Baltic-Pontic Studies
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Baltic-Pontic-Studies (BPS) jest rocznikiem wydawanym od roku 1993 przez dwa Instytuty - Prahistorii i Wschodni - Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu (UAM). Koncepcja periodyku eksponującego w wersji anglojęzycznej dorobek archeologii biokulturowego pogranicza Zachodu i Wschodu Europy uformowała się w środowisku realizatorów umowy o współpracy naukowej pomiędzy Uniwersytetem im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu i Instytutem Archeologii Narodowej Akademii Nauk Ukrainy w Kijowie (1992). Członkami Rady Redakcyjnej zostali wybitni reprezentanci „archeologii pogranicza” z ośrodków naukowych Polski, Ukrainy i Białorusi. W ramach przyjętej w BPS formuły działania impulsy do przygotowania kolejnych tomów wychodzą z grona członków Rady Redakcyjnej. Wskazują oni węzłowe problemy badawcze, wymagające dyskusji, a następnie ekspozycji - w postaci zestawu artykułów lub też opracowań monograficznych - i zarysowują optymalne formy intensyfikacji pożądanych studiów. W pierwszym zakresie dotyczy to składu zespołu potencjalnych współrealizatorów, a w kolejnych - uzgodnień programów kooperacji oraz form wsparcia organizacyjno-finansowego w oparciu o środki pozyskiwane najczęściej w systemie grantów. Poszczególne tomy BPS zawierają zatem wyłącznie artykuły zamawiane.
Baltic-Pontic-Studies (BPS) is a yearbook published together by two institutes of the Adam Mickiewicz University (UAM) in Poznań, Poland - the Institute of Prehistory and the Institute of Eastern Studies since 1993. The idea of a journal that would present in English the effects of the archaeological work concentrated on the biocultural borderland between the West and East of Europe was born among the signatories of the Agreement on Research Collaboration between the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the Institute of Archaeology of Ukraine's National Academy of Sciences in Kiev (1992). Seats on the Editorial Board were accepted by distinguished scholars of 'archaeology of the borderland' from the academic centres of Poland, Ukraine and Belarus. Under the mode of operation adopted at the BPS, stimuli for new volumes are given by members of the Editorial Board. They suggest crucial research issues, calling for a discussion and then presentation in the form of a set of papers or monographs, and outline the best ways to undertake their studies further. First, the Editorial Board members choose a team of potential contributors and, second, decide on the forms of collaboration and sources of financing; the latter usually come in the form of grants. Thus, BPS volumes carry exclusively commissioned papers.
Redaktor naczelny:
Marzena Szmyt
Kontakt:
Wydział Archeologii UAM e-mail: marzena@amu.edu.pl
strona www: https://archeo.amu.edu.pl/nauka/Czasopisma
Nazwa wydawcy: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań)
ISSN 1231-0344
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Item 1. Contents(Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Prahistorii, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Wschodni, 1994)This volume takes up the controversial problems of the early agrarian stage of „pastoral cultures”. It contains the contribution of authors who are united in their conviction of the need to analyze the „classical” interpretation, which is of a monolinear, very dynamic development of the East European pastoralism and its Central European (or — to use a wider term — West European) manifestations. All articles were created under the Editor’s authorization and they concern a special register of questions. The questions addressed are: genesis and changes of the given phenomena, functional requalification of economic and social systems, traditionally considered to be „pastoral” ones; as well as the reconstruction of fields of culture, considered to be particularly useful in analyzing the development of the civilizational trend (metallurgy, weapons), in which we are interested. The volume does not exhaust all the necessary aspects of the discussion. I hope that we will be able, in the near future, to present its continuation within the Baltic-Pontic Studies. 1. All dates in the B-PS are calibrated [see: Radiocarbon vol.28, 1986, and the next volumes]. Deviations from this rule will be point out in notes. 2. The names of the archaeological cultures (especially from the territory of the Ukraine) are standarized according to the English literature on the subject [e.g. Mallory 1989]. In the case of a new term, the author’s original name has been retained. 