During archaeological research of the Old Market Square in Słupsk, cultural strata and architectural relics related to various phases of the market’s development were discovered. The oldest remains date back to the pre-location period; the youngest come from the beginning of the 20th century. The original Gothic town hall was made of brick in the 14th century, accompanied by small wooden annexes. The structure was significantly damaged by the great fire of 1477, after which it had to be partially demolished, renovated and expanded. At the end of the 18th century, all existing buildings were destroyed, the area was lowered, and a new, smaller town hall was built. The last reconstruction of the town hall took place in 1901. The excavations in this area documented 1,179 fragments of animal remains. Due to the complexity of the area’s history and high number of uncovered structures, the remains were analysed chronologically. Their analysis aims to understand the burghers’ meat diet and briefly examine the state of animal husbandry in and around the city from medieval to modern times. The research showed the high importance of livestock, mainly species such as cattle and pigs that provide a large amount of meat. Remains of poultry, especially chicken and geese, were also relatively abundant. Discovery of the remains of the domestic turkey Meleagris gallopavo domesticus in 17th- and 18th-century contexts appears to be of great interest, as they were the leftovers from the luxurious meals at the tables of the burghers. Additionally, a surprising assemblage of corvid bird bones was found in a layer of decayed wood dating to the 18th–19th century, which consisted almost exclusively of the tarsometatarsus bones of a rook (Corvus frugilegus) and a raven (Corvus corax), found along with a skull of a passerine. This find could be associated with some unknown magical rituals; the bones may have also been collected as trophies.

The paper presents the results of dendrochronological dating of wood fragments from a well frame discovered in Wysoka. Oak wood for the well frame was obtained from trees harvested in the first half of the 14th century. The presence of sapwood in one of the samples permits the conclusion that the well was built in the 1430s. The dendrochronological analysis and visual assessment of the wood fragments show that wood from two oak trunks was used.

Based on the results of detailed geological-geomorphological studies, old maps from the past 200 years, and historical data, the paper is the first to present the structure of the valley floor in the estuary of the Nida River, an upland tributary of the Vistula, and discuss changes in the development and course of their channels. The aim of the study was to grasp the importance of local factors, both natural (palaeogeographical, lithological and tectonic) and anthropogenic, in the morphogenesis of this section, where a relatively small upland stream crossed in the medieval and modern periods by important overland and water routes of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth flows into the Vistula River, which is ten times larger. The discussed section is not deltaic in character. The branching of the Nida into several simultaneously functioning outlet arms may have been caused by the blocking of outflow from the valley during floods and the drainage of the flood waters at the valley mouth in several directions, via channels both permanent and periodic. Changes in the numbers and locations of the Nida estuaries in recent centuries have both natural and anthropogenic causes. The interaction between the main stream and its many-times smaller tributary in the studied section has resulted in a complex mosaic of forms and cut-and-fills of both streams, but with the Vistula playing the dominant role. The cut-and-fills of the Vistula “enclose” the Nida alluvium inside its valley on the Winiary-Nowy Korczyn line, while the cut-and-fills of the Nida only occur in a very narrow strip under the edge of the terrace. The Nida followed abandoned channels of the Vistula on Holocene cut-and-fill IIA, flowing parallel to the Vistula for 9 km. The floor of the Nida Valley lacks Holocene mineral-organic and mineral sediments, characteristic of other upland tributaries from loess areas. The regulation of the Vistula in the mid-19th century and the Nida in the first half of the 20th century fixed the courses of the rivers, completely changing the sedi­mentation regime in the estuarine section of the Nida, where backflow and associated sedimentation of fine-grained deposits occurred.

Archaeological site 1 in Nowe Miasteczko has been known since the mid-1920s. It is most often associated with a La Tene period cemetery of the Gubin group of the Jastorf culture. Since September 2022, archaeological excavations have been carried out at the site in connection with an ongoing construction project. The research identified a younger Mesolithic phase of the site occupation. Recovered from the fills of archaeological features were flint artefacts, bone remains, macroscopic plant remains with accumulations of hazelnut shells (Corylus avellana), and samples for absolute dating.

