Found in a box. Unknown bifacial leaf point from the Koziarnia Cave.

Abstract

Throughout the 19th century, caves of the Polish Jura have become of interest to both businessmen and amateur archaeologist. The landlord of Ojców, Jan Zawisza, explored the caves in search of traces of ancient man and conducted his excavations which were subsequently published. At the same time, neighbouring landowners started cooperation with the Prussian Mining Office and exploited caves for their soils, rich in organic matter, including phosphoric acid. Sediments removed from the caves were later sold as a natural field fertiliser. Industrial mining of the caves brought to the light numerous artefacts and bones of extinct animals, which were entrusted to the palaeontologist Ferdinand Römer, director of Mineralo gical Museum at Breslau University. The assemblage from Nietoperzowa Cave, the first cave around Ojców to be mined for soil, became the starting point of Römer’s collection and his fieldworks in the area. Koziarnia Cave was one of the caves exploited on request of the landowner and later excavated on Römer’s behalf by Oskar Grube. Among other artefacts, a single leaf point was found and published from Koziarnia Cave. Many years later, when a new transitional industry – Jerzmanowician – was identified, based on the mentioned leaf point, the cave has been included into a group of scarce cave sites attributed to the new Middle/Upper Palaeolithic transitional entity. In the second half of the 20th century, Waldemar Chmielewski conducted extensive fieldworks at the site but failed to find other artefacts that could be linked with the leaf point published by Römer. Meanwhile, the only bifacial leaf point from Koziarnia Cave has been lost. However, recently conducted studies of Römer’s collection brought into light one more bifacial leaf point from Koziarnia Cave. This paper aims to show this previously unpublished leaf point with the use of modern analytical approach in order to present new evidence of Jerzmanowician occupation in the Koziarnia Cave.