3. The place names located in the Ukraine have been transliterat from the ver¬sions suggested by the author (i.e. from the Ukrainian, Polish or Russian originals).Item ABBREVIATIONS, REFERENCES(Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Prahistorii, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Wschodni, 1995)Item ABBREVIATIONS, REFERENCES, LIST OF AUTHORS(Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Prahistorii, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Wschodni, 1994)Item ABSOLUTE (RADIOCARBON) CHRONOLOGY OF THE EASTERN TRZCINIEC CULTURE IN THE DNIEPER BASIN (THE MALOPOLOVETSKE BURIAL SITE)(Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Prahistorii, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Wschodni, 1998) Kovalyukh, Nikolay; Skripkin, Vadim; Klochko, Victor I.; Lysenko, Sergyey; Pidluska, InnaThe Trzciniec Culture, Trzciniec Cultural Circle and Trzciniec Horizon are the names of a cultural area in the borderland of Western and Eastern Europe at the 2nd millenium BC. For over half a century a discussion has been going on over the taxonomic identification (chronological and spatial) and genetic and ethnic interpretation of this cultural unit. In the debate, the 1980's and 1990's mark a significant cognitive turn caused by the growth of the corpus of sources, the use of systematic methods for the study of mobile sources and the proliferation of regional 14C datings. The present volume of "Baltic-Pontic Studies" is an attempt to register this breakthrough and a proposal for a new fitting of the Trzciniec phenomenon into the synthesis of Early Bronze Age Europe. The records include rudiments of new regional systematizations, foundations of their chronologies based on radiocarbon datings and a discussion of the mechanisms of socio-cultural changes which gave rise to the Trzciniec cultural area and later contributed to its disintegration. A long-term intention of this volume giving a multifaceted view of the effects of the said cognitive breakthrough is to encourage a careful scrutiny of the development mechanisms of the European Early Bronze Age Civilization, in particular the role played in them by the societies inhabiting the drainages of the Baltic and Pontic Seas.Item ABSOLUTE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EASTERN GROUP OF GLOBULAR AMPHORA CULTURE(Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Prahistorii, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Wschodni, 1996) Kadrow, Sławomir; Szmyt, Marzena; Żebrowski, TomaszGlobular Amphora culture settlements make one of the most important systems of circulation of cultural patterns in the border zone between the drainage areas of the Baltic and Black Seas. One aspect of this problem, namely the „eastern exodus" mentioned in the title, has seemingly rich historiography. Under closer scrutiny, however, it reveals many intuitive opinions based on weak and insufficiently explored sources. This belief lay behind the present issue of the „Baltic-Pontic Studies". The papers presented in this issue open new areas of discussion of the problems in question. For the first time, the discussion is set against an incontrovertible scale of absolute chronology. This issue anticipates a broader synthesising presentation to be published in the not too distant future.Item ABSOLUTE CHRONOLOGY OF THE MIDDLE DNIEPER CULTURE BETWEEN THE UPPER BUG, VISTULA AND DNIESTER RIVERS(Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Prahistorii, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Wschodni, 2003) Kadrow, Sławomir; Żebrowski, Piotr T.This volume of the Baltic-Pontic Studies is a record of investigations carried out under the research project begun earlier in vol. 7 ("The Foundations of radiocarbon chronology of cultures between the Vistula and Dnieper: 3150-1850 BC", Poznań 1999). Here, the approach is broader in terms of chronology and culture. Our purpose has been to fill taxonomic gaps hitherto present in the discussion (supplementing the dating of cultures, groups or phases) or reanalyze the grounds for findings considered particularly controversial. In the latter case, a very enlightening debate was provoked by the comparative chronology of the Yamnaya and Catacomb cultures presented by A.N. Nikolova. We hope that a large series of 14C dates and a revision of the foundations of "archaeological knowledge" (stratigraphy, typochronolgy and groups of co-occurrence of traits), brought together in the paper by D.Y. Telegin, S.Z. Pustovalov, N. Kovalyukh, lay the ground for a stabilization of views on this important dividing line in the chronology of the Bronze Age in the