal and climatic record, raw material quality, and accessibility will be discussed as a background for the techno-typological variability of assemblages.