The research conducted at site 7 in Krzyż Wielkopolski has provided evidence of long-term occupation of this area from the Late Palaeolithic (Sviderian) to the modern era. Undoubtedly the most intensive occupation is related to the Early Mesolithic communities of the Preboreal and Boreal Periods. However, pottery fragments, flint tools, and perhaps also belemnite artefacts, all associated with societies of the Corded Ware culture, prove Late Neolithic settlement at the site. That is the focus of this article. Based on the macroscopic analysis of pottery fragments, two technological groups were distinguished, suggesting heterogeneity of the collection. This may indicate at least two stages of settlement related to Corded Ware culture communities. 

Preliminary data from newly excavated archaeological site no. 8 in Kraków-Górka Narodowa (southern Poland) show that two main phases of Early Neolithic occupation can be distinguished based on pottery finds, one associated with the Malice culture and the other with the Pleszów- Modlnica group of the Lengyel culture. These data are presented along with lithic materials and discussed in the context of the results of the archaeobotanical analysis. Charred plant macro-remains obtained from 18 samples coming from five archaeological features showed that the only cultivated plants documented were two species of cereals: Triticum dicoccum and Triticum monococcum. Wild herbaceous plants were represented by several taxa such as Chenopodium type album, Bromus sp., Echinochloa crus-galli, Sambucus sp. and Fallopia convolvulus, among others. In addition, a single nutshell of hazel Corylus avellana appeared. Among wood charcoal remains, only two taxa were found: Quercus sp. and Fraxinus excelsior.

In 2019, two partially damaged features linked to the late phase of the Mierzanowice culture were examined during a short rescue survey in Dobranowice, Kraków district. A fragmentarily preserved human skeleton was discovered at the bottom of one of the pits. Aerial prospection established that the two examined features are part of an extensive Early Bronze Age settlement, perfectly legible in a highly eroded ploughed field. The site had not been previously recorded. It belongs to a settlement micro-region abundant in settlement and funerary finds of the Mierzanowice culture. The results of the research indicate that the archaeological resources of the Lesser Poland Upland are still insufficiently known and that systematic surveys using aerial photography should be undertaken.

The archaeological and archaeobotanical research conducted in southern part in the Western Desert in Egypt included efforts at identifying the plant material preserved in daub. The samples selected for this type of analysis were taken from site E-05-1 in Bargat El-Shab. This site were occupied seasonally by nomadic people from the beginning of the Holocene. The study provide very little data on plant remains preserved in daub and confirms application of grass, as a temper added to clay before firing or drying.

The Polish archaeologist Stefan Krukowski stayed in Georgia from 1916 to 1918. During  that time, apart from carrying out a comprehensive excavation in Gvarjilas Klde Cave, he also performed test digs in other Caucasian cave sites, the materials from which are still stored in the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi but have never been published. In this paper these inventories are analysed and presented as a side note to a recently published book on the results of Krukowski’s field research in Gvarjilas Klde.

Post-Neolithic cave occupation in Poland remains insufficiently recognised. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of the analysis of pottery and metal objects discovered in Tunel Wielki Cave (Ojców area, SE Poland). The artefacts were collected during three fieldwork campaigns in 1967–68 and 2018. The results show that the cave was occupied at least several times. The most ephemeral settlement traces can be dated to the Early Bronze Age and these may be related to the Trzciniec culture. The site was more intensively used in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age by communities representing the Lusatian culture. Roman Period artefacts are very scarce. Traces of most intensive use of the cave come from the Middle Ages. One can determine artefacts conditionally dated from the 11th to the 12th century, as well as younger objects, dated to the 13th − early 14th c. Single pieces of pottery can be attributed to the Modern period. The obtained results point to multiple short-term visits. The cave fill does not bear traces of permanent occupation during the Post-Neolithic period.

Making use of the cartographic-geomorphological method, a case study of the hydrographic confluence at Sielpia made it possible to identify changes in the river and hydrographic networks connected with the development and decline of the Old Polish Industrial District, whose functioning relied on the use of hydropower in iron metallurgy. The formation and disappearance of artificial industrial reservoirs and canals, the drainage networks, and the appearance of catastrophic flash floods as a result of failures of hydrotechnical structures have been reflected in cartographic materials, land relief, and sediments.

Grave 3/2016 from site 3 in Węgrzce, Comm. Zielonki, Kraków District was discovered during archaeological excavations preceding construction of a detached house. This was a niche grave, holding two burials: a male aged 38–47 years, and a child 4–5 years old. The recorded funeral rite is characteristic of a cluster of Corded Ware culture cemeteries on the lower Dłubnia River, near Kraków. A vessel recovered from the grave reveals local features characteristic of that cluster. One radiocarbon age determination was obtained for the burial, pointing to ca. 2470–2350 BC as the most likely range. Thus, the grave links with the younger phase of the Final Eneolithic in Lesser Poland.

