The New Middle Palaeolithic Human Occupations in Cave 1 in Klissoura, Greece. The Investigations in 2004 – 2006

This paper presents the preliminary examination of Middle Palaeolithic levels of the Cave 1 in Klissoura. The site is located in Argolid, at Prosymna (NE Peloponnese). Geological data and C14 dates allow to put the Middle Palaeolithic of Klissoura in the middle stages of the last Ice Age between 40 and 62 thousand BP

Looking around Pestera Cu Oase: The beginnings of Upper Paleolithic in Romania

In contrast to the widely acknowledged anthropological finds in Oase Cave and to the key geographical position of Romanian territory for the assumed dispersion of Anatomically Modern Humans in Europe, the archaeological information regarding the emergence of the Upper Paleolithic in Romania remains poorly known to a broader scientific community. The prolonged theoretical and methodological isolation of the Romanian Paleolithic research has particularly contributed to keeping the regional archaeology out of the mainstream debates regarding the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in Europe. It has also encouraged the widely held belief of most Romanian archaeologists in the gradual emergence of the Upper Paleolithic, initiated from the local Mousterian. The present paper puts forward a brief examination of the Romanian archaeological record allegedly belonging to the main cultural actors involved in the transition to the Upper Paleolithic across Europe: the Late Mousterian, the so-called transitional industries, and the Aurignacian technocomplex. Doubtful stratigraphical data and radiocarbon sampling feed skepticism regarding the supposed Late Mousterian occurrences in the Southern Carpathian caves. The transitional industries ask for a similar criticism, as they either display stratigraphical mixing (e.g. the Mitoc-Valea Izvorului), or simply do not belong to the Early Upper Paleolithic chronological framework (e.g. the Ripiceni-Izvor Aurignacian). The local origin, the wide dispersal, and the surprisingly young chronology of the Aurignacian technocomplex in Romania are equally challenged. With the exception of the yet undated occurrences in Banat (Southwestern Romania), all the convincingly documented Aurignacian contexts belong to the generally accepted European chronological framework and show no particular connection to the local Mousterian. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved

Genesis of loess-like sediments and soils at the foothills of the Banat Mountains, Romania – Examples from the Paleolithic sites Româneşti and Coşava

The Paleolithic sites Rom (a) over cap nesti and Cosava, situated at the foothills of the Banat Mountains in Romania, provide an important testament of life of the first European modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) during Middle Pleniglacial. Even though these sites have been extensively excavated, little is known about the site formation of related loess-like sediments and soils. First luminescence data at the two investigated sections confirm sediments from the penultimate glacial period to the Holocene. Assigning the levels of findings is difficult, because the sediments are close to the surface and are overprinted by recent soil development. Albeluvisols, influenced by stagnic features, are the typical surface soils in the study area and on comparable morphological positions in the region. Laboratory analysis has revealed that this soil has a complex genesis from hydrolysis weathering, which is connected with the development of a fragic soil horizon, overprinting the major find horizons at both sites. By using sedimentological and geochemical methods in combination, this study aims to reconstruct sedimentary evolution and soil processes at the sites, as well as to evaluate the state of preservation and the actual content of the archeological contexts. Initial results indicate hints for a forest step and higher vegetation during MIS 3 at the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains in the Western Plain of Romania. These natural factors offer a local attractiveness of the region which could be the most important reason for the occurrence of first Anatomically Modern Humans. Our investigations lend a better understanding of the paleoenvironment as well as a first age control of Paleolithic levels for the region. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved