A Preliminary Overview of the Lithic Raw Material Outcrops Southeast of Crvena Stijena (Area of Vilusi–Grahovo–Boka Kotorska), Montenegro

Author(s): Vasilije Marojevic; Zoran Kilibarda; Gilbert Tostevin; Alec Siurek

Year: 2023

Summary

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 investigations of MP strata raised questions regarding the nature of Neanderthal occupation at the site as well as mobility and land-use strategies. Since raw material studies provide the ideal framework for understanding hunter-gatherer territories, our study aims to present the first integrated approach to the lithic raw materials exploited by the Neanderthals from Crvena Stijena. Fieldwork in June 2022 focused on early Jurassic shallow-water formations from the Adriatic Carbonate Platform and Triassic-Cretaceous deep-water bedded chert and pelagic limestones from the Budva Zone, both south of Crvena Stijena. Three localities within the Adriatic Carbonate Platform contained oblate grayish to white chert nodules. Two localities in Budva Zone in coastal Montenegro contained reddish, greenish, or grayish bedded chert. In total, 26 samples have been selected for petrographic analysis, while the XRF analysis determined the chemical composition of 30 samples. We present the results of the preliminary investigation and discuss their implications for Neanderthal raw material procurement and technological behavior.

Cite this Record

A Preliminary Overview of the Lithic Raw Material Outcrops Southeast of Crvena Stijena (Area of Vilusi–Grahovo–Boka Kotorska), Montenegro. Vasilije Marojevic, Zoran Kilibarda, Gilbert Tostevin, Alec Siurek. Presented at The 88th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2023 ( tDAR id: 473148)

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Keywords

General
Archaeometry & Materials Analysis: Petrography • Chert • Hunter-Gatherers/Foragers • Non-Ceramic • Paleolithic

Geographic Keywords
Mediterranean

Spatial Coverage

min long: -10.151; min lat: 29.459 ; max long: 42.847; max lat: 47.99 ;

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36391.0