Traceology and Residue Studies Team

The team was established by the Dean of the Faculty of Historical Sciences in the spring of 2024. It is the only interdisciplinary research team in this part of Europe that addresses the technology and function of prehistoric and historical stone items made from organic materials (bone and wood). The scope of research conducted by the team members also includes physicochemical analyses of organic and inorganic residues identified on artefacts and studies of the impact of post-depositional processes on items deposited in various environments and contexts. Team members collaborate in this area with numerous research centres in Poland and abroad.

The team:

The core research team includes:

1. Dr. Grzegorz Osipowicz, professor at the Nicolaus Copernicus University – head of the team. Dr. Grzegorz Osipowicz is a professor at the Institute of Archaeology of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and conducts research in the microscopic analysis of the function and production technology of prehistoric artefacts made from stone, bone, and wood, experimental archaeology, and the Middle Stone Age in general, with particular emphasis on the function and spatial organisation of settlements from this period.
   Profile in the the Nicolaus Copernicus University Knowledge Base: LINK
2. Dr. Justyna Orłowska – assistant professor at the Institute of Archaeology, the Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń. Her research interests include the technological and functional aspects of bone production in prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies, the analysis of organic and inorganic residues discovered on prehistoric items, and the influence of post-depositional factors on prehistoric items made from raw bone materials.
   Profile in the the Nicolaus Copernicus University Knowledge Base: LINK
3. Dr. Mariusz Bosiak – assistant professor at the Department of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, the Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń. A specialist in organic chemistry and materials chemistry.
   Profile in the the Nicolaus Copernicus University Knowledge Base: LINK

Mission:

The Traceology and Residue Studies Team undertakes to:

1. Conduct scientific research based on trace-use analyses of artefacts and perform paleobiological and physicochemical studies on surface residues,
2. Promote trace-use research and residue studies in Polish and international research centres,
3. Organise conferences and scientific symposia devoted to trace-use research and studies in the area of experimental archaeology and residue analysis;
4. Co-apply for research grants,
5. Create an international network to swap information on trace-use research and residue studies.

International cooperation is a founding principle of the team’s research program over recent years.

The team has cooperation agreements with the Lithuanian Historical Institute, the National Museum of Lithuania, the Latvian Institute of History, the University of Tallinn, and the DANTE – the Diet and Ancient Technology Laboratory, Sapienza University of Rome, with which it co-runs research projects.

The main ongoing research projects include:

1. Life and Death Recorded in Bones. Technological and Functional Aspects of Bone Production Among Early and Middle Holocene Hunter-Gatherer-Fishing Societies of the Eastern Baltic Lowland – a project financed by the National Science Centre (project no. 2021/43/B/HS3/00500). The project aims to develop knowledge about the manufacture and use of bone items (bone, antlers, and animal teeth) among Mesolithic and sub-Neolithic hunter-fisher communities inhabiting the Eastern Baltic Lowland (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and northeastern Poland) during the early and middle Holocene. The project’s chronological timeframe spans until the end of the 4th millennium BCE, when, as the Neolithic population of the Globular Amphora Culture and the Corded Ware Culture expanded, sub-Neolithic communities began to disappear. The study area is unique not only because of the perfectly preserved organic sources discovered here, dating back to the Stone Age but also because throughout the Early and Middle Holocene (i.e., from approximately 11,600 to 4,000–5,000 years ago), it stood on the border between the two worlds of Eastern and Western Europe, a place where ideas were exchanged. Therefore, this is an ideal spot for studying the intensity, characteristics, and profile of cultural changes occurring in Early and Middle Holocene hunter-gatherer societies, and the use of bone sources for this purpose will yield completely fresh and previously unavailable information in this field.
2. RediscovEring Stone Treasures Of pREhistory. The meaning of the macrolithic stone tools for the Early and Middle Holocene European Hunter-Gatherer-Fishers based on use-wear and residues studies (RESTORE project). The project is co-run with DANTE – Diet and Ancient Technology Laboratory, Sapienza University of Rome. Its aim is to study Mesolithic and sub-Neolithic communities’ use of stone (not siliceous) macrolithic tools.
3. Plant Raw Materials in the Life of Middle Holocene Hunter-Gatherer-Fisher Communities of the Southeastern Coast of the Baltic Sea (PARTS project), financed by the National Science Centre in Krakow and the Research Council of Lithuania under DAINA 3.
   The project will be co-run with the Lithuanian Historical Institute, the National Museum of Lithuania, the DANTE – Diet and Ancient Technology Laboratory, Sapienza University of Rome, and BIAX Biological Archaeology & Environmental Reconstruction, Zaandam, the Netherlands.
   The objective is to conduct a technological, functional, and raw material analysis of a unique collection of rope and wooden objects discovered at sub-Neolithic sites in Šventoji, Lithuania.
4. The team is also one of the main contractors in River fishing from the Mesolithic to the Middle Ages according to underwater archaeological research in the Žeimena River, a project funded by the Research Council of Lithuania.