Preliminary Comparison and Chronology of the Lithic Blade and Bladelet Assemblages at the Onset of the Upper Palaeolithic from Bacho Kiro, Temnata and Kozarnika Caves in the Eastern Balkans (Bulgaria)

Abstract

Abstract This chapter presents a renewed assessment of three landmark Palaeolithic sites in the Eastern Balkans (Bacho Kiro, Temnata and Kozarnika caves) from the transitional Middle to Upper Palaeolithic period (about 50 to 39 thousand years ago). The ongoing investigations at Bacho Kiro Cave allow for data attribution of the regional blade assemblages to the Eurasian Initial Upper Palaeolithic (IUP). Comparison of contextual information, chronological markers lithic technologies, fauna and worked bone assemblages are undertaken to discuss the establishment and duration of the IUP in the Eastern Balkans, and its connection with the preceding Levallois-Mousterian and subsequent Early Upper Palaeolithic (EUP) bladelet industry from Kozarnika Cave. The Eastern Balkans, a major migration corridor, represent a physical link between the IUP sites in Southwest Asia and Central Europe, and between the EUP sites in the Levant (Ahmarian) and Western Europe (Protoaurignacian). The preliminary comparison suggests that there are two distinct technological traditions at the onset of the UP, corresponding to at least two consecutive H. sapiens dispersal waves (IUP and EUP). It is still unclear if the Levallois-Mousterian assemblages represent an interaction between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, or if they resulted from a previous IUP dispersal.