Graves from the Final Eneolithic period are very common in the loess uplands of western Lesser Poland (Małopolska). Their predominant form is a catacomb construction, related to the Kraków-Sandomierz group of the Corded Ware culture. A grave from Aleksandrowice, Kraków district, belongs to a smaller group of features known from the western border of this region. The grave goods are comprised of a stone battle-axe and a long blade knife, and the bones of the burial have not survived due to unfavourable soil conditions. The grave construction and the type of furnishing allow us to suppose that the grave was originally covered with a barrow. The faceted stone battle-axe with western stylistic connotations (Bohemia, Central Germany) is a unique find. It is the first find of this type in the western part of Lesser Poland. Based on the nature of the finds, the grave can be dated to around 2700–2500 BC, which means to the younger stage of the “barrow phase” of the Corded Ware culture.

The paper presents a Neolithic feature discovered in trench G of the widely-known Paleolithic Gravettian site at Kraków Spadzista. Pottery and lithic artefacts as well as archaeobotanical data and radiocarbon dates demonstrate the existence of a stable human occupation with an agricultural economy. Due to the small number of  distinctive fragments of pottery, both the Wyciąże-Złotniki group and the Funnel Beaker culture have to be taken into account in the discussion on the cultural attribution of the feature. The obtained absolute dates make a connection with the latter unit more probable.

In spring 2019, rescue excavations were conducted at Goszcza 1 (Kielnik) site in connection with construction of a dwelling house. As a result, eleven archaeological features of various chronology were identified. The most abundant materials, dating to the Late Classic period of the Baden culture in Lesser Poland (the end of the 4th millennium and the beginning of the 3th millennium BC), were found in four pits. At the bottom of two features (nos 4 and 6) human skeletons were discovered. In the present study, only materials discovered in features attributed to the Baden culture are discussed, including pottery finds, flint artefacts, and fragments of human and animal bones. Macroscopic plant remains coming from three archaeological features have also been investigated.

This paper presents the Štramberk type arrowheads found during excavations in Spytkowice in 1993 and 2019. They represent a local Eneolithic phenomenon known mostly from the Moravia region and Silesia on both sides of the Polish-Czech border. However, some examples from outside of this area are discussed as well. The main aim is to present them against the background of other artefacts of this type, and against Eneolithic arrowheads in general. The phenomenon in question seems to be intercultural and its origins may be connected with late Lengyel culture groups, although such arrowheads were also found in Funnel Beaker culture contexts and, as suggested by some researchers, may continue even as late as the Early Bronze Age.

This paper presents lithic technology studies on the Middle and Late period of the Upper Palaeolithic in Hungary between 26 and 13 ka BP. The studies aimed at describing and then comparing the technological processes from lithic raw material procurement to the formal tool making. An attempt was made to find correlations between technological features and chronological positions of the assemblages to see if lithic technology operated traditionally or opportunistically. The study found that technology was rather shaped toward efficiency with an adaptive behavior. Therefore, in most cases, the way how tools were made is useless to differentiate archaeological cultures, while the tools themselves, especially the armatures, can be markers of cultures as was shown earlier. This study found that the formation of the archaeological record and its variability most likely depended upon the dynamism of human ecology.

The objective of this paper is to show the complexity of Neolithization processes on the basis of lithic industries structure in eastern Croatia and southern Transdanubia. The location of major deposits of siliceous rocks is presented and the procurement systems of these rocks at the most important sites of the Starčevo Culture and of the LBK Formative Phase in the territories in question is discussed. The data obtained in the raw materials and techno-morphological analyses is compared with the taxonomic and socio-economic diversity of the Early Neolithic Cultures. 

In the Mesolithic, specific traits of the environment of the eastern Adriatic coast resulted in the emergence of a local cultural province, different from the Central Balkans and open to trans-Adriatic influences. This province was distinguished by the blending of three different cultural traditions: Epigravettian, Sauveterian, and Castelnovian.

