Since 1999, ten research projects have been conducted at the Paleolithic site Golema Pesht, near the village Zdunje in Makedonski Brod. The stratigraphic image is composed of 21 layers, reaching to the depth of 5.5 m. The sedimentation is mostly silt and sand with the éboulis (roof rock) of ~ 0.01 cm to > 1 m in diameter. The lithic archaeological material is typologically and technologically connected with the periods of the Late, transition from Middle to Late and Middle Paleolithic. The primary raw material in the assemblage is quartz, and less frequent are quartzite, flint, rhyolite, basalt and jasper.
The research campaigns of 2013/2016 and 2018 did not include classical archaeological excavations. The applied methodology allowed opportunities and conditions for acquisition and documentation of samples from the sedimentation of the stratigraphic layers and their transport to multiple laboratories for further analyses. During the research campaigns, samples of sediment were taken for CI tephra dating (volcanic ash), electron spin resonance (ESR), and animal teeth from the previous excavation were selected.
According to the present measurements, the layer 2 of trench 2 belongs to volcanic ash from ~39/40.000 BC (MIS 3 = 58-28 ka), at the depth of 196 cm. The sample of molar from bovid (tooth from cattle?) taken from the depth of 223-235 cm according to the ESR calculation belongs to 62.000-83.000 BC (MIS 4 = 75/72-58 ka and MIS 5a = 84-75/72 ka), with the error of 21.000 years.
There is still a need of better understanding of how the bones, bone ash, volcanic ash (tephra) and éboulis (roof rock) change with heating, calcination and diagenetic change, particularly how they affect the leakage, absorption, as well as their rates and uncertainties of uranium, thorium and kalium.