Summary (English)
KOZARNIKA CAVE (Jean-Luc Guadelli – jeanluc.guadelli@wanadoo.fr, Nikolai Sirakov) The exploration of the middle phases of the Lower Paleolithic sequence continued in Sectors 7 – 8 situated in the entrance of the cave. The lower part of layer 11b was explored and the exploration of the upper part of layer 11c began. The flint assemblages included scrap from the production process and retouched fragments. The typologically diagnostic shapes included flint scrapers and a fragment with Levalloisian appearance. Layer 12 was explored in Sector 12 and the exploration of layer 13a/13b began. The density of the bones from the hunted animals significantly decreased, evidently reflecting the lower intensity of the occupation related to the demographic situation during the early settlement in the cave when the population of the hominids was small. The explorations displayed the continuous and gradually increasing occupation in the cave for at least one million years (from 1.6 – 1.4 to 0.4 Ma BP). The fauna assemblages from the Lower Paleolithic period included Homotherium cf. crenatides testifying that the early phases (layers 13a/13b) in the cave dated to the beginning of the Early Pleistocene (1.6 – 1.3 Ma BP) and Hemitragus orientalis from the beginning of the Early Pleistocene (1.8 – 1.4 Ma BP). The exploration of the Middle Paleolithic sequence in Sector 71 situated in the cave interior continued. Layers from the end of the Middle and the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic periods were explored in trenches J-71 and I-71, but no diagnostic artifacts that may provide more precise chronology were discovered. The beginning of the Upper Paleolithic period (layers 6/7) preceded the traces from the Campanian Ignimbrite related to intensive volcanic activity in Southern Italy which occurred around 39,000 BP. This situation indicated the less significant influence of the ecological factors for the disappearance of the Neanderthals and the appearance of Homo sapiens. The change of the human populations during the transition from the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic periods was a gradual process with regional differences.
- Jean-Luc Guadelli - PACEA/IPGQ–UMR CNRS 5199, Université Bordeaux I 
- Nikolai Sirakov - Archaeological Institute with Museum 
Director
Team
Research Body
- Archaeological Institute with Museum
- Université Bordeaux I