Basic information

Assistant professor at the Department of New World Archeology, Institute of Archaeology of the Jagiellonian University. He specializes in archaeology and anthropology of North America, focusing on the eastern and southwestern United States. He has been a participant in many projects and archaeological studies in Poland, Europe, and the USA, for example at the Cahokia Mounds site, Illinois and at sites of Pueblo culture in Colorado. Since 2011 he leads the project: Sand Canyon-Castle Rock Community Archaeological Project focusing on socio-cultural changes in thirteenth century A.D. Pueblo culture in the Mesa Verde region, southwestern Colorado as well as documentation of rock art from the area. Part of the project is conducted with American institutions: Crow Canyon Archaeological Center and Canyons of the Ancients National Monument/US Bureau of Land Management from Colorado and the Hopi tribe from Arizona. He is also involved in popularizing archaeology and history of Native Americans in Poland and in Europe.

M.A. degree: Jagiellonian University, Faculty of History, 2004. M.A. thesis: „Struktura społeczna w Tradycji Missisipi na podstawie źródeł archeologicznych i przekazów pisanych”

Ph.D. degree: Jagiellonian University, Faculty of History, 2009. Doctoral dissertation: “Defensive Architecture and the Depopulation of the Mesa Verde Region, Utah-Colorado, USA in the Thirteenth Century A.D.” (published in 2011 by Jagiellonian University Press)

Scientific interests

• Archaeology and art of American Indians societies from North America
• Iconography and rock art from the US Southwest/Mexico Northwest
• Digital archaeology and application of new technologies in archaeology (laser scanning, photogrammetry, geophysics research)
• Population transformations and social changes in the Pueblo, Ute and Navajo societies
• Cultural identity and continuity in Native American societies
• Collaboration between archaeologists/anthropologists with Native American societies for preserving and reconstructing the past

Research projects and grants

He took part in several excavations and projects in Poland and US. In 2002 and 2003 he took part in archaeological projects at the UNESCO World Heritage Cahokia Mounds Site in southwestern Illinois. From 2005 to 2008 he took part in an interdisciplinary research project, "Goodman Point Archaeological Project: Community Center and Cultural Landscape Study" concerning population and social changes in the thirteenth century A.D. in the Mesa Verde region, Colorado. The project was carried out by Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Cortez, Colorado, USA. In 2009 he conducted independent surveys of several dozen sites located in Sand Canyon and East Fork, in southwestern Colorado. From 2007 to 2009 he was the assistant director of archaeological-architectural project on the medieval castle in Muszyna, southern Poland. In 2010 he was the director of test pit excavations connected with the construction of the Muszyna bypass. Since 2011 he is the director of Sand Canyon-Castle Rock Community Archaeological Project focusing on analyzing of settlement system and socio-cultural changes in Pueblo culture in the central Mesa Verde region in the thirteenth century A.D.

• Grant from U.S. Department of State – Federal Assistance Award; project title/online project: “Digital US Southwest: Interactive Platform of Native American and Euro-American Cultural Interactions”; period of realisation: 28-Sep-2020 to 31-Mar-2022, grant no: SPL90020IN0065. Character of participation: Principal Investigator
• Grant from the National Science Centre under the SONATA BIS programme; project title: “Rock art in the context of cultural and social changes in pre-Hispanic Pueblo culture in the canyons of the Mesa Verde region, Colorado, USA” [Sztuka naskalna w kontekście zmian kulturowych i społecznych prekolumbijskiej kultury Pueblo w kanionach regionu Mesa Verde, Kolorado, USA], period of realisation: 2018-04-09 to 2022-04-08, grant no: UMO-2017/26/E/HS3/01174, amount: 1 416 840 PLN/$400 000. Character of participation: Principal Investigator
• Grant from the National Science Centre under the SONATA programme; project title: “Research on the settlement structure and socio-cultural changes in Pueblo culture in the Mesa Verde region, Colorado, USA” [Badanie struktury osadnictwa i zmian społeczno-kulturowych w kulturze Pueblo w regionie Mesa Verde, Kolorado, USA], period of realisation: 2014-12-04 to 2017-12-03, grant no: 2013/11/D/HS3/01879, amount: 362 710 PLN/$120 000. Character of participation: Principal Investigator
• Grants from the Bureau of Land Management/US Department of the Interior and US Consulate in Krakow (Poland) for the initial stage (2011-2013) of the archaeological project in the Mesa Verde region Colorado (USA). Total amount: ca. $ 20 000. Character of participation: Principal Investigator.

