Address:
Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals Polish Academy of Sciences Department of Vertebrate Zoology
Sławkowska 17
31-016, Kraków, Poland
Email:
Dr Jarosław Wilczyński
Principal Investigator
I am the head of the Department of Vertebrate Zoology at ISEA PAS as well as the chief of the Archaeozoology Lab in the Institute.
My scientific activity from the very beginning of my career targeted Palaeolithic settlement in Central Europe, including both studies of the artefacts and archaeological field research in Poland as well as abroad. During my Masters studies at the Institute of Archeology of Jagiellonian University I focused on technology and typology of lithic artefacts.
Undertaking PhD studies at ISEA PAN enabled me to look at these issues from a wider perspective, and my research expanded to include the remains of fauna recovered from archaeological sites. After obtaining my doctorate, I began my studies in collaboration with researchers from Poland and foreign research centers that involve both lithic artefacts and animal remains dating to the Pleistocene and younger prehistoric periods. Inseparable from these studies, I continued conducting intensive fieldwork as both the instigator and director. This included excavations at a range of Pleistocene open-air sites such as Kraków Spadzista, Jaksice II, Piekary IIa, Brzoskwinia, Targowisko 10 (Poland), Trenčianske Bohuslavice (Slovakia), Lubna VI, Dolní Věstonice I (Czechia) and Bodrogkeresztúr-Henye (Hungary), as well as cave sites such as Borsuka Cave, Żarska Cave, Łokietka Cave, Tunel Wielki Cave (Poland).
My past research was funded through five primary research projects:
“Cultural transformations of the Upper Palaeolithic and environmental changes in southern Poland based on the Kraków Spadzista site C2” (2010-13), which led to a re-interpretation of Late Gravettian occupation at this site.
”Taxonomic, zooarchaeological and taphonomical studies of the mammals remains from Upper Palaeolithic site Dolni Vestonice I (Czech Republic)” (2014-2016), under which the first full archaeozoological study of mammalian remains from the so-called “domestic area” was done.
“Studies on diversity of the Late Gravettian inventories of Central Europe” (2016-21) - a large project involving collaboration with colleagues from 4 European countries that enabled me to lead fieldwork projects at several major Late Gravettian sites, and to assess numerous lithic collections at museums across Central Europe.
“Epigravettian setlement in Poland: materials, chronology, paleoenvironment” (2019-2023) - this project was focused on the Epigravettian occupation in Poland (18,000-14,500 years ago).
Currently (2023-27), together with my colleague György Lengyel, we are conducting a project focused on study of EUP transitional period “Human subsistence strategy in the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transitional period in the Western Carpathians”, combined with excavation research in Szeleta Cave and Nietoperzowa Cave, two eponymous caves for Szeletian and Jerzmanowician culture.