An important role in the extraction and utilisation of siliceous rocks was played by the Udorka Valley region, situated in the south-eastern part of the Ryczów Upland. In this region, numerous outcropsof various siliceous rocks are located including outcrops of chocolate flint, and many sites with artefacts from chocolate flint dated from the Middle Palaeolithic. In Udorka Valley, in the area of chocolate flint outcrop, a number of small depressions in the ground with unfinished flint artefacts were encountered and which have been tentatively considered to be remnants of the activities of prehistoric miners. The area under scrutiny was investigated using airborne laser scanning methods (LiDAR, ALS). This paper presents the preliminary results.

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We know that on the Polish territories that belonged to Austrian and Russian Empires, from the second partof the 18th till the 19th centuries, gunflint workshops were operating. One of the workshop centres were situatedin the Kraków region (southern Poland) and others were located in the regions of Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukraine,former Austrian monarchy) and Kremenets (Ukraine, former Russian monarchy). The number of workshops,the quantity of products and their export gave them significance on a European scale. We used several methodsto preliminary investigate the area near Kraków using LiDAR and field verification. We analysis three modernflint mines in this region – Zelków, Karniowice and Mników which have preserved anthropogenic relief andwell-preserved flint workshops on the surface. Flints obtained during field verification (studies included a setof cores and technological blanks) were analyzed. Our efforts allowed us to attempt to recreate the chaîne opératoirefor Polish gunflint workshops as well to determine differences between particular sites.

Two chalcedonite artefacts from the Magdalenian site of Cmiel ow 95 (Poland), with macroscopic features suggestive of thermal treatment, were subjected to a multi-instrumental analysis. The red upper layer of the objects consists of "protohematite", implying temperature-driven, goethite-to-hematite transition. The red layer shows traces of carbonized matter with saccharides and levoglucosan (from burning wood) as well as fatty acids. PXRD data suggest a source of higher temperatures (up to $800 C) within the bottom layer, with $200-300 C range ascribed to the red layer. On the basis of the collected data the artefacts are proposed to be relics of cooking stones.