A large assemblage of charred cereal grains was found at the multicultural site Kraków Nowa Huta – Mogiła 62 during a rescue excavations performed in the late 1960s. It provided valuable source of material for archaeobotanical and stable isotope studies. Both current botanical analyses of six subsamples and new radiocarbon dates of the top and the bottom of the layer indicated their Middle Neolithic origin (the Funnel Beaker culture). Despite the earlier suspicion that the material was disturbed by the construction work, the field documentation stored in the Archaeological Museum and the new archaeobotanical analyses indicate that the layer with the cereal grains, which was found at the depth of 300–330 cm was in fact, undisturbed. The cereals (mostly emmer with admixture of einkorn) were stored in a form of spikelets (as indicated by proportions of chaff and grains) and the assemblage was a final product of harvest cleaning (as suggested by low number of arable weeds). Values of stable carbon and nitrogen ratios suggest that the storage contained cereals originated from plots of different level of manuring and similar soil moisture, however more isotopic measurements are necessary to confirm that hypothesis. It is also supported by different proportions of taxa in the studied subsamples. Most of the emmer grains were sprouted before charring. We assume the grain was spoilt by excessive humidity of the storage conditions.

Many years of archaeological research near Ulów in the Middle Roztocze contributed to the discovery of a multicultural settlement complex, functioning from the Palaeolithic to the 17th/18th century, refuting the existing myth of Roztocze as a white spot on the map of prehistoric settlement. The results of an archaeological research became the basis for the implementation of the project “Roztocze – the ancient terra incognita? (Settlement micro-region in the area of Ulów in Middle Roztocze in the prehistory and its background. Interdisciplinary studies)”. Comprehensive and interdisciplinary research has enabled the reconstruction of settling processes in the micro-region of Ulów in prehistory and in the Modern Age. The main reason for the rise of a multicultural enclave, encompassed by areas devoid of traces of the prehistoric settlement, should be seen in the favourable environmental conditions. Many aspects of the ritual and everyday life of particular archaeological cultures populations recorded in Ulów, do not find analogies in other areas of Poland. A series of several dozen radiocarbon dates confirmed all the stages of the Ulów micro-region settlement recorded in the archaeological sources. It also highlighted a whole range of the problems related to the interpretation of some cultural phenomena, especially with regard to the intensive settlement of the Corded Ware culture and the Wielbark culture, as well as the early phase of the Migration Period and initial phases of the early Middle Ages.

During the many years of archaeological research in the settlement micro-region in Ulów in Middle Roztocze, traces of human presence dated to Old and Middle Stone Ages (Palaeolithic and Mesolithic) were discovered. M ost sources are flint materials, most of which lost their stratigraphic context due to subsequent settlement. At the current stage of  research, their classification is possible only on the basis of a typological and comparative analysis. M ost likely, the oldest traces of human occupancy in the vicinity of Ulów can be synchronized with a series of radiocarbon dating obtained for samples of charcoal from five different archaeological sites. The to-date discoveries have revealed new sources for research on the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods in south-eastern Poland.

The paper presents the environmental conditions of the location of a multicultural settlement functioning from the Palaeolithic to the modern times in an area of an alleged settlement void. The location of the settlement was evaluated in terms of transport and communication possibilities at the regional scale and local environmental conditions. Field research was conducted, as well as the analysis of the hydrogeological and geomorphological conditions in the context of water supply and soil conditions for the development of agriculture. The detailed analysis applied an ALS (Airbone Laser Scanning) image and geological-soil coring. The study area is located on the crossing of prehistoric  transport routes the course of which depends on the variability of the natural environment at the regional scale. At the local scale, settlement was favoured by abiotic parameters of the natural environment: easily arable soils, beneficial microclimate, and hydrogeological conditions providing for the presence of water in the plateau area.

Palynological and archaeobotanical investigations were carried out on a large settlement complex of the Wielbark culture dated to the late Roman and early Migration periods, situated near the village Ulów in the Middle Roztocze, SE Poland. Pollen diagrams which covered the Subboreal and Subatlantic periods revealed the development of forests with European hornbeam Carpinus betulus, lime Tilia sp., oak Quercus sp. and common beech Fagus sylvatica in the Subboreal and the spread of silver fir Abies alba in the Subatlantic phase. Pollen spectra from both periods provided the evidence of cereal cultivation and animal grazing in the neighbourhood of the settlement. The analysis of daub coming from the Wielbark culture features documented the predominance of common barley Hordeum vulgare and common millet Panicum miliaceum among the cereals and probably lesser significance of wheat, emmer Triticum dicoccon or einkorn T. monococcum. Charcoal assemblages were examined from the settlement and from the cemetery. Taking into account the number of charcoal fragments, Quercus sp. was the most abundant taxon, followed by Fagus sylvatica, Carpinus betulus, Scots pine Pinus sylvestris, and birch Betula sp. Other taxa were only occasionally found. The taxonomic lists were very similar in the settlement and the cemetery, but there was a discrepancy between the predominating taxa since birch was the most frequent at the cemetery and oak in the settlement.

