Department of Prehistory

The Department of Prehistory was established on 1 October 2019 and includes specialists from four existing units of the Institute of Archaeology: the Department of the Younger Stone Age, the Department of the Bronze and Iron Ages, the Department of Underwater Archaeology, and the Laboratory of Traceology.

The department is staffed by a team of highly qualified specialists who combine research, teaching, and practical work. Their research and academic interests can be divided into four main thematic areas: Middle Stone Age archaeology, the Early Stone Age, the Bronze and Iron Ages, and underwater archaeology.

Currently, the department is mainly interested in:

• research on the technology and use of Mesolithic artefacts made from stone and organic materials, experimental archaeology, and wider issues regarding the Middle Stone Age;
• studies on how the function and spatial organisation of Paleolithic and Mesolithic camps might be interpreted, and research on the use of flint and bone materials by prehistoric communities in Lithuania (research conducted in collaboration with the National Museum in Vilnius and the Lithuanian Institute of History in Vilnius);
• research on the Neolithic period in Central and Eastern Europe, with particular emphasis on the northeastern fringes of early agricultural settlement, the extraction and distribution of siliceous rock materials in the Neolithic and Metal Ages;
• trace studies on prehistoric flint-making (Neolithic-Bronze Age-Iron Age), studies on the metallurgy of prehistoric communities (from the Neolithic to the Migration Period), as well as analyses of pottery from the Neolithic and early Bronze Age periods using instrumental methods. This research is conducted in collaboration with partners from Poland and abroad;
• research on settlements in the Early Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in northern Poland, including archaeological and archaeometallurgical studies of metal objects and selected stone tools associated with prehistoric bronze production;
• research on the theory and history of prehistoric archaeology of the Metal Ages; archaeological and archaeobiological studies of unburned human remains from the Lusatian culture;
• investigations into the changes that unfolded in the Chełmno Land from just before the emergence of the Oksywie culture to the decline of the Wielbark culture, considered within the broader Barbaricum cultural sphere;
• studies on the evolution of Bronze Age navigation in the Mediterranean basin, as well as research on the underwater cultural landscape in the context of its use by prehistoric societies, the development of navigation and ports in the Baltic Sea basin.