KOZARNIKA CAVE (Nikolai Sirakov – nikolaysirakov@gmail.com, Jean-Luc Guadelli) The explorations continued in Sectors I and III in the entry hall of the cave and in the gallery towards the interior. In Sector III layers of the middle and partly the initial phases of the Upper Paleolithic period were documented, dated by the features of the flint artifacts: retouched flakes related to Gravettian Culture, and a small bone point dated to the transition of the Middle and the Upper Paleolithic and the initial Upper Paleolithic period. In Sector III, contexts with similar small bone points, sometimes with Aurignacian flint artifacts, were dated to 37,800±900 – 36,600±750 BP. In Sector I, in Trenches DE7–DE10 the explorations of the layers of the middle phases of the Middle Paleolithic period (before 75,000 BP) were launched in Stratum 10a. Hearths, faunal remains and flint artifacts of the middle phases of the Middle Paleolithic period with aspects of Levallois/Mousterian technique were discovered. Scrapers, some of them retouched, and awls were found. The faunal remains included hunting prey: Capra cf. Caucasica, Cervidae ind., Megaloceros giganteus, rarely Equus caballus cf. Germanicus and very few Mammuthus primigenius, and predators: Ursus spelaeus, Crocuta crocuta spelaea, Canis lupus and rarely Vulpes vulpes. This particular fauna indicated grassy-grade landscape with wooded areas and moderate humidity. The documented stages of the Middle Paleolithic period dated to 110,000 – 80,000 / 75,000 BP and were related to local Neanderthal groups. It is also possible that groups of early Middle Eastern Homo sapiens (still Middle Paleolithic) were present during the middle phases of the Middle Paleolithic period in Kozarnika Cave.