Cremated skeletal remains from two cemeteries (sites 3 and 7) located within the settlement complex in the area of the village of Ulów (Tomaszów Lubelski commune, Tomaszów Lubelski district, Lublin province) underwent anthropological analysis. Eighty-one features discovered at site 3 included remains of eighty individuals, while fifty-seven features found at site 7 included remains of fifty-seven individuals. The determination of the sex of individuals buried in funeral pits was possible only in isolated instances: at site 3 in three cases (3.7%), and at site 7 in one case (1.8%). The ages of those buried at the cemeteries of the Ulów complex are similar: biologically immature individuals make 33.7% - 38.6% of all those buried, while adults account for 32.5% - 26.3%. The features, at both cemeteries, most often included heavily or severely cremated skeletal remains: at site 3 there were seventy-four features (91.3%), and at site 7 there were forty features (70.2%). The average weight of bone remains found in the features at site 3 equals 34.1 grams, and 47.2 grams at site 7. Apart from human bones, some graves at the Ulów cemeteries contained fragments of animal bones.

As part of the interdisciplinary research conducted in the settlement microregion in the area of Ulów in Central Roztocze (south-east Poland), a complex of late Neolithic barrows connected with the Corded Ware Culture was discovered. Apart from numerous ceramic objects, grave inventories included flint artefacts, some of which underwent use-wear analysis in order to identify their potential function, and the way they were produced. This paper presents detailed results of use-wear analysis of arrowheads, blade and flake specimens, and axes discovered in four barrows located at sites 3 and 4 in Ulów.

In this study, we summarise the preliminary results of thirty years of investigations at the Polgár-Bosnyákdomb site. The significance of the site located on the one-time bank of the Tisza River is that it lies no more than 5 km away from the well-known Polgár-Csőszhalom settlement complex. One of our goals was to investigate the relation between the settlements in the Polgár Island micro-region and to identify the similarities and differences between them. It is quite obvious that with its estimated 70 hectares large extent, Polgár-Csőszhalom was a dominant settlement complex in this landscape during the earlier fifth millennium, while the Bosnyákdomb settlement, represented an entirely different scale with its 8 hectares and had a different role during this period. The AMS dates provide convincing evidence that the two settlements had been occupied simultaneously during one period of their lives. Despite their spatial proximity and chronological contemporaneity, the two settlements had a differing structural layout. Although both had a prominent stratified settlement mound that was separated from the single-layer settlement part by a ditch, the system of the ditches, their structure and, presumably, their social use differed substantially. This would suggest that each community  constructed its settlement and architectural structures according to different spatial rules in the different locations of Polgár Island. Despite the spatial differences, we could identify traces of similar community events on the settlement mounds at Bosnyákdomb and Csőszhalom such as the recurring practice of house burning.  Despite the smaller excavated areas, we identified wholly different mortuary practices at Bosnyákdomb, diverging fundamentally from the funerary rites practiced at Csőszhalom. The bones of the deceased were secondarily deposited into the ditch of the central mound. The various cultural features discussed in the above indicate that the community responses of the groups settling and living in the Polgár area during the Late Neolithic to the environmental challenges of the land around them were embodied by a set of distinctive cultural behaviours. Nevertheless, certain elements in the colourful diversity of material features and their different levels outline the structure of a micro-regional network with Csőszhalom in its centre in the Upper Tisza region.

The site of Polgár 31 (Ferenci-hát) is situated on the left bank of the Upper Tisza, within the so-called “Polgár Island”. The site consists of single features dated at the Alföld Linear Pottery Culture (ALP) I-III, while the majority of features belong to the youngest phase (ALP IV) attached to the Bükk Culture.

