The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
The rockshelter of Crvena Stijena, Montenegro, is well-known as a key Paleolithic site in the Balkan peninsula. Its 20 m deep sequence, over half of which spans the Middle Paleolithic, contains lithic industries, abundant macrofauna bearing extensive traces of human butchery activities, and large combustion features. A new excavation project, led by the University of Minnesota and the National Museum of Montenegro since 2017, has focused on the Middle Paleolithic levels with an emphasis on documenting fire use by Neanderthals. A number of analyses have been carried out in order to understand pyrotechnological behaviors, reconstruct site formation processes, and reconstruct paleoenvironments. These include anthracology, micromorphology, archaeomagnetism, and chemical characterization of minerals (in artifacts and in sediments) altered by fire. Paleoenvironmental reconstruction has been accomplished through analysis of macrobotanical remains, plant alkanes, and microfauna. Neanderthal stone-tool making and using behaviors have been studied through raw material analysis and residue analysis. Refinement of the site chronology continues through a new radiocarbon dating program as well as cryptotephrochronology. Genetic analyses have extracted hominin DNA from sediments in the site. This symposium brings together the specialists who have contributed to the project since 2017 to present their results and allow for discussion and synthesis.
Other Keywords
Paleolithic •
Geoarchaeology •
Zooarchaeology •
digital archaeology •
Caves and Rockshelters •
Hunter-Gatherers/Foragers •
Chert •
Photogrammetry •
History of Research •
Micromorphology
Geographic Keywords
Republic of Bulgaria (Country) •
Romania (Country) •
Republic of Serbia (Country) •
Republic of Moldova (Country) •
Georgia (Country) •
Europe (Continent) •
Ukraine (Country) •
Republic of Lithuania (Country) •
Republic of Latvia (Country) •
Republic of Belarus (Country)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-11 of 11)
- Documents (11)
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Avifaunal Remains from Crvena Stijena (Petrovići, Montenegro, Eastern Europe) (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Avian remains from the Paleolithic site of Crvena Stijena, located near the village Petrovići, Eastern Montenegro, have been studied. The inspected material comes from the samples collected in the field during the previous three years of research (2018, 2019, and 2021)....
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Clues about Neanderthal Fire Technology and Climate from a Microstratrigraphic Study of Unit XXIV at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A trend in the past few decades of archaeological research is to apply different microstratigraphic techniques, which provide clues about behavioral and paleoenvironmental aspects of past societies. At Crvena Stijena (Montenegro), a Middle Paleolithic site under current...
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History of Research at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro, 1954–2016 (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The rockshelter of Crvena Stijena has been well-known for over 60 years as one of the most important prehistoric archaeological sites in the Balkan Peninsula. Discovered in 1954, its excavations in the ensuing decade by renowned Yugoslavian prehistorians revealed a...
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Integrating Research Methods with Local Regulations: Designing the Excavation and Proveniencing System for the Middle Paleolithic Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Theoretically informed research methods are only as good as the ability of the research team to put the methods into action. Between the well-intentioned plans of the PIs and the successful elucidation of fascinating anthropological questions lie the practicalities of...
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Micromorphological Investigations of Site Formation History between Layers XVII and XVIII at Middle Paleolithic Rockshelter Crvena Stijena, Montenegro (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Rockshelters are subject to many geological processes driven by natural and human agents alike. The sedimentary context that surrounds artifactual data is a vital resource to the scientific exploration of human behavior in the Middle Paleolithic. To connect assemblages and...
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New Insights on Neanderthal Subsistence Strategies in Central Europe Using Faunal and ZooMS Analyses at Crvena Stijena (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While considerable research on Middle and Late Pleistocene subsistence has been conducted in Western Europe, little is known about variation in the hunting abilities and dietary behavior of Neanderthal populations in Central Europe. Here, we present new faunal results from...
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PALEOENVIRONMENTAL AND PALEOCLIMATIC RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CRVENA STIJENA SITE (MONTENEGRO, SOUTH EUROPE) (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The small vertebrates from Crvena Stijena are a good proxy for the investigation of the changes in the ecosystems in the past, related to climatic variations. We investigate the local paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic changes that occurred in the area and compare the...
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Photogrammetry, Excavation Surfaces, and Sediment Packages: Measuring Site Occupational Intensity at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In order to understand changes in the way hominins have used a site through time, it is critical to understand temporal changes in artifact density (i.e., a quantitative measure of the number of artifacts relative to the amount of supporting sediment in a given stratigraphic...
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A Preliminary Overview of the Lithic Raw Material Outcrops Southeast of Crvena Stijena (Area of Vilusi–Grahovo–Boka Kotorska), Montenegro (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Crvena Stijena rockshelter is located on the Banjani Karst Plateau in westernmost Montenegro. Excavations at one of the longest human occupation sequences in the Balkans yielded 20 Middle Paleolithic layers containing numerous artifacts and faunal remains. Recent...
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Synthesizing Results from the 2017–2022 Excavations at Crvena Stijena (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The excavations at Crvena Stijena from 2017–2022 have had two main objectives. The first is to test the Sandgathe/Dibble hypothesis that Neanderthals did not have the ability to make fire; rather, they were dependent on natural occurrences of fire. The testable implication...
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Using ZooMS to Reconstruct Neanderthal Faunal Exploitation in the Early Sequence of Crvena Stijena, Montenegro (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Crvena Stijena is one of the most significant Paleolithic sites in southeastern Europe. Although scientific excavations conducted here in the 1950s, 1960s, and since 2004 have uncovered several Middle Paleolithic faunal assemblages, the results of the early excavations were...