Non-invasive research has been undertaken in the southern arm of the archaeological area of the Krzemionki exploitation field, which is one of the least excavated of its regions. Geophysical prospection covered an area of 3.5 ha, and in addition, an area of more than 5 ha was examined by surface collection. The image of the underground structures was obtained thanks to a comprehensive comparison of the results of magnetic, earth resistance and GPR measurements, as well as the distribution of archaeological finds on the ground surface. The study was supplemented with data obtained from the analysis of archival aerial photos and Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) derivatives. On the basis of these complementary data, it was possible to create a general image of the distribution of archaeological sources in the study area. When trying to determine the potential range of the exploitation field, the most legible results were obtained from earth resistance survey and magnetic gradiometry methods. In the most fully explored fragment of the area, anomalies suggesting the presence of prehistoric mining facilities are located in a strip 40–60 m wide, running in the NW-SE direction. Surface studies showed the presence of anthropogenic limestone debris in a zone of similar width (50–75 m) and the direction of its course, while the spread of flint and erratic stone finds turned out to be even greater (a belt 70–90 m wide). Geophysical surveys indicate the possibility of the existence of flint workshops and settlement facilities around the mining field. This can be confirmed in future by further systematic studies of its surroundings.

In the second half of the fifth millennium BC, a new model of supply and processing of siliceous rocks appeared in western Lesser Poland (Małopolska). The existing methods of production of blades and flakes from small cores obtained at a short distance from the settlement were supplemented by those enabling the production of much longer blades from cores made from raw material obtained by mining. The significant increase in the size of lithics meant that this moment was referred to as “the metric change” (Polish: przełom metryczny). It was assumed that this was due to internal technological development within the early Neolithic communities of the Lengyel-Polgár cycle. This paper introduces a different explanation for this phenomenon. It is argued that the new model of supply appeared as an already developed model that was implemented by experienced outsiders. A thesis that the indicated technological caesura is not categorical and new patterns in a relatively small area could co-exist with previous ones.

The article presents a unique set of 18th century apothecary vessels related to the Warsaw court of the Electors of Saxony. The stoneware jars were excavated at the site of the former Saxon Palace in Warsaw between 2006 and 2008. The collection, consisting of seven intact or almost completely-reconstructable specimens, is a unique find in Warsaw and in Poland. The article describes the vessels (their form, decoration and dimensions) and discusses their possible function (storing medicines used by the Saxon court). The study enlarges our limited knowledge about the material aspects of medicine in the Polish capital in the Modern period.

The collection-driven destruction of the archaeological record by artefact hunters not only threatens to obliterate part of the world’s cultural heritage, but also profoundly affects our ability to understand the human past of the region. This text takes a preliminary look at the material and archaeological consequences of a little-known aspect of the antiquities market, the gathering of surface finds to fuel the online collectors’ market in ancient lithic tools. It attempts to characterise the dynamics and effects of this commerce on the basis of a survey of the internet trade in Stone Age artefacts from North Africa and how they reach and are spread in the market countries. It demonstrates that the effects of these activities are having a devastating effect on parts of the archaeological record of the source countries.

This paper explores the function and dating of two rectangular flint tools found at different positions along the Darb el-Tawil caravan route. This route directly connecting the Dakhla Oasis with the Nile Valley has seen caravan transport during almost 4500 years from the Old Kingdom to the 20th century. The two flint objects are a rarity along this route but are also not well-known from archaeological sites elsewhere in Egypt. In bringing together the evidence from the site contexts of the current flint tools with parallels related to morphology and technical aspects of types of flint tools known from Egypt or beyond, it is concluded that these artefacts are likely to be interpreted as a sickle element in the one case and a gunflint in the other.

The article is devoted to a critical discussion of the current concepts of the Neolithisation of Polish lands – from the migration models of colonisation to those that do not exclude the participation of the indigenous Mesolithic population in this process. None of the cited concepts explores the socio-cultural, internally conditioned, mechanisms of this epochal change. In the context of these mechanisms, one should look for the necessary and sufficient conditions for the change to occur, in the form of conscious (or more often unconscious) reinterpretation of symbols, norms and socio-cultural structures. This text outlines a fresh area to be explored in future studies of Neolithisation.

The article contains an assessment of the current state of recognition of the phenomenon present in the Neolithic of Polish lands, and referred to as the Eastern European sub-Neolithic. The picture it represents is does not provide grounds for optimism. The causes of the bad situation are outlined. The paper presents recent achievements and basic gaps in the evidence, among which the most important is the lack of research at potentially homogeneous sites. This make impossible to undertake the discussion of the problem of the local genesis of the phenomenon, the chronology and dynamics of its transformations or broader considerations on the character and the scope of interactions between pottery-producing hunter-gatherers and early agricultural communities. Interwoven into the narratives have become the views of Jan Kowalczyk (1969), in which the sub-Neolithic had an important role in the processes ongoing in the Neolithic period. The purpose of references to texts from half a century ago is not the desire to return to the general concepts of this researcher, but rather to consider the accurate and still valid specific observations of J. Kowalczyk and about the conviction expressed by him that a better understanding of the sub-Neolithic is important for discovering and comprehension of the processes occurring in the Neolithic of Polish territories (understood as a period).

The article includes the presentation and preliminary characterisation of the obsidian inventory obtained during the five research seasons (2014–2018) at the site in Podlesie, Staszów district, Świętokrzyskie voievodship. Currently, it is one of the largest collections of artefacts of this raw material related to the Linear Pottery culture (104 examples), and at the same time the first obtained from the Połaniec Basin mesoregion. In the light of the current state of research, it is also one of the few inventories of this culture (outside the Rzeszów settlement cluster), in which the share of obsidian exceeded 4%. Its homogeneous nature and large size, as well as the obtained radiocarbon dates, to a very significant extent supplement the current knowledge about the initial phase of the Neolithic obsidian influx into the Upper Vistula basin area, at the end of the 6th millennium BC.

The article refers to Jan Kowalczyk’s interest in the transition from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age in Poland, as well as observations regarding the technological and morphological features of ceramics in the context of his research in Grodek, Hrubieszow district.

The article concerns the Neolithic settlement structures of the Funnel Beaker and Globular Amphora cultures in the Sandomierz Upland, discussed comparatively in the context of interrelationships and relationships with the exploitation of flint raw materials, especially of banded flint.