Memberships

• Polskie Towarzystwo Studiów Latynoamerykanistycznych, Poland (2021 – present)
• New World Archaeology Commission/ Division I: Humanities and Social Sciences, Committee on Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences/ Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland (2020 –  present)
• Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society, USA (2020 – present)
• Archaeology Southwest, USA (2019 – present)
• American Rock Art Research Association (ARARA), USA (2018-present)
• European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) (2018-present)
• Society for American Archaeology (SAA), USA (2006-present)
• The Fulbright Association, Washington D.C., USA (2006-present)
• Alumni Association in Poland (former visitors of U.S. Government-funded programs)
• Polish-American Ethnological Society in Memory of Bronisław Malinowski (PAES/PATE), Atlantic City, USA (2005-present)

Main courses at the Institute of Archaeology, JU

• Introduction to New World archaeology and peopling of the Americas
• Archaeology, anthropology, and history of the North American Southwest and the Eastern Woodlands
• Methodology of archaeological research, including new technologies in archaeology (3D scanning, photogrammetry, etc.)
• Rock art of North American Indians cultures
• Cooperation between archaeologists and Native Americans
• Seminary and proseminary classes
• Fieldschools (Poland and Colorado/USA)

Selected publications

Books:

• 2019 Sztuka i archeologia kultur indiańskich prekolumbijskiego Południowego Zachodu USA, [Art and archaeology of the pre-Hispanic Native American cultures in the US Southwest]. Krakow: Jagiellonian University Press (pp. 1-536).
• 2017 Mity i legendy Indian Ameryki Północnej, cz. II. R. Erdoes i A. Ortiz (ed.), translation by Agata Świerzowska [American Indians Myths and Legends, originally published in 1984 in the USA], ed. by R. Palonka and A. Słupianek (series editor R. Palonka). Krakow: Alter Publishing House (pp. 1-357).
• 2011 Defensive Architecture and the Depopulation of the Mesa Verde Region, Utah-Colorado, USA in the XIII Century A.D., Prace Archeologiczne No. 64, Krakow: Jagiellonian University Press (1-240).

Articles (selected):

• 2020 Ancestral Pueblo settlement structure and sacred landscape at Castle Rock Community, Colorado. Antiquity 94(374): 491–511 (co-authors: Kathleen O'Meara, Katarzyna Ciomek, Zi Xu). DOI: https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2020.31
• 2020 Szamani, bizony i wojownicy. Indiańska sztuka naskalna z Kolorado i Utah. Archeologia Żywa 1(75): 43-49.
• 2019 Rock Art from the Lower Sand Canyon in the Mesa Verde Region, Southwestern Colorado, USA. Kiva. Journal of Southwestern Anthropology and History 85(3): 232-256. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00231940.2019.1643071
• 2019 Towers as an Architectural Element of Pueblo Culture in the Mesa Verde Region, Utah-Colorado, in the 12th-13th Century A.D. in R. Oram (ed.), Tower Studies 3, URBS TURRITA–Urban Towers in Medieval and Renaissance Europe. Donington: Shaun Tyas, pp: 16-35.
• 2019 Arquitectura defensiva de la cultura Pueblo en los cañones de la región Mesa Verde, Colorado, EE.UU. Estudios Latinoamericanos, vol. 39: Papers in Honour of Andrzej Krzanowski - Part I/ Estudios dedicados a Andrzej Krzanowski, pp. 185–213.
• 2018 Unikatowa kolekcja ostrzy liściowatych Indian północnoamerykańskich w zbiorach Muzeum Archeologicznego w Krakowie, [A Unique Collection of Projectile Points from North American Indian Cultures at the Archaeological Museum in Kraków]. Materiały Archeologiczne vol. XLII (42): 81-119 (co-author: Elżbieta Chochorowska).
• 2017 Shamans, spirals and warriors – rock art in Castle Rock Pueblo community, Colorado, USA through Native American oral traditions and archaeological interpretations, EXPRESSION, no. 16: 112-125.
• 2017 Dawny świat Indian Pueblo: sztuka naskalna kanionów regionu Mesa Verde w Kolorado, US, [Ancient Pueblo World: Rock Art of the Canyons of the Mesa Verde Region, Colorado, USA], in A. Rozwadowski (ed.), Sztuka naskalna. Polskie doświadczenia badawcze. Polski Instytut Studiów nad Sztuką Świata-Polish Institute of World Art Studies, STUDIES AND MONOGRAPHS, vol. 24, pp. 167–195.
• 2016 Architecture, rock art and the settlement structure in the Castle Rock Community, Mesa Verde region, Colorado, Antiquity, 90(349), Project Gallery, online: http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/palonka349
• 2015 Collection of pottery and lithic materials form the Mesa Verde region, Colorado, USA, at the Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Contributions in New World Archaeology, vol. 8: 105–123 (co-authors: J. Kościuk, A. Drabik).
• 2013 Pueblo culture settlement structure in the central Mesa Verde Region, Utah-Colorado in the Thirteenth Century AD, in Kadrow S. and Włodarczak P. (eds.), Environment and subsistence – forty years after Janusz Kruk’s „Settlement studies…” (= Studien zur Archäologie in Ostmitteleuropa/Studia nad Pradziejami Europy Środkowej 11),. Rzeszow, Bonn: Mitel & Verlag Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, pp. 193–224.
• 2009 Goodman Point Pueblo: Research on the Final Period of Settlement of the Ancestral Pueblo Indians in the Mesa Verde Region, Colorado, USA, The Preliminary Report, 2005–2006 Seasons. Recherches Archeologiques, Nouvelle Serie 1: 543–567 (co-author: Kristin A. Kuckelman).

Full CV

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