Nowa Huta inhabited for 8,500 years

Remnants of a Neolithic settlement have been discovered at a building site in the northern part of Nowa Huta. Archaeologists found pottery, flint tools, several burrows and two graves and expect to discover more artifacts in the area.The excavations are being conducted on a site near ul. Okulickiego, where a housing estate is planned. Archaeological excavation is a standard procedure wherever historical finds are highly probable.Izabela Mianowska, who is in charge of the excavation, says it is hard to estimate the value of the findings at this stage as only 30 percent of the site has been explored.Mianowska says it also remains uncertain where the Neolithic settlement borders are. Artifacts from other cultures may also be found there so clarifying the dig’s origins may take a great deal of time. Archeologists have to be patient until further plots are bought by the building developer. They usually have a very short timeframe to find artifacts from the moment they are permitted to dig. That’s why this is called a “rescue excavation.”      Aside from artifacts from the Neolithic settlement (from about 6500 BC), this site also contains findings from the early Bronze Age. It seems that humans have been settled there without many interim breaks.    Nowa Huta, the easternmost district of Krakow, has been a place of rich archaeological findings since its first building development started in the early 1950s. Since then, more then 100 excavation sites have been discovered there.Frequent settlement was caused by the area?s rich soil, which provided good living conditions for the Neolithic civilizations already raising crops (wheat, barley, and rye) and domesticated farm animals such as cattle, pigs, goats and sheep.