Pontic zone. A vast majority of the new 14C dates have been obtained under an international research project financed by the Polish Committee for Scientific Research.Item ABSOLUTE CHRONOLOGY OF THE SOFIEVKA TYPE IN THE LIGHT OF „WIGGLE MATCHING” ANALYSIS(Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Prahistorii, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Wschodni, 1995) Kadrow, SlawomirItem Absolute Chronology of the Trzciniec Complex in the Vistula Drainage in the Light of 14c Datings(Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Prahistorii, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Wschodni, 1998) Makarowicz, Przemysław; Żebrowski, Piotr T.The Trzciniec Culture, Trzciniec Cultural Circle and Trzciniec Horizon are the names of a cultural area in the borderland of Western and Eastern Europe at the 2nd millenium BC. For over half a century a discussion has been going on over the taxonomic identification (chronological and spatial) and genetic and ethnic interpretation of this cultural unit. In the debate, the 1980's and 1990's mark a significant cognitive turn caused by the growth of the corpus of sources, the use of systematic methods for the study of mobile sources and the proliferation of regional 14C datings. The present volume of "Baltic-Pontic Studies" is an attempt to register this breakthrough and a proposal for a new fitting of the Trzciniec phenomenon into the synthesis of Early Bronze Age Europe. The records include rudiments of new regional systematizations, foundations of their chronologies based on radiocarbon datings and a discussion of the mechanisms of socio-cultural changes which gave rise to the Trzciniec cultural area and later contributed to its disintegration. A long-term intention of this volume giving a multifaceted view of the effects of the said cognitive breakthrough is to encourage a careful scrutiny of the development mechanisms of the European Early Bronze Age Civilization, in particular the role played in them by the societies inhabiting the drainages of the Baltic and Pontic Seas.Item AMBER IN GARMENTS OF POPULATIONS OF SCYTHIA (WAYS AND FORMS OF RECEPTION)(Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Prahistorii, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Wschodni, 2009) Klochko, Lubov S.; Pidluska, MariaAs regards the identification of the early forms of Europe's long-distance routes, the area lying between the Baltic and Black seas can be said to be one of relative neglect. Specifically, little research has been devoted to the development stages of the area's socio-cultural map, i.e. to neighbourly forays, itineraries, routes (of varied continuity, range and transport technique), stable segments of roads leading to water crossings, networks of fords and the communication channels running along watersheds. The foremost issue, at present one of great difficulty with respect to a study embracing the whole region in question, is the cultural context of these innovations and the related mechanisms that saw their creation in regard to the socio-economic basis and ritual-epistemological nature of ancient peoples in these regions. The study by Marija Gimbutas [Gimbutas 1965] of 'amber routes', joining the west and east of Europe, may be considered the first attempt to tackle the issue of the region's early communication channels and was accordingly referred to in the analyses of the distribution of stone 'fluted maces', regarded as hypothetical markers of Baltic-Pontic routes [Kośko 2001; 2002]. Generally, this conceptual leaven can be said to have provided broader intellectual stimuli for the international academic community of 'Archaeology Bimaris'. The turning point in the nascent study of ancient routes has been thus given a clear framework: an inter-university and interdisciplinary discussion (see the Poznań-Obrzycko symposium Routes Between the Seas: Baltic-Bug-Boh (Southern Bug)-Pont held in October 2008). The papers included in this volume are a partial record of the discussion. The intentional selectiveness here is seen therefore in the conscious limitation of the scope of papers ('piecemeal' treatment of linguistic or ethnological and anthropological analyses). Moreover, there is a special focus on one of the inter-regional routes, namely the Baltic-Bug-Boh (Southern Bug)-Pont, or more specifically, its early evidence (generally speaking, prior to - widely known to the academia - its use in the times of Goth migrations).Item AN INTERRUPTED PROCESS OF CULTURAL INTEGRATION BETWEEN THE UPPER BUG, VISTULA AND DNIESTER RIVERS IN THE EARLY SECOND HALF OF THE THIRD MILLENNIUM BC (IN LIGHT OF TAXONOMIC AND CHRONOLOGICAL ANALYSES OF GRAVE ASSEMBLAGES ON GRZĘDA SOKALSKA)(Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Prahistorii, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Wschodni, 2003) Machnik, Jan; Żebrowski, Piotr T.This volume of the Baltic-Pontic Studies is a record of investigations carried out under the research project begun earlier in vol. 7 ("The Foundations of radiocarbon chronology of cultures between the Vistula and Dnieper: 3150-1850 BC", Poznań 1999). Here, the approach is broader in terms of chronology and culture. Our purpose has been to fill taxonomic gaps hitherto present in the discussion (supplementing the dating of cultures, groups or phases) or reanalyze the grounds for findings considered particularly controversial. In the latter case, a very enlightening debate was provoked by the comparative chronology of the Yamnaya and Catacomb cultures presented by A.N. Nikolova. We hope that a large series of 14C dates and a revision of the foundations of "archaeological knowledge" (stratigraphy, typochronolgy and groups of co-occurrence of traits), brought together in the paper by D.Y. Telegin, S.Z. Pustovalov, N. Kovalyukh, lay the ground for a stabilization of views on this important dividing line in the chronology of the Bronze Age in the Pontic zone. A vast majority of the new 14C dates have been obtained under an international research project financed by the Polish Committee for Scientific Research.Item AN OUTLINE OF THE EVOLUTION OF DANUBIAN CULTURES IN MAŁOPOLSKA AND WESTERN UKRAINE(Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Prahistorii, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Wschodni, 2000) Kadrow, Sławomir; Zakościelna, Anna; Żebrowski, Piotr T.The ‘western borderland’ of the Tripolye culture, appearing in the title of this volume of the ‘Baltic-Pontic Studies’, refers to the cyrcle of neighbouring cultural systems of the Upper Tisza and Vistula drainages. As neighbours of the Tripolye culture such groups are discussed as Lengyel-Polg´ar, Funnel Beaker and, albeit to a much narrower extent, the Globular Amphora (cf. B-PS vol. 8) and the Corded Ware cultures. The papers discuss the reception of ‘western’ traditions by Tripolye communities as well as the ‘western borderland’ mentioned in the title. Defined in this way, these questions have been only cursorily treated in the literature. The consequences of accumulated omissions in the study of the cultural surroundings of ‘Tripolye’ have been felt by us when we worked on this issue. Thus, we submit a greatly limited work as far as its subject matter is concerned hoping that it will open a sequence of necessary studies. Such studies should, in the first place, focus on the co-ordination of the ‘languages’ of taxonomy and then they should investigate different aspects of the mechanisms of the outlined processes of the ‘cultural contact’.Item ANALYSIS. FLINT MATERIALS FROM CEMETERIES OF THE SOFIEVKA TYPE(Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Prahistorii, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Wschodni, 1995) Budziszewski, JanuszItem ANTHROPOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION OF BONE REMAINS FROM A GRAVE OF GLOBULAR AMPHORA CULTURE IN ŁOPIENNIK DOLNY KOLONIA, SITE 1 (PROV. OF CHEŁM, POLAND)(Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Prahistorii, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Wschodni, 1996) Kozak-Zychman, Wanda; Żebrowski, TomaszGlobular Amphora culture settlements make one of the most important systems of circulation of cultural patterns in the border zone between the drainage areas of the Baltic and Black Seas. One aspect of this problem, namely the „eastern exodus" mentioned in the title, has seemingly rich historiography. Under closer scrutiny, however, it reveals many intuitive opinions based on weak and insufficiently explored sources. This belief lay behind the present issue of the „Baltic-Pontic Studies". The papers presented in this issue open new areas of discussion of the problems in question. For the first time, the discussion is set against an incontrovertible scale of absolute chronology. This issue anticipates a broader synthesising presentation to be published in the not too distant future.Item ANTHROPOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION OF SKELETAL MATERIAL FROM THE DNIESTER BARROW - CEMETERY COMPLEX, YAMPIL REGION, VINNITSA OBLAST (UKRAINE)(Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Prahistorii Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Wschodni., 