Population dynamics and cultural changes in the Early Upper Palaeolithic of the Central Balkans

Recent investigations in Serbia and Montenegro have filled the gap in our knowledge of the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic in the Balkans providing us with a better understanding of the factors which influenced the appearance of the earliest Upper Palaeolithic techno-complexes in this region. In contrast to the east Balkans, the continuity between Middle and Upper Palaeolithic do exist when it concerns the inhabiting of primary ecological zones but it could not be followed when technology and settlement pattern are concerned. The dating of Šalitrena cave has revealed that Vindija cave can no longer be regarded as an isolated example of the late Neanderthal occupation in the west of the Balkans and that there are strong possibilities that Neanderthals survived in the western Balkans and the interior of the Dinarides somewhat longer than in other parts of the peninsula. We posit that the volcanic eruption before 40 ka which resulted in the Campanian Ignimbrite (CI) tephra deposition, could have had a more significant impact on the Adriatic zone where Middle Palaeolithic population density was the greatest, but had no long-term effect in the northeast part of the peninsula. We suggest that there was a temporal trend in the spread of the Upper Palaeolithic from the east to the west of the Balkans and that the Danube corridor had a significant role in its distribution. We dispute statements that the CI tephra covered the Upper Palaeolithic at several sites in the central Balkans and call into question the conclusion that there was evidence for the existence of Upper Palaeolithic communities in this area before the eruption.