The genetic history of the Southern Arc: a bridge between West Asia and Europe

By sequencing 727 ancient individuals from the Southern Arc (Anatolia and its neighbors in Southeastern Europe and West Asia) over 10,000 years, we contextualize its Chalcolithic period and Bronze Age (about 5000 to 1000 BCE), when extensive gene flow entangled it with the Eurasian steppe. Two streams of migration transmitted Caucasus and Anatolian/Levantine ancestry northward, and the Yamnaya pastoralists, formed on the steppe, then spread southward into the Balkans and across the Caucasus into Armenia, where they left numerous patrilineal descendants. Anatolia was transformed by intra–West Asian gene flow, with negligible impact of the later Yamnaya migrations. This contrasts with all other regions where Indo-European languages were spoken, suggesting that the homeland of the Indo-Anatolian language family was in West Asia, with only secondary dispersals of non-Anatolian Indo-Europeans from the steppe

Kamenica (Albania)

The site has been discoivered by Rudenc Ruca. The main data has been achieved based on field-research. Practically, this is an unexplored, extremely attractive region due to many carbonate cliffs where caves and shelters are accessible and preserve deposits. The first step concerned an archaeological survey aimed to detect the number, position and the context of each one of these potentially valuable settlements. Priority will be paid to certain contexts in function of their position along the cliff and with respect to the fluvial valley bottom, their size, orientation, degree of preservation. GPS recording, surface collection, examination of natural exposures, excavation, plough soils surfaces, gullies and fluvial erosional banks, etc.

Rezultate paraprake të ekspeditës përnjohëse në Malin e Rencit dhe Malin e Kakarriqit, në Shqipërinë veriperëndimore

Kurti Rovena, Ruka Rudenc, Gjipali Ilir. Rezultate paraprake të ekspeditës përnjohëse në Malin e Rencit dhe Malin e Kakarriqit, në Shqipërinë veriperëndimore. In: Iliria, vol. 38, 2014. pp. 181-190

Kërkimet për Paleolitin e Mezolitin në Shqipëri – 2012

Gjipali Ilir, Richter J., Ruka R., Hauck Thomas. Kërkimet për Paleolitin e Mezolitin në Shqipëri – 2012. In: Iliria, vol. 37, 2013. pp. 281-290

Fshati mesjetar i Kamenicës, 2013

Ristani Irklid, Muçaj Skënder, Xhyheri Suela, Ruka Rudenc. Fshati mesjetar i Kamenicës, 2013. In: Iliria, vol. 38, 2014. pp. 431-449

Eugène Pittard: Archaeological Explorations in Southeast Albania

During recent decades, prehistoric research in Albania has witnessed a revival of archival studies as well as fieldwork, regarding foreign archaeological activity prior to the Second World War. Some of this research has proved very successful, providing a wealth of new information, while in other cases, it has been unfruitful. In the same context, research was initiated on the not fully published archaeological work of Eugène Pittard, a noted Swiss scholar and physical anthropologist. His fieldwork in 1921 represents an important contribution to the early research history of Albania with regards to prehistory

Shpella e Pëllumbasit (Tiranë)

Gjipali Ilir, Ruka R., White D., Hasa E., Angjellari F. Shpella e Pëllumbasit (Tiranë). In: Iliria, vol. 37, 2013. pp. 275-280

Recent discoveries of Aurignacian and Epigravettian sites in Albania

Albania is a possible stepping-stone for the dispersal of Homo sapiens into Europe, since Palaeolithic traces (namely from the so-called Uluzzian culture) have been discovered in neighboring Greece and Italy. After two years of searching for evidence of modern humans in Albania we here report on excavated test trenches representing two time slices: an Aurignacian open-air site from southern Albania and two Epigravettian cave sites in central and northern Albania—areas heretofore archaeologically unknown. The new Albanian data fill a gap in the eastern Adriatic archaeological record for Marine Isotope Stages 3 and 2. Adding current knowledge of Late Pleistocene landscape evolution, a “contextual area model” can be constructed describing the habitats of these human populations