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Late Middle and Early Upper Paleolithic in the Eastern Adriatic

Late Middle Paleolithic in the eastern Adriatic coast is relatively well known and discussed in the literature. On the other hand, early Upper Paleolithic sites in the same region are scarce, while in particular the sites from early Aurignacian are completely lacking. Moreover, sites with stratigraphy encompassing late Middle Paleolithic and early Upper Paleolithic have not yet been found. In the last 20 years research of late Middle Paleolithic has been conducted in the eastern Adriatic with different intensity in different regions (e.g., Mujina Cave and Velika Cave in Kličevica in Dalmatia, open-air site Kampanož and Romualdo Cave in Istria). AMS and ESR dates give good temporal frame for late Middle Paleolithic. At the same time new AMS dates from recent excavations from Velika Cave in Kličevica (funded by the Croatian Science Foundation) rise numerous questions about the end of Mousterian in the region and/or reliability of those dates. Contrary to this, radiocarbon dates for early Upper Paleolithic are scarce and were made long time ago, hence bringing into question their reliability as is supported by their very late age for Aurignacian. Only one recent AMS date from Šandalja II could represent real Aurignacian age. According to current data there is a hiatus of several thousand years between late Middle and early Upper Paleolithic in the eastern Adriatic. The reasons for such fragmentary record of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition could be multifold: - relatively short and unsystematic research of Paleolithic in the region ; - paleoenvironmental change, i.e. sea-level rise probably destroyed potential sites ; - low population density during early Upper Paleolithic ; - no temporal overlap between late Neandertals and early modern humans. Future research in the region should be primarily focused on finding new sites that would shed light on some of the above raised issues.

Eastern Adriatic; Late Middle Paleolithic; Early Upper Paleolithic; Mousterian; Aurignacian; 14C dating

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