Excavations and Projects

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San Isidro, El Salvador

San Isidro, Salwador

San Isidro, El Salvador

project director: Dr. Jan Szymański

research location: San Isidro archaeological site, department of Sonsonate, El Salvador, Central America

San Isidro is located in the middle of a natural corridor connecting the Pacific coast with the fertile valleys further inland.

site characteristics: The site has been continuously eroded by heavy agricultural machinery. Currently ca. 50 visible remains of monumental architecture are dispersed over the area of 6.5 km2 on a sugarcane plantation. Dating of surface collections of pottery encompasses the Middle (ca. 1000-400 BC) and Late (ca. 400 BC-AD 250) Preclassic periods. San Isidro most likely served as a large regional center at the southeastern boundary of Mesoamerica, and western fringe of Central America. The reconnaissance works were carried out between 2018 and 2020. In 2021 archaeological excavations commenced.

Until 2022, over 50 structures were recorded through drone surveys. Ground-truthing has been underway.

participating institutions: University of Warsaw (Poland), Dirección de Arqueología del Ministerio de Cultura (El Salvador)

dating: tentative, ~1000 BC – AD 250

financing: 

2021-2023 – “Sonata” grant (no. 2019/35/D/HS3/00219) titled. “Na kresach Mezoameryki: badania archeologiczne stanowiska San Isidro w Salwadorze” (“On the Fringes of Mesoamerica: archaeological research at the site of San Isidro, El Salvador”)

2018 – “Miniatura” grant provided by the National Center for Sciences (Narodowe Centrum Nauki – NCN), (ID 381403), 2019 – funds from the “Excellence Strategies – Research Academy” program

research description: In 2018 a field survey was carried out, as well as partial photogrammetric documentation of the visible architectural remains. A drone-based topographic map, albeit interim, has been elaborated. The works continued through 2019. In 2021, a three-season-long excavations begun, focusing on three prominent areas of the site: the Cerrito and Trapiche groups, and El Pato structure.

struktura Cerrito 1

Cerrito 1 before excavations.

In the course of excavations it became apparent that the largest structures at San Isidro are made exclusively of clay heaped while wet, without stone layers inside. In the case of the largest building at the site – Cerrito 1 – consecutive construction stages were sealed with layers of sund-dried or fired clay.

Uncomplicated constructive methods contrast with particularly large size of the site, and with rich offerings purposefully deposited within the fill of Cerrito 1.

The research at San Isidro is ongoing. This site will be (irregularly) updated.

bibliography:

2022; Szymański J.; K. Misiewicz; R. Mieszkowski; J. Martecki, Regional Patterns, Local Techniques: Remote Sensing and Archaeology at prehispanic site of San Isidro, El Salvador, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 45.

2020; Szymański J.; Recent Research at San Isidro, El Salvador, in the Context of the Southeastern Mesoamerican Archaeology, Estudios Latinoamericanos 40:1-28.

2018; Szymański J., M. Mendez, M. Toledo, J. Avalos Campos, R. Cabrera, R. Cea; San Isidro: Large Preclassic site at the eastern edge of the Maya Culture, Mexicon 40(40): 100-104.

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Dudka – cemetery and campsites of hunter-gatherers of the Stone Age

Excavation conducted by (renew from 2023): Dr Karolina Bugajska and Dr hab. Witold Gumiński
Localisation: NE Poland, Masurian Lakeland, Wydminy commune, Giżycko district
Involved institutions: Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw
Type of the site: Stone Age peat-bog site with the cemetery of hunter-gatherers

Description of the site: Exceptional cemetery with very diversified burials from the Late Mesolithic and Para-Neolithic, and habitation sites of hunter-gatherers from the Late Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Para-Neolithic (Zedmar culture) till the Late Neolithic. Complex stratigraphy and preserved bones and wooden materials, besides amber, stone, flint and pottery make the site unique.

 

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Hammersø – lake

Person conducting excavation: prof. Bartosz Kontny
Country: Danmark
Site name: Hammersø Lake, Bornholm
Type of the site:  
Involved institutions: Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw; Bornholms Museum
Dating: late Middle Ages-modernity