Our analysis focuses on both the chipped stone and the ground stone implements. The most important raw material used for the chipped stone industry of ALP IV phase was obsidian, followed by limno-hydroquartzites. Extra local raw materials played a minor role. Both in the case of obsidian as well as limnohydroquartzites on-site production was limited, while most artefacts were produced off-site. The structure of retouched tools shows that end-scrapers dominate slightly over marginally retouched blades.

The most commonly exploited raw material in the ground stone industry were various types of rhyolites deriving from the areas 40 to 50 km north of the site. Among tools predominate implements related to food preparation such as a variety of grinding stones, pestles, grinders etc. As part of rituals these tools were destroyed. Sometimes the fragments were used for crushing mineral dyes. Both: fragments of ground stone as well as chipped stone tools occur also in the graves.

“Polgár Island” is a natural elevation delimited by river banks; its flat area covers 70 sq.km The “Polgár Island” is of particular importance for the study of interregional contacts as raw materials deposits are absent in this territory. The settlement in the “Polgár Island” can be seen from the Middle Neolithic to the Early Copper Age (ALP I-IV, Late Neolithic and Tiszpolgár Culture). In this time-span changes in raw material supply, technology and organization of lithic production took place. In the Early Phase obsidian played the most important role, and contacts developed along the north-south axis. In the Late Neolithic horizon (Polgár-Csöszhálom-dűlő) the flow of obsidian was smaller, replaced by limnoquartzites. A major change in the systems of raw material supply occured at the beginning of the Copper Age, Simultaneously with changes in the direction of raw material supply, diachronic changes took place in the organization of lithic production.

Charred plant remains were recovered at the Polgár-Bosnyákdomb site dated to the Middle Neolithic period (the Tisza–Herpály–Csőszhalom culture), corresponding to the first half of the Vth millenium BC. Among cultivated plants found as dispersed within the archaeological features and in daub pieces, remains of emmer wheat Triticum dicoccon were the most frequent. Also, leguminous plants were used as demonstrated by seeds of lentil Lens culinaris. Among wild herbaceous plants, taxa of field and ruderal habitats prevailed (Chenopodium type album, Galium spurium, Polygnum mite and Bromus sp.) as well as those coming from dry grasslands (Stipa sp.). The analysis of charcoal remains showed that mostly wood belonging to Quercus sp., Ulmus sp. and Cornus sp. were collected as firewood from the proximity of the settlement, mainly from oak-dominated wooded steppes developed on the elevated surfaces and floodplain forests from the seasonally flooded alluvium. The most frequently found plant remains (Cornus sp. wood and Stipa sp. awns) were dated with the means of radiocarbon analysis and the chronology showed their use at the end of the settlement, toward the middle of the Vth millenium BC.

Bęczkowice peatland is located in central part of the river valley Luciąża, near Kamieńsk. In order to reconstruct the main stages of sedimentation of organic deposits, taken from the southern part of the Bęczkowice peatlands, used stratigraphic variability of concentration marked lithogeochemistry elements (organic matter, mineral matter, macro- and microelements) and changes in the proportions of the participation of selected elements, i.e., catchment erosion indicator (Na+Mg+K/Ca), eutrophication indicator (Fe/Ca), type and rate of denudation in the catchment indicator (Na/K, Ca/Mg) and conditions of oxidation-reduction indicator (Cu/Zn, Fe/Mn).

Peat sedentation was interrupted at the beginning of the Atlantic. The peatland developed again in the Subatlantic (Forysiak 2012).

