New research on the Late Pleistocene in the Lim Channel, Istria

Abstract

As a part of the multidisciplinary project entitled ‘Archaeological Investigations into the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene of the Lim Channel, Istria’, archaeological research has been conducted at four sites: Romuald's Cave, Abri Kontija 002, Pećina at Rovinjsko Selo and Lim 001 (Figure 1). There is much debate on issues related to biological and behavioural continuity, to patterns of changes and adaptations during this crucial period, and to external factors (e.g. changes in ecology and climate). For example, a clearer insight is needed into how climatic change affects the ecology of specific regions, including changing sea levels. Additionally, there continues to be debate centring on who produced the earliest (Initial) Upper Palaeolithic industries in Europe. To achieve a more precise insight into long-term diachronic changes and cultural relations around the Adriatic, and to document the presence of Middle and Upper Palaeolithic humans in Istria, we concentrated on a single microregion (the Lim Channel in Istria, Croatia). Here we report work on the two sites that to date have yielded Pleistocene material: Romuald's Cave and Abri Kontija 002.

Expanding the horizons of Palaeolithic rock art: the site of Romualdova Pećina

“…In the 1960s, M. Malez re-excavated the site and identified evidence for Bronze Age and the Early Upper Palaeolithic human occupations (Malez 1981). Two recent projects, undertaken by D. Komšo (2008) and I. Janković (Janković et al 2017), have confirmed the existence of these two occupation levels, and also documented a lower layer, which has yielded several lithic tools that date typologically to the Middle Palaeolithic. The following stratigraphic sequence was recorded: below the topmost Bronze Age layer (3.4–3.2ky cal BP) was an approximately 1.5m-thick sequence of culturally sterile, natural layers.…”

“…It is worth noting, however, that it is rare for contamination of a radiocarbon sample to produce an artificially older date, even more so if two samples are affected. The second argument is the lack of evidence for contemporaneous human occupation in either the cave, or in close proximity to the rock art; all the Upper Palaeolithic occupation identified in the cave dates to the Early Upper Palaeolithic (Jankovic et al 2017). Although this argument is circumstantial, as many Upper Palaeolithic cave art sites in Western Europe have no associated evidence for habitation, it deserves to be mentioned.…”

Beyond the Bounds of Western Europe: Paleolithic Art in the Balkan Peninsula

“…In 1960s, M. Malez (1981) re-excavated the site and identified a number of human occupations from the Bronze Age and the Early Upper Paleolithic. The projects undertaken later by D. Komšo (2008) and I. Janković confirmed the existence of two occupation levels and documented a lower layer that yielded several lithic tools assigned to the Middle Paleolithic on a typological basis (Janković et al 2017). They identified and dated three periods of occupation corresponding to the Middle Paleolithic, the Early Upper Paleolithic and the Bronze Age.…”

“…Similarly, the reexamination of the lithic industries from Šandalja II has led archaeologists to define them as Epigravettian (Karavanić 2003). At Romualdova Pećina, the dates indicate an Early Gravettian occupation spanning 34-31.5 ka cal BP (Janković et al 2017), but the lithic remains are non-diagnostic, and thus should be considered Gravettian sensu lato. In Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro human occupations from this period remain very sparse.…”

“…The entrance is one meter high and is almost completely filled by sediment. Three campaigns of archaeological excavations have been undertaken at Romualdova Pećina since the end of the 19 th century (see Janković et al 2017). In 1960s, M. Malez (1981) re-excavated the site and identified a number of human occupations from the Bronze Age and the Early Upper Paleolithic.…”