Description of the research: Since 2019 an archaeological team from the Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw has been conducting underwater survey in a postglacial Lake Hammersø, in collaboration with the Bornholm Museum in Rønne. The only tarn in the territory of Denmark is located in the Hammeren region, i.e. the northernmost part of Bornholm (55°16′58″N, 14°45′54″E). It is the largest lake on the island, measuring ca. 650×150 metres with the maximum depth of ca. 13 metres. The project revealed certain phenomena from the lake’s past. A few phases of occupation may be singled out, offering a longue durée sequence of habitation in the area, from the Middle Ages until now. The most fascinating are late medieval/early modern episodes. The martial one is documented by the discoveries of several crossbow bolts and an arrowhead. With another, possibly of a ritual character, one may associate a find of a lugged spearhead and possibly also an axe. There are non-military late Medieval finds as well: ring-shaped brooch and a seal stamp. All of them give a promising perspective for combining with the  history of the Hammershus castle – the largest medieval structure of that type in northern Europe – situated ca 1.5 kilometres as the crow flies. The relics of contemporary human water-related activities were also discovered in the basin: three wrecks of tourist plank-boats from the turn of the 20th century, which might be associated with the hotel’s presence, and a number of metal objects; their presence resulted from the stone industry, active until AD 1970. One may add to the list numerous fishing hooks and lures (not collected), proving the twentieth-century fishing – apparently not very intensive.

 

 

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Puszcza Augustowska – early medieval cemeteries with cremation

Person conducting excavation: dr hab. Tomasz Nowakiewicz
Country: Poland
Site name:  Augustów Primeval Forest, area of Szczeberka river
Type of the site: early medieval cemeteries with cremation

Description of the research: The aim of excavation is research of cemeteries of Yatvingian elites from the 12th-13th centuries. Layers with the remains of funeral pyres containing rich burial assemblages were explored. The result of the research provides the best illustration of the material culture of early medieval Yatvingia (vel Sudovia), confirming the meaning of medieval historical sources, which emphasise the wealth and military power of the inhabitants of this land.

 

 

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Ciepłe – a settlement complex from the turn of the 10th/11th century in Eastern Pomerania

Person conducting excavation: dr Sławomir Wadyl
Country: Poland
Site name: Ciepłe, county Tczew, voivodeship pomorskie
Type of the site:  a complex of sites – three strongholds, two cemeteries and settlements
Involved institutions: Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw

Description of the research: The excavations are carried out as a part of  project ‘The early medieval settlement complex at Ciepłe: the Piast dynasty’s key to Eastern Pomerania’, which aim is to investigate the important archaeological site at Ciepłe in Eastern Pomerania, and to learn about the role that it played in incorporating this region into the first Polish state. Until recently Ciepłe was best known for the accidental discovery of an early medieval cemetery where there was a grave of an armed warrior thought to be a Viking. This cemetery is only one part of a vast complex made up of three strongholds, several settlements and two burial grounds. So far, researchers have concentrated on the discoveries made at the cemetery. This is no surprise. New excavations carried out at the cemetery (2004–2014) uncovered further richly furnished graves, which confirmed the remarkable importance of this place.

The settlement complex at Ciepłe is a unique cluster of sites dating from the late 10th/early 11th century. It was probably founded at the end of the 900s by people associated with the first rulers of the Piast dynasty (Mieszko I or Bolesław I the Brave). Gaining supremacy over Eastern Pomerania was one of the steps that helped build a fully formed and strong political structure at the end of the 10th century and the beginning of the 11th century. The Piasts were particularly keen to seize this area for economic reasons (it gave them access to trade and control of the River Vistula).

The planned research will be conducted on two levels. A multidisciplinary study of the Ciepłe settlement complex will examine the site at a narrow, regional level. The second, broader-level study will look at the site’s wider importance, and will include several innovative research methods. As well as traditional archaeological procedures, we will be using palaeoenvironmental and bioarchaeological studies (including genetic analysis, and analysis of stable isotopes of strontium, carbon nitrogen and sulfur).

 

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Nowy Chorów – cemetery with rectangular mounds

Person conducting excavation: dr Sławomir Wadyl
Country: Poland
Site name: Nowy Chorów, pow. Słupski, woj. pomorskie
Type of the site: barrow cemetery
Involved institutions: Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw

Description of the research: The cemetery in Nowy Chorów is located on a small elevation, along the edge of the valley cut by watercourses. Excavations in the necropolis were initiated in 2022. They were preceded by geophysical research, which was carried out using magnetic and electrical resistance methods. In the first two seasons of research, three barrows were examined and protection works were carried out on one barrow, where there is a large robbery pit. The research allowed us to initially determine the chronology for the 11th-12th century.