As a results of the hierarchical cluster analysis was collected in the study profile of six geochemical level (B-1/I–VI), which differ significantly of chemical composition. The main lithogeochemistry component of studied sediment is organic matter (42.4–93.2%), which indicates the relative changes in the primary of biological production in wetlands. The average content of the several tested components (for example: mineral matter, lithophilic and sulfophilic elements) have the low differentiation between all geochemical levels, constitute a record stable of environmental conditions (mainly geomorphological and hydrological). Sediments of geochemical level B-1/I represents the phase of mineral and mineral with a small amount organic matter layer in reduced conditions (increase Fe/Mn ratio to 313) and increased mechanical denudation (catchment erosion indicator ranges from 2.58 to 3.1 and type of denudation in the catchment indicator – Na/K ranges from 0.07 to 0.10). Geochemical level B-1/II are characterized by gradual increase of organic matter content (from 18.3 to 66.2%) and slow increase type of denudation in the catchment indicator: Na/K (from 0.07 to 0.09) in the clay limnic deposits. Geochemical levels B-1/III are the record of sedentation autochthonous rock-forming matter of autogenic origin (average content of organic matter is 72.2%) and rapid change of redox conditions (decrease of Fe/Mn ratio from 1036 to 358). Geochemical levels B-1/IV represents the phase mainly of sedge-moss peat and reed peat layers deposition in oxygenated conditions in sedimentary environment (average Fe/Mn ratio is 63.1) and gradual increase rate of chemical denudation (Na/K ratio ranges from 0.6 to 1.95). Geochemical level B-1/V is record of sedentation of autochthonous rock-forming matter of autogenic origin (organic matter ranges from 69.3% to 91.9%) and significant increase of mechanical denudation in the catchment (average of
catchment erosion indicator increased to 0,36). Geochemical level B-1/VI is the record change type of sedentation of peat on muck, as is also indicated by abrupt decrease of organic matter (to 80%), decrease of Fe/Mn ratio (to 51) and increase catchment erosion indicator (from 0.14 to 0.67).

The most important factors (distinguished on the basis of principal components analysis) that affect the chemical composition of sediments from the site Bęczkowice are: biological productivity in wetland’s  ecosystem, mechanical and chemical denudation processes in the catchment (eg. the supply of allochtonous mineral matter), sorption of organic deposits, increase of the rainwater in the water balance and anthropogenic activity.

Kopanicha peatland is located in western part of the Rawka river valley, near Skierniewice. In order to reconstruct the main stages of sedimentation of organic deposits, taken from the central part of the Kopanicha peatlands, used stratigraphic variability of concentration marked lithogeochemistry elements (organic matter, mineral matter, macro- and microelements) and erosion index (Na+Mg+K/Ca), eutrophication index (Fe/Ca), type and rate of denudation in the catchment index (Na/K, Ca/Mg) and redox index (Cu/Zn, Fe/Mn).

Peat development in the oxbow lake complex occurred at the beginning of the Atlantic period, and peat growth lasted until the modern times, but with clear interruptions in the Atlantic and Subatlantic (Forysiak 2012).

As a result of the hierarchical cluster analysis seven geochemical zones (Kop1/I-VII ) were selected. These zones differ significantly of chemical composition. The main component of studied sediment is organic matter (84.6–95.5%), which indicates the relative changes in the primary of biological production in wetlands. The average content of the tested components have the low differentiation between all geochemical levels, constitute a record of stable environmental conditions (mainly hydrological and geomorphological). Sediments of geochemical level Kop-1/I are characterized by the high content of mineral matter and higher rates of mechanical denudation and erosion rate of the catchment. Geochemical levels Kop-1/II and Kop-1/III provide the record of sedentation autochtonous rock-forming matter of autogenic origin (increase content of organic matter to 95.5% and associated change of mechanical denudation and redox conditions (decrease of lithogenic elements and Fe/Mn ratio). Geochemical levels Kop1/IV represents the phase of alder swamp peat layer deposition in reduced conditions (increased Fe/Mn ratio to 80.8) and increased chemical denudation (Ca/Mg ratio ranges from 32.6 to 69.2). Geochemical level Kop-1/V records sedentation of autochtonous rock-forming matter of autogenic origin (organic matter ranges from 90.2% to 91.6%) and associated change of mechanical denudation (first increase catchment erosion indicator to 0.88 and then decrease to 0.78) and redox conditions (first increase conditions of oxidation-reduction indicator to 96.4 then decrease to 62.8). Their sedimentation took place both in stagnant ground waters, as well as during periodic floods. Geochemical level Kop-1/VI represents of peat layer, which sedentation occurred in periodic of drying bed. The content of organic matter decreased to about 90% and Fe/Mn ratio decreased to 39, indicates the change of reduced into oxidized conditions. Geochemical level Kop-1/VII is the record change type of sedentation of peat on muck, as is also indicated by abrupt decrease of organic matter (from 93.7 to 88.8%), decrease of Fe/Mn ratio (to 26.7) and increase in catchment erosion indicator (from 0.6 to 0.74).

The most important factors (distinguished on the basis of principal components analysis) that affect the chemical composition of sediments from the site Kopanicha are: sorption of organic deposits, oxygenation changes in sedimentary environment, which are mainly due to the flooding of the Rawka river