2015) Litvinova, Liudmyla; Łukasik, Sylwia; Żurkiewicz, Danuta; Gwizdała, Marta; Chyleński, Maciej; Malmström, Helena; Jakobsson, Mattias; Juras, Anna; Żebrowski, PiotrAnthropological examinations were performed on skeletal material from four barrow necropolises located in the Yampil region (Ukraine) and dated to the Eneolithic, Bronze age and iron age . The purpose of the examinations was the determination of sex and age at death of individuals, reconstruction of their stature and assessment of their status of health . The examinations covered 61 individuals: 17 children and 44 adults . Their health status was assessed using four common indicators: linear enamel hypoplasia, cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis and dental caries.Item BABYNO-TYPE CERAMICS IN THE EASTERN POLESSIYE(Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Prahistorii, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Wschodni, 2013) Kryvaltsevich, Mikola; Pidluska, InnaIn 2009, the 14th volume of Baltic-Pontic Studies (BPS) ran a series of papers summing up the state of research at that time into the routes between the Baltic and Black seas between the 4th and 1st mill. BC. They are an expression of an early reflection prompted by the need to look more closely at the impact Pontic cultural environments – where composite metallurgy was practised, designated as Early Bronze in this volume – had on the Decline Neolithic and Proto-Bronze settlement centres in the Baltic drainage basin. It is to this question that successive volumes of the BPS shall be devoted. Specifically, according to the research programme aims mentioned above (initial fruits being the papers included in BPS, vol. 18) the environments of Northern Pontic cultures – Yamnaya, Catacomb and Babyno – and the Trzciniec cultural circle were identified as generators of the Ingul-Donets Early Bronze Civilization or their immediate neighbours. In proposing this modification of the gamut of phenomena making up the prologue to the European Bronze Age, we intend to suggest the need for a more integrated (‘extra-taxonomic’) and at the same time, territorially wide-ranging reading of Northern Pontic civilization environments and its cultural interaction in the period from the 3rd to the first half of the 2nd mill. BC. More arguments in favour of the above opinion can be found in the introductory paper: The Baltic Drainage Basin in the Reconstruction of the Mental Map of Central Europe Held in Common by Northern-Pontic Early-Bronze Civilization Communities; 3200 – 1600 BC, An outline of research programme.Item Baltic-Pontic Interregional Routes at the Start of the Bronze Age(Adam Mickiewicz University, Institute of Eastern Studies, Institute of Prehistory, 2009) Makarowicz, PrzemysławItem BETWEEN WEST AND EAST. PEOPLE OF THE GLOBULAR AMPHORA CULTURE IN EASTERN EUROPE: 2950-2350 BC(Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Prahistorii, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Wschodni., 2010) Szmyt, MarzenaThe societies of the Globular Amphora culture (GAC) in eastern Europe have already been discussed in one of the previous volumes of the Baltic-Pontic Studies (4). The papers included in it presented new Globular Amphora culture assemblages and new information categories (in particular, new radiocarbon dates). This volume gives a full description of source material foundations relating to the presence of GAC populations in eastern Europe, from the Baltic coast in the north to the Black Sea in the south and the Dnieper-Dvina line in the east. The sources were subjected to extensive analytical procedures whose ultimate result is a new presentation of the temporal and spatial parameters of the development of GAC population settlement in eastern Europe. Of special interest is a detailed description of the cultural environments in which the settlement appeared as well the cultural processes in which GAC societies took part. Consequently, this book touches upon a number of controversial issues in the prehistory of the borderland between western and eastern Europe. We intend to continue this line of investigations in one of the next volumes focusing especially on the questions of social transformations characteristic of the 3rd millennium BC in the area of interest to us that need to be dealt anew.Item "BEYOND BALKANIZATION" – AN OUTLINE PROGRAM FOR A DISCUSSION(Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Prahistorii, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Wschodni, 1998) Jacobs, Ken; Domańska, LucynaThis volume contains the majority of the papers presented during a confe¬rence that took place on 16th-21st May, 1997 in Łódź, Poland. The