Exhibition Showcases Work of Jagiellonian Archaeology Students

November 22, 2011

Dr. Radosław Palonka (left) opend the exhibit with Consul General Allen Greenberg (right)

Consul General Allen Greenberg gives an interview before the exhibit.

In honor of Native American Heritage Month, on Tuesday, November 22, Consul General Allen Greenberg opened an exhibit of photographs taken during a seven-week archaeology project this summer. The project team of seven students from Jagiellonian University, under the leadership of Professor Radek Palonka, studied ancestral Pueblo settlement patterns in the lower Sand Canyon area of Colorado. In his remarks, Consul General Greenberg noted that it is especially appropriate in November the month of Native American Heritage to highlight the importance of Native American culture in the history of the United States. Consul General Greenberg also said, “The communities that built the structures that Dr. Palonka and his students documented were active in the 13th century, around the same time that work was beginning on the present Mariacki Basilica.  American history does not begin with European contact, and it is particularly noteworthy that European researchers and their students help us all remember that. “

The Sand Canyon-Castle Rock Community Archaeological Project is being conducted in the Mesa Verde region of Colorado, in the American Southwest. The first stage of the project was carried out in May and June of 2011 in Sand Canyon and Rock Creek Canyon, in Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. These canyons encompass around forty small settlements and one large community center – Castle Rock Pueblo with well-preserved stone architecture. All of the settlements are dated to the thirteenth century A.D. At that time, these sites formed a group of allied settlements of the Pueblo Indians culture. This project’s research focuses on the detailed documentation and analysis of the settlement structure and socio-cultural changes that took place in this culture in the thirteenth century A.D., as well as conservation and protection of the sites.

The project also involves cooperation with contemporary Pueblo Indians, the descendants of the people who were living in Sand Canyon and Rock Creek Canyon in the thirteenth century, for analysis of oral tradition concerning conflicts, as well as migration in the ancient Pueblo culture. This cooperation is to be carried out primarily among the Hopi pueblos of Arizona and the Jemez Pueblo of New Mexico. 
The Sand Canyon-Castle Rock Community Archaeological Project is conducted by the Institute of Archaeology of Jagiellonian University in Krakow, under the direction of Dr. Radosław Palonka. This study is being carried out in cooperation with American archaeologists from Crow Canyon Archaeological Center and the Bureau of Land Management in Colorado. Participants in the 2011 expedition included graduates of the Institute of Archaeology at UJ: Aleksander Danecki, M.A., and Magdalena Sobas, M.A., as well as current students: Izabela Jurkiewicz, Małgorzata Piwko, Piotr Szczepanik, Maciej Wacławik, and Olivia Żmuda-Orłowska,. The students also had an opportunity to conduct library research for their Bachelors and Masters theses, and participated in training at the laboratories of Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, one of the project’s partners.

Sand Canyon-Castle Rock Community Archaeological Project is the first independent Polish archaeological research project in the United States. The first phase of the project was made possible thanks to the patronage and financial support of the Institute of Archaeology and the History Department of Jagiellonian University, the Consul General of the United States in Krakow, and our commercial sponsors: Krajowa Spółka Cukrowa S.A. and the international company Air Liquide.