In fact, most of the burial mounds at the site have a quadrangular shape. Objects of this type are called the Orzeszkowo type. The term comes from the cemetery in Orzeszków in the district of Łobez, examined in 1921-1924. In their classic form, they are found only in Pomerania. Barrows of the Orzeszkowo type are basically four-sided, usually square embankments “closed” with a stone surround. Inside the mound, there are various stone constructions in the form of burial chambers or stone pavements. They are usually the burial place of several people. They are characterized by bi-ritualism – apart from the prevailing inhumation, cremation was also used. The “equipment” of the dead is usually very modest. Although the Orzeszkowo-type graves belong to the more intriguing category of funerary objects, they have not been studied in recent decades. There are 16 mounds at the site. They form two clusters – the larger (Western) consisting of 10 and the smaller (Eastern) with six barrows.

Each of the examined burial mounds is a different funeral story. The goal is to explore a few more embankments. And due to the fact that the last studies of objects of this type took place in the years 1966–1968 – then excavations were carried out in Żydów in the Koszalin district – the research has great scientific and cognitive potential.

 

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Miseeda – church and surroundings, Mahas region, Sudan

Person conducting excavation: dr. hab. Dobrochna Zielińska
Country: Sudan
Site name: Miseeda, region Mahas,  19°53’1.31″N  30°23’35.49″E
Type of the site: church built around a rock drawing and the surrounding sites
Dating: ca. 6000 BC – 19/20th cent.
www: The site of Miseeda

The “Good Shepherd” of Maseeda. An image in the context of the changing cultural landscape of the Third Cataract of the Nile. – financed by NCN (UMO-2019/35/B/HS3/02440).

Near the modern village of Miseeda in the Sudanese part of Nubia, in the area of ​​the Third Cataract, an isolated church has been preserved, which conceals a rock drawing from the Kushite period (7th century BC – 4th century AD), made at least three hundred years before the region was converted to Christianity. A certain similarity of this image to the depiction of the “Good Shepherd” known in early Christian art became the initiating factor for the entire project.

 

 

The combination of old rock drawings with much younger sacral architecture is an intriguing situation, unique in Nubia. Both the petroglyph and the church are on the spatial border, but they eliminate the border in time, connecting pre-Christian times with the Christian era.

 

 

To understand the reasons and circumstances in which this church was founded, the broader context needs to be studied and understood. Firstly, the spatial context: there are numerous rock carvings in the Third Cataract region. The second context is the period in which the drawing was made, viewed, respected, and perhaps revered. Its meaning must have been transformed between the late Meroitic period and the moment when it became an object of interest for the Christian inhabitants of this region and travelers.

 

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Miseeda – church and surroundings, Mahas region, Sudan

Miseeda – church and surroundings, Mahas region, Sudan

Person conducting excavation: dr. hab. Dobrochna Zielińska
Country: Sudan
Site name: Miseeda, region Mahas,  19°53’1.31″N  30°23’35.49″E
Type of the site: church built around a rock drawing and the surrounding sites

Dating: ca. 6000 BC – 19/20th cent.

http://miseeda.uw.edu.pl

The “Good Shepherd” of Maseeda. An image in the context of the changing cultural landscape of the Third Cataract of the Nile. – financed by NCN (UMO-2019/35/B/HS3/02440).

Near the modern village of Miseeda in the Sudanese part of Nubia, in the area of ​​the Third Cataract, an isolated church has been preserved, which conceals a rock drawing from the Kushite period (7th century BC – 4th century AD), made at least three hundred years before the region was converted to Christianity. A certain similarity of this image to the depiction of the “Good Shepherd” known in early Christian art became the initiating factor for the entire project.

 

The combination of old rock drawings with much younger sacral architecture is an intriguing situation, unique in Nubia. Both the petroglyph and the church are on the spatial border, but they eliminate the border in time, connecting pre-Christian times with the Christian era.

To understand the reasons and circumstances in which this church was founded, the broader context needs to be studied and understood. Firstly, the spatial context: there are numerous rock carvings in the Third Cataract region. The second context is the period in which the drawing was made, viewed, respected, and perhaps revered. Its meaning must have been transformed between the late Meroitic period and the moment when it became an object of interest for the Christian inhabitants of this region and travelers.

 

 

 

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Novae – sculptural and epigraphic landscape of the central part of the legionary fortress

Principal investigators: prof. dr hab. Tadeusz Sarnowski†, dr hab. Agnieszka Tomas
Name of the site: Novae
Country: Bulgaria
Partner institutions: Faculty of Archaeology University of Warsaw and the National Institute of Archaeology Bulgarian Academy of Sciences with the Museum
Type of the site: Roman legionary camp (castra legionis), civil settlement (canabae legionis) and late Roman town.

