On the youngest traces of human activity in Stajnia Cave

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the archaeological assemblages from the uppermost layers of Stajnia Cave in Mirów (Niegowa commune, Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, southern Poland), explored in 2006-2010. The finds can be separated into three main chronological units: Late Prehistory, Middle Ages, and Post-Medieval times. Late Prehistory is represented only by a bronze arrowhead and a spindle whorl made of limestone. The medieval occupation of the cave is evidenced by dozens of pottery pieces dated to the 13th-early 14th c. and to the 14th-15th c. The vast majority of the assemblage is thought to date broadly to the Post-Medieval period. It is represented by nearly 900 pottery sherds (the 17th-18th c. and the 19th c.). Thanks to written accounts, a percentage of the earlier Post-medieval finds can be correlated with the events of 1702-1704 when, during the Great Northern War, local villagers reportedly sought refuge “in forests and rocks”. A percentage of the 19th c. assemblage may be conditionally inter-preted as a remnant of the cave’s occupation during the wartime events of the january Uprising of 1863, when the site might have provided shelter for a group of Polish insurgents.