conference was organized by the Institute of Archaeology, University of Łódź and Département d'anthropologie, Université de Montreal (Canada). The conference was funded by the University of Łódź and by IREX (International Research & Exchanges Board), which also supported this publication. The publication was partly founded by the University of Łódź and by the Foundation of Adam Mickiewicz University, too. The major questions of the conference were, 1) what is the current evidence for eastern or southern influences in the development of eastern European Meso-lithic and Neolithic populations, and 2) to what extent are current political trends, especially the reassertion or, in some cases, the creation of ethnic and national identities, influencing our interpretations of the prehistoric data. The idea for such a conference came into being through the co-organizers' long-term studies of the development of those prehistoric human populations which inhabited the vast region stretching north and east from the Oder river and Carpa¬thian Mountains to the foothills of the Urals. In a tradition established in modern times by Gordon Childe, virtually all of the transformations of Eastern Europe's Neolithic Age human landscape have been assumed to be responses to prior de¬velopments in the Balkan peninsula and Danube basin. We think that a body of new evidence requires a renewed analysis of the distributions of cultural products, peoples, and ideas across Eastern Europe during the Mesolithic through the Early Metal Age within a much wider geographic context than previously has been the case. This includes giving adequate attention to the far-ranging interactions of com-munities between the Pontic and Baltic area with those located in both the Caucasus and the Aralo-Caspian regions. We hope that this volume will contribute to such a redirection of future ana¬lyses.Item Cemeteries of the SOFIEVKA type. FIELD RESEARCH, STATE OF PUBLICATION OF SOURCES AND GENERAL POSITION IN THE SYSTEMATICS OF TRIPOLYE CULTURE(Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Prahistorii, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Wschodni, 1995) Videiko, Mihailo Y.Item Central European Lowland Societies and the Pontic Area in the 4th-4th/3rd Millennium BC(Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Prahistorii, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań). Instytut Wschodni, 2009) Kośko, Aleksander; Szmyt, Marzena; Żebrowski, Piotr T.As regards the identification of the early forms of Europe's long-distance routes, the area lying between the Baltic and Black seas can be said to be one of relative neglect. Specifically, little research has been devoted to the development stages of the area's socio-cultural map, i.e. to neighbourly forays, itineraries, routes (of varied continuity, range and transport technique), stable segments of roads leading to water crossings, networks of fords and the communication channels running along watersheds. The foremost issue, at present one of great difficulty with respect to a study embracing the whole region in question, is the cultural context of these innovations and the related mechanisms that saw their creation in regard to the socio-economic basis and ritual-epistemological nature of ancient peoples in these regions. The study by Marija Gimbutas [Gimbutas 1965] of 'amber routes', joining the west and east of Europe, may be considered the first attempt to tackle the issue of the region's early communication channels and was accordingly referred to in the analyses of the distribution of stone 'fluted maces', regarded as hypothetical markers of Baltic-Pontic routes [Kośko 2001; 2002]. Generally, this conceptual leaven can be said to have provided broader intellectual stimuli for the international academic community of 'Archaeology Bimaris'. The turning point in the nascent study of ancient routes has been thus given a clear framework: an inter-university and interdisciplinary discussion (see the Poznań-Obrzycko symposium Routes Between the Seas: Baltic-Bug-Boh (Southern Bug)-Pont held in October 2008). The papers included in this volume are a partial record of the discussion. The intentional selectiveness here is seen therefore in the conscious limitation of the scope of papers ('piecemeal' treatment of linguistic or ethnological and anthropological analyses). Moreover, there is a special focus on one of the inter-regional routes, namely the Baltic-Bug-Boh (Southern Bug)-Pont, or more specifically, its early evidence (generally speaking, prior to - widely known to the academia - its use in the times of Goth migrations).