Basic information

Her MA thesis entitled Przedstawienia instrumentów muzycznych na polichromowanych naczyniach majańskich [Representations of musical instruments on polychrome Mayan vessels] was defended at the Institute of Archeology of the Jagiellonian University in 2008. In 2020, she defended her doctoral thesis entitled Figurki ceramiczne z Nakum (Petén, Gwatemala) w szerszym kontekście kulturowym [Ceramic figurines from Nakum (Petén, Guatemala) in a wider cultural context], to be published in the form of a book, as part of a series of monographs summarising the research conducted for the Nakum Archaeological Project.

Since 2007, she has been an active participant in the Nakum Archaeological Project research under the supervision of Dr. hab. Jarosław Źrałka, professor at the Jagiellonian University, and Wiesław Koszkul, focusing on the analysis of fine figural art, ceramics and documentation of artefacts from the Nakum site, located in the Department of Petén, in northeastern Guatemala.

Since 2015, she has been involved in the research and conservation of murals from the colonial period, discovered in several private Ixil Mayan houses in the city of Chajul, located in the Department of El Quiche, in central-western Guatemala.

Scientific interests

• Mayan culture, art and beliefs
• the figural art of the Maya and other Mesoamerican cultures
• archeomusicology with particular emphasis on Mesoamerica
• archeology of the colonial period in what is now Guatemala
• the early colonial art of Guatemala
• Latin American baroque music

Field research

• Between 2007 and 2017, she participated annually in field research and laboratory work conducted for the Nakum Archaeological Project.
• In 2015 and 2019, she took part in two seasons of restoration work carried out in two houses featuring paintings, in Chajul.
• In addition, she participated in various excavation projects in Poland, including her noteworthy work carried out in the area of the former Nazi concentration camp KL Plaszow in Krakow as well as underwater research on the relics of a medieval bridge on Lake Lednicki.

Main publications

• Jarosław Źrałka, Katarzyna Radnicka, Monika Banach, Lucas Asicona Ramírez, María Luisa Vázquez de Ágredos-Pascual, Cristina Vidal-Lorenzo, Lars Frühsorge & Juan Luis Velásquez, The Maya Wall Paintings from Chajul, Guatemala, Antiquity, Vol. 94 (375), 2020, pp. 760–779.
• María Luisa Vázquez de Ágredos-Pascual, Cristina Vidal-Lorenzo, Jarosław Źrałka, Katarzyna Radnicka, Juan Luis Velásquez, Between two worlds: Colours and techniques of the mural paintings preserved in a colonial house in Chajul (El Quiche department, Guatemala), Science and Digital Technology for Cultural Heritage, Ortiz Calderón et al. (Eds), Taylor & Francis Group, London, 2020, pp. 210-214.
• Jarosław Źrałka y Katarzyna Radnicka, Between the past and the present: the Ixil Maya and the discovery of rare mural paintings in Guatemala, Estudios Latinoamericanos 33/34, 2015, pp. 169-185.
• Jarosław Źrałka, Wiesław Koszkul, Katarzyna Radnicka, Laura Sotelo y Bernard Hermes, Excavations in Nakum Structure 99: New Data on Protoclassic Rituals and Precolumbian Maya Beekeeping, Estudios de Cultura Maya XLIV, Mexico, 2014, pp. 169-185. 
• Katarzyna Radnicka, Arte portatil. Estudio preliminar de las figurillas de Nakum, XXVII Simposio de Investigaciónes Arqueologicas en Guatemala, Guatemala, 2014, pp. 383-388.