Chronology: 1st-6th century AD

Numerous statue bases of deities and emperors, sacrificial altars, and building inscriptions dating from the 2nd to thirties of the 5th century AD were found in the principia of the First Italic Legion and about fifty more found elsewhere were identified as originating from this building. The main objective of this project was to complete documentation of newly discovered inscriptions, to improve the documentation of older finds according to current standards and to prepare their publication. It has to provide maximum information about the palaeography of inscriptions and dedication formulae, time, place, circumstances, reasons of setting up statues of gods and emperors, and sometimes even financing the monument, altars, building or its dependencies, most probable material used to create statues, their size, types of sculptural representation and in some cases even the statue’s physical appearance, names, origin, social status and rank of the dedicators, place and role of the represented deity in the camp religion and in religious cults practiced in the province of Lower Moesia and in the whole lower Danubian region.

Thanks to the support of the National Science Centre, a set of monuments from the principia can be documented and developed – both the bases of statues, altars and fragments of statues, as well as building inscriptions and architectural elements, which will allow not only to recreate the appearance of the building, but also its interior design and changes that this interior design underwent in time. Based on these finds, archaeologists have created a 3D visualization of the complex, which will take into account the discovered monuments and remains, and is therefore the most faithful recreation of reality over 1,700 years ago. Such a procedure allows us to better understand the reasons for and the manner in which the military erected statues and inscriptions for religious, propaganda and political purposes.

Project title/financial support:  “In medio castrorum. Sculptural and epigraphic landscape of the central part of the legionary fortress at Novae”, NCN, OPUS 11, nr UMO-2016/21/B/HS3/00030, planned period of realization 02.02.2017 – 01.02.2021.

Publications:

  • Tadeusz Sarnowski, Novae und die legio I Italica unter Trajan und Hadrian, Archeologia 67, 2018, 57-71
  • Tadeusz Sarnowski, Statio publici portorii in Novae (Niedermoesien) und eine neue Statuenbasis aus dem Stabsgebäude der 1. Italischen Legion, Studia Europaea Gnesnensia 16, 2017, 77-86 (DOI 10.14746/seg.2017.16.5)
  • Tadeusz Sarnowski, Building the Early Christian Episcopal Complex with Inscribed Stones from the Roman Legionary Headquarters, Sacrum et profanum, Novae. Studies and Materials, vol. VI, Poznań 2018, 77-86
  • Tadeusz Sarnowski, Komendantura rzymskiego legionu w Novae. Od odsłoniętych ruin do pełnowymiarowej wizualizacji w terenie, in: Donum Cordis. Księga poświęcona pamięci Jerzego Kolendo, J. Jakubiak (ed.), Warszawa, 2019, 335–345 (org/10.31338/uw.9788323538554.pp.335-345)
  • Tadeusz Sarnowski, In medio castrorum legionis I Italicae at Novae. Preserved Remains, 3D Virtual Modelling and Full-size Visualisation on the Original Site, in: Limes XXIII. Roman Frontier Studies, Mainz 2018, 350-359
  • Tadeusz Sarnowski, udział w Międzynarodowej Konferencji Naukowej XIII. Limes Congress 2015 – Germany, 12th-23rd September 2015. Tytuł wystąpienia: Das Stabsgebäude des Legionslagers Novae. Baubestand virtuelle Idealrekonstruktion und Nachbau in Originallage.
  • Tadeusz Sarnowski, udział w Międzynarodowej Konferencji Naukowej „Roman Empire: A 21st Century Perspective… In Memoriam Geza Alföldy (1935-2011), 8-10.11.2016, Gniezno. Tytuł wystąpienia: Neues aus Novae in Niedermoesien zum illyrischen Zollbezirk.
  • Adam Łajtar, udział Międzynarodowej Konferencji Naukowej „3rd Conference on the Roman Danubian Provinces. Society and Economy, 10-15th November 2017, Wien”. Tytuł wystąpienia: New Inscriptions from Novae Referring to the Institution of pastus militum.
  • Adam Łajtar, Tomasz Płóciennik, Agnieszka Tomas, ‘A third-century senator twice-honoured at Novae’, Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik 223, 2022, 243ff.

