Facebook Instagram Twitter RSS Feed PodBean Back to top on side

News

Gradual reduction of the cultural layer

Research in the Deravá skala cave also focuses on the extinction of the Neanderthals in our territory

26. 9. 2024 | 1046 visits

The issue of the transition between the Middle and Early Paleolithic Period (approximately 50,000-40,000 years ago, Paleolithic - Old Stone Age) is one of the most important topics in the research of the Old Stone Age. This is the period when the last Neanderthals die out and are replaced by anatomically modern people. Extensive scientific research with the excavation of new sites and the re-evaluation of older sites took place primarily in Western Europe. In the central part of Europe, including Slovakia, relatively few researches were focused in this way. Scientists from the Institute of Archaeology SAS in Nitra and other foreign institutions therefore decided to re-examine the Deravá skala cave near Plavecký Mikuláš.

This period of coexistence or exchange of different human species was relatively short (it lasted several hundred years to potentially several thousand years), so it is very difficult to answer specific questions regarding this event. As part of a broader interdisciplinary collaboration, together with other experts from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Australia and France, the Institute of Archaeology SAS focused on the revision research of the Deravá skala cave near Plavecký Mikuláš. It has already been studied by several prominent researchers and research teams in the past but the development of new multidisciplinary methods currently offers new and interesting possibilities for obtaining more detailed information from the mentioned key period of human evolution.

Precise micro research

The main aim of the research was to achieve a fine chronology of cultural activities, as well as knowledge about the characteristics of the local environment and climate during the Early and Middle Paleolithic when sedimentary layers were being deposited in the cave.

The research was carried out on a minimal scale, on an area of ​​approximately 1x1 m, which was more than sufficient considering the use of new archaeological and natural research methods. The finds from the individual layers contained the finds of various archaeological cultures, the so-called Gravettian and Aurignacian, belonging to the anatomically modern man, and the Micoquien culture, whose carriers were certainly Neanderthals.

Methodologically, it was not classic archaeological research, but the scientists also focused on analyses with the help of various natural sciences. We will learn about the research results gradually. These include archaeobotanics (coals, pollen, phytoliths, parenchyma), palaeontology (macrofauna and microfauna), analysis of soot, stone and bone artefacts, geochemistry (XRF, trace elements).

Geological methods will also be used for the genesis of sediments (micromorphology, granulometry, magnetic susceptibility, analysis of the presence of phosphorus, etc.). Organic finds are applied to radiocarbon dating, depending on specific contexts. They will be supplemented by exact geochronological dating methods (e.g. OSL or ESR dating) and sedimentary eDNA.

The aforementioned multidisciplinary methods can help solve questions related to the disappearance of our Neanderthal cousins ​​and the arrival of our ancestors - modern humans.

 

Related articles