engleski

Epigravettian in the north-western Balkans: old and new data

In our presentation we will give an overview of various aspects of material culture left by Epigravettian hunter-gatherers in north-western Balkans together with chronology and settlement dynamics. We critically review old and present new data contributing to better understanding of regional Epigravettian. Epigravettian techno- complex encompasses time frame from approximately 25, 000 until 11, 500 cal BP. Its archaeological evidence, both old and new, is biased and almost exclusively known from cave and rockshelter sites, although certain progress should be expected with recently discovered Epigravettian stratified open- air site Konjevrate in central Eastern Adriatic. Epigravettian is the best documented period of human presence in the north-western Balkans during Palaeolithic. At the same time, it is highly fragmented because the region experienced significant palaeogeographic changes across the Pleistocene-Holocene transition when Pleistocene Adriatic Plain was flooded and disappeared. For this reason, the current overview represents only a partial picture that does not cover the whole space that Epigravettian groups used to exploit or all the aspects of their everyday life during Last Glacial Maximum and Late Glacial. Despite all biases and constraints that surround the research on Epigravettian, this review shows that caves and rock shelters provided significant amount of data about different aspects of Epigravettian hunter- gatherers’ lifeways, i.e. lithic production, raw material provisioning areas, food procurement, body adornment, settlement dynamics, rock and portable art.

Epigravettian, north-western Balkans, chronology, settlement dynamics, material culture, caves and rockshelters

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