TY - JOUR
T1 - Connections between the Levant and the Balkans in the late Middle Pleistocene
T2 - Archaeological findings from Velika and Mala Balanica Caves (Serbia)
AU - Mihailović, Dušan
AU - Kuhn, Steven L.
AU - Bogićević, Katarina
AU - Dimitrijević, Vesna
AU - Marín-Arroyo, Ana B.
AU - Marković, Jelena
AU - Mercier, Norbert
AU - Mihailović, Bojana
AU - Morley, Mike W.
AU - Radović, Predrag
AU - Rink, William J.
AU - Plavšić, Senka
AU - Roksandic, Mirjana
N1 - Funding Information:
D.M., S.K., and M.R. would like to acknowledge Sofija Dragosavac, Joshua Lindal, Miroslav Lazić, Ljubica Stajić, Dragan Videnović, and Luis Manuel Viera Sanfiel for technical help in preparing the manuscript. Funding was provided by the Ministry of Culture and Information and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia (project 177023) to D.M., NSERC RGPIN-2017-04702 and 499 RGPIN-2019-04113 to M.R., and LaScarbx ( ANR-10-LABX-52 ) to N.M. W.J.R. acknowledges funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada to support the mass spectrometric measurements at the University of Quebec at Montreal.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2022/2
Y1 - 2022/2
N2 - Major changes in the technological, economic, and social behavior of Middle Pleistocene hominins occurred at the onset of the Middle Paleolithic, 400–200 ka. However, until recently it was not possible to establish when, where, and how certain forms of Middle Paleolithic behavior appeared and spread into Southeastern Europe, mainly owing to gaps in the Paleolithic record. Here we report new results of dating, material culture, and the archaeological context of finds from the Balanica Cave Complex in Sićevo (Serbia). Two methods—thermoluminescence and electron spin resonance—were used to date the sequence. The geoarchaeological context was examined through sedimentology, micromorphology, and spatial analysis. Microfaunal remains were used to constrain the dates within an ecological zone, whereas macrofauna was analyzed for taxonomy and taphonomy to examine the source of accumulation and hominin behavior. Technological and typological features of the lithic assemblage were used to characterize lithic production at the site. Materials recovered from Layer 3 in Velika Balanica and from Layer 2 in Mala Balanica, both dated to MIS 9–7, include a distinctive set of archaeological assemblages which resemble contemporaneous Yabrudian assemblages from the Levant in important ways, and which are unlike contemporary material from the surrounding regions. In Velika Balanica, the lithic assemblages are associated with a large fireplace containing evidence of human activities similar to those from Qesem Cave (Israel). Dental remains uncovered in the same layer are consistent with Neanderthals. These findings suggest that the end of the Middle Pleistocene (before 300–240 ka) saw population movement and/or cultural transmission between Southwest Asia and the Balkans, which led eventually to a transfer of technology between Middle Eastern and European hominin populations and contributed to the shaping of Neanderthal behaviors throughout the eastern and northern Mediterranean.
AB - Major changes in the technological, economic, and social behavior of Middle Pleistocene hominins occurred at the onset of the Middle Paleolithic, 400–200 ka. However, until recently it was not possible to establish when, where, and how certain forms of Middle Paleolithic behavior appeared and spread into Southeastern Europe, mainly owing to gaps in the Paleolithic record. Here we report new results of dating, material culture, and the archaeological context of finds from the Balanica Cave Complex in Sićevo (Serbia). Two methods—thermoluminescence and electron spin resonance—were used to date the sequence. The geoarchaeological context was examined through sedimentology, micromorphology, and spatial analysis. Microfaunal remains were used to constrain the dates within an ecological zone, whereas macrofauna was analyzed for taxonomy and taphonomy to examine the source of accumulation and hominin behavior. Technological and typological features of the lithic assemblage were used to characterize lithic production at the site. Materials recovered from Layer 3 in Velika Balanica and from Layer 2 in Mala Balanica, both dated to MIS 9–7, include a distinctive set of archaeological assemblages which resemble contemporaneous Yabrudian assemblages from the Levant in important ways, and which are unlike contemporary material from the surrounding regions. In Velika Balanica, the lithic assemblages are associated with a large fireplace containing evidence of human activities similar to those from Qesem Cave (Israel). Dental remains uncovered in the same layer are consistent with Neanderthals. These findings suggest that the end of the Middle Pleistocene (before 300–240 ka) saw population movement and/or cultural transmission between Southwest Asia and the Balkans, which led eventually to a transfer of technology between Middle Eastern and European hominin populations and contributed to the shaping of Neanderthal behaviors throughout the eastern and northern Mediterranean.
KW - Cultural transmission
KW - Early Quina
KW - Neanderthals
KW - Population movements
KW - Yabrudian
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.103138
DO - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.103138
M3 - Article
C2 - 35066426
AN - SCOPUS:85123103061
SN - 0047-2484
VL - 163
JO - Journal of human evolution
JF - Journal of human evolution
M1 - 103138
ER -