The World Heritage Committee,
- Having examined Documents WHC/19/43.COM/8B and WHC/19/43.COM/INF.8B1,
- Inscribes Krzemionki Prehistoric Striped Flint Mining Region, Poland, on the World Heritage List on the basis of criteria (iii) and (iv);
- Takes note of the following provisional Statement of Outstanding Universal Value:
Brief synthesis
Krzemionki prehistoric striped flint mining region (in short: Krzemionki) is located in the north-eastern fringe of the Świętokrzyskie (Holy Cross) Mountains in central Poland on both sides of Kamienna River. It is a serial property comprised of four component parts: the principal Krzemionki Opatowskie Mining Field; two smaller mining fields, Borownia and Korycizna, aligned on the same geological structure; and the Gawroniec prehistoric miners’ permanent settlement that received rough axes from the mines for finishing and polishing prior to distribution. The property dates from 3,900 BCE to 1,600 BCE (Neolithic to Early Bronze Age) and is one of the largest known complexes of its type. It is also the most complete and wholly readable socio-technical system of prehistoric underground flint mining and processing known in the world, and illustrates the greatest range of prehistoric flint mining techniques known in a single property. Features include great chambers with a floor area of over 500 m2 that are unknown from any other site. Moreover, a unique type of flint – striped flint banded in exceptional zebra-like patterns of alternating shades of grey – was mined and fashioned into axes and distributed in a verifiable radius of 650 km from the complex, in present-day Germany, Czech Republic, Moravia, Slovakia, western Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania.
A diverse range of mine types are also identified with different surface expressions in a remarkably intact anthropogenic surface that presents a rare prehistoric industrial landscape of shaft depressions and up-cast waste, remnants of flint workshops, miners’ camps and communication routes. Gawroniec Settlement, integral to the functional integrity of the deposit management system, is clear testimony to the organisation of a prehistoric community based around mining.
Criterion (iii): Krzemionki prehistoric striped flint mining region is illustrative of the living and working patterns of settled prehistoric communities that distinguish the Neolithic period from that which preceded it. It provides exceptional scientific and anthropological evidence that supports a complete physical testimony of a distinctive cultural tradition that has disappeared.
The value of the nominated Property, including the integral Gawroniec Settlement (also the region’s most significant prehistoric settlement), is further enhanced by the proven distribution of striped-flint axes that have been identified in a radius of over 650 kilometres from the complex – the greatest recorded range for prehistoric flint axes as significant indicators of prehistoric movement.
Criterion (iv): Krzemionki prehistoric striped flint mining region provides exceptional evidence that the prehistoric period, which brought flint mining to produce tools, was a watershed period in the history of humankind. Diverse underground prehistoric mining structures are present in the nominated Property – comprising open-pit, niche-gallery, gallery, room-and-pillar, and chamber mines – and primary workshops survive intact amongst well over 4,000 shafts and pits.
Integrity
Krzemionki prehistoric striped flint mining region, as a whole, comprises the best preserved, most technically diverse and complete prehistoric flint mining assemblage known. All elements necessary to express potential Outstanding Universal Value are included in the serial property that represents the exploitation of the only deposit of striped flint to be mined in prehistory. Principle features and attributes have been confirmed in detail using a combination of historic and recent archaeological research, including Airborne Laser Scanning that has accurately mapped the sites in 3D under forest cover. The permanent settlement site, on a promontory in open agricultural fields, was archaeologically excavated in the late-1940s and ‘50s and the boundary exceeds the archaeological site boundary that contains all known evidence of prehistoric settlement.
The site does not suffer from current adverse development or neglect.
Authenticity
Krzemionki prehistoric striped flint mining region is characterised by an exceptional level of authenticity, in all its attributes, expressed in elements that include: the well preserved form and structure of the underground such as shafts, chambers, communication galleries, transport corridors, supporting pillars or waste heaps of mining and processing, as well as the aboveground industrial landscape consisting of shaft depressions and up-cast waste, remnants of flint workshops, miners’ camps and communication routes. The majority of the mining fields are left unexcavated. At Krzemionki Opatowskie Mining Field, a small segment of the mining field has been excavated archaeologically and, after some conservation work, gives unparalleled access to workings with a diversity and combination of attributes that have remained almost unchanged for over 5,000 years. Attributes of Gawroniec Settlement are equally easily read in terms of location and setting, form, and archaeological evidence that is tangible proof of organisation and process directly tied to the mining fields. Archaeological excavations were conducted between 1947 and 1961 and apart from extensive waste from flint processing, dateable evidence included pottery (large storage vessels, funnel-shaped flasks and vases, ceramic pipes, and ceramic weaving spindles) and organic remains which were radiocarbon-dated to between 3,500 and 3,200 BCE. New, additional and higher resolution, radiocarbon dates for the mining fields are being compiled during 2017–2018.
Protection and management requirements
The property is under full legal protection in its entirety. The management system for Krzemionki prehistoric striped flint mining region will be implemented by the ‘Krzemionki’ Archaeological Museum and Reserve (Muzeum Archeologiczne i Rezerwat „Krzemionki”), a local museum that is renowned in Poland and which takes a lead role in the management and protection of Krzemionki. Its organisational structure will be adapted and extended to the other three component parts in the series as part of a new property management plan process currently (2018) in development and which will be adopted in that year. Currently there are no recognisable threats or vulnerabilities to the preservation of the property for future generations.
- Requests the State Party to:
- Continue implementation of the management plan to ensure the effective protection of the property,
- Take appropriate and immediate measures to attenuate the negative impact of the working limestone quarry in the Korycizna buffer zone, to the immediate south-east of the property,
- Finalize as soon as possible the process of creating the cultural park, in order to make the buffer zones effective,
- Specify in detail how the land development plans, which are a condition for the establishment of the cultural park, will ensure that the buffer zones provide an additional level of protection for the property, in conformity with paragraphs 103 to 107 of the Operational Guidelines;
- Recommends that the State Party give consideration to the following:
- Including a heritage study methodology in the management system of the property, to ensure that any programme or project relating to the property is evaluated in terms of its impacts on the Outstanding Universal Value and the associated attributes,
- Ensuring the long-term funding of the archaeological research programme, and guaranteeing that the research objectives of the programme are adequate in view of the conservation plan;
- Also requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 2020, a report on the implementation of the above-mentioned recommendations, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 45th session in 2021.