Other research project realised in Novae by the Faculty (former Institute) of Archaeology University of Warsaw:

Novae 2016-2021. Extramural settlement near the Roman legionary fortress at Novae (Lower Moesia) and its fate in Late Antiquity (A. Tomas)

Novae 2012-2015. Research on settlement structures near the Roman legionary camp at Novae (Lower Moesia) using non-destructive prospection methods (A. Tomas, completed)

Novae 2009-2011. The headquarters building and the fortifications (T. Sarnowski, completed)

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Forging Society at Late Bronze Age Mycenae

Person conducting research: Dr Stephanie Aulsebrook
Country: Greece
Site name: Mycenae
Type of site: settlement and extra-mural cemeteries
Involved institutions: WAUW
Research Assistants: Monika Łapińska, Paulina Jurkowska
Date: July 2019–July 2023
Project financing: SONATA 14 NCN (DEC-2018/31/D/HS3/02231)

Project Summary: This project focused on Mycenae, the foremost centre on mainland Greece during the Late Bronze Age (17th–11th centuries BC) and the relationship between its inhabitants and metals. Metals have a very varied role in prehistoric societies. They can be used to make a wide range of objects, including tools, weapons, vessels, jewellery and armour. Until now, most research had just focused on the relationship between the upper classes and metal, so this project aimed to consider a broader range of people.

Project Methodology: the project collated together into a database all the available information on metal objects that have been excavated at Mycenae since 1876. Their distribution within the site was then analysed, along with their types and other important features.

Example of Entry in Database

The database currently contains more than 15000 metal artefacts. Of those, more than half come from documented Late Bronze Age contexts. The majority come from mortuary contexts; for example, the famous Circle A shaft graves discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876 account for more than 2500 of these artefacts alone.

The project involved three research expeditions, to the National Archaeological Museum at Athens, the Archaeological Museum at Mycenae and the Mycenae Archive at the University of Cambridge, UK. Visits to the museums enabled hands-on analysis of a selection of objects that has provided vital evidence about their lifecycles. Access to the original fieldnotes at the archive has allowed past archaeological recording strategies for metal artefacts to be reconstructed and has uncovered some interesting finds of metal objects that have never been published.

Project Results: the project had three main questions:

1) which activities involved metals and which did not?

Metals were found to have been used in a wide variety of activities, such as making objects, cooking, eating and drinking, personal adornment, warfare and hunting, etc. However, some types of object were never made in metal, such as certain specialised vessel shapes. Metals were apparently rarely used within textile production, in comparison to other crafts, and although gilding was a widespread form of decoration particular types of ornament were never gilded. Therefore metal was not ubiquitous, and even in the activities when it was used other materials, like ceramic or glass, were often used too.

2) how was access to metal controlled at Mycenae?

The contemporary textual records focus on the disbursement of metal by the palace, but have little evidence about access to metals for ordinary households and independent workshops. The project found that across most of Mycenae it seems that metals were melted down and recycled, showing that people were careful not to waste metal. One household, situated outside the citadel, threw away broken metal objects, suggesting they had confidence in being able to access a steady supply whenever they needed it. The complex use life of some objects (see below) indicate that the palace’s control over the metal supply was less tight than previously supposed. There is tentative evidence to indicate that some people, perhaps slaves, were not allowed to use metals for personal adornment.

3) what was the typical lifecycle for different kinds of metal artefacts and can we see deviations?

Studying metal objects under a microscope provided new insights into the lifecycles of some specimens. This chisel fragment and finger ring both had interesting stories: the chisel fragment was deliberately broken off (perhaps from a tool that was too damaged for further use) and was then used as a platform for sawing, as shown by the cut marks; the finger ring was roughly made from a spare piece of bronze wire, rather than being specially cast and shaped like most Mycenaean jewellery.

        A Chisel Fragment Reused as a Cutting Platform

 

 A Finger Ring Made    from a Piece of Wire

The unusual stories of these two objects show that the production and use of metal artefacts at Mycenae was more complex than previously thought; control over metal was not completely in the hands of the palatial authorities. The ring in particular shows how desirable metal was, and how people sought ways to engage with it personally, even when they could not afford real jewellery.

Publications (all open access):
Aulsebrook, S. 2022. Recent developments in archaeometallurgical research: the Bronze Age Greek Mainland, Crete, and the Cyclades. Archaeological Reports 68: 109–132.
Aulsebrook, S. 2022. The impact of archaeological recording on the study of metal artefacts. Mycenae 1939: a case study. Annual of the British School of Athens 117: 415–455.
Aulsebrook, S. 2022. Forging ahead or foiled again? A new direction for cross-craft analysis with case studies from Late Bronze Age metalworking in the Aegean, in S. Aulsebrook, K. Żebrowska, A. Ulanowska and K. Lewartowski (eds.) Sympozjum Egejskie. Papers in Aegean Archaeology 3. Turnhout: Brepols: 99–112.
Aulsebrook, S. 2020. Understanding the role of metal within the Late Bronze Age community at Mycenae: challenges and potential approaches. Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 29(2): 237–264.

 

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