engleski

Responses of Prehistoric hunter-gatherers to environmental changes: Faunal Assemblage from the Cave Vela spilja on the Island of Korčula (Eastern Adriatic, Croatia)

In contrast to numerous Neolithic sites on Croatian islands, the sediments in the cave Vela spilja on the island of Korčula (Dalmatia) represent a more or less undisturbed stratigraphic/cultural sequence from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Bronze-Age and the Roman period (Čečuk & Radić 2001). Preliminary results of the analysis of faunal remains and radiocarbon dates of materials (charcoal and bones)originating from Epigravettian, Mesolithic and Early Neolithic levels of the cave profile will be presented. . These levels of the sediment also contain information about the hunters-gatherers responses to environmental changes caused by climate and sea level oscillations from the Last Glacial to the Atlantic period. This is well documented by faunal remains which indicate different subsistence pattern in different periods: hunting of deer or horses in Epigravettian, fishing in Mesolithic and first appearance of domestic animals in Early Neolithic. Therefore, considering obtained and proxy data it became obvious that, at different periods of Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene, the Dalmatian islands were inhabited with human populations which migrated synchronous to the climatic and sea level changes and exploited all natural resources in different areas of former Adriatic plain.

Epigravettian; Mesolithic; Neolithic; faunal assemblage; radiocarbon dates; paleoenvironment; Vela spilja; Island of Korčula; Eastern Adriatic; Croatia

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