First insights into the Mesolithic settlement of Southern Serbia: excavation of the Pešterija Cave in the Ponišavlje Region

Despite extensive research and excavations across the central Balkans, Early Holocene sites have so far been documented only in the Iron Gates region – for which there are several possible explanations. Some scholars argue that the apparent lack of Mesolithic sites is due to inadequate research efforts in the region, while others suggest that the ecological conditions in the central Balkans during the Early Holocene may not have been favourable to the subsistence of hunter-gatherer communities. Contrary to previous beliefs, recent investigations of caves in eastern Serbia have revealed that humans inhabited the region during the Mesolithic. Traces of settlement of Mesolithic groups, dating back to the 7^th millennium cal BC and employing comparable technology and economic practices to Mesolithic communities in other parts of the Balkan Peninsula, have been documented at the Pešterija Cave, situated south of Pirot in southeastern Serbia. The fact that the site is located relatively close to the oldest Neolithic sites in the Iron Gates and northwest Bulgaria, and is potentially contemporaneous with them, offers a completely new perspective on the transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic in this part of the Balkans.