Investigating the spatial organisation of Neanderthal sites offers critical insights into their behavioural patterns, adaptive strategies, and site use. Studying how different lithic tools are organised in space and linked to specific functions is therefore essential. Kůlna Cave provides evidence of multiple occupation areas characterised by distinct activity patterns, making it a particularly suitable neanderthal site for investigating spatial organisation and testing related hypotheses. Previous interpretations, based primarily on techno-typological analyses, proposed that the cave surface was divided into clearly defined zones for activities such as tool production, carcass processing, or serving as a “central place” for interactions. However, the actual function of tools, essential for verifying such models, remained undetermined. In our study, we applied use-wear analysis to the lithic artefacts, dated to approximately 50,000 BP (Layer 7a) to assess their function and evaluate previously proposed spatial zones. Microscopic examination of artefacts excavated by between 1955–1977, focused on identifying worked materials and performed tasks, aiming to clarify the use of artefacts from different cave areas and refine interpretations of site use. The results revealed a variety of functional types and materials, correlating with distinct spatial zones. While the analysis confirmed the organised spatial structuring, it also led to a revised interpretation of functional areas, showing a more nuanced division of tasks across the cave. This research demonstrates that use-wear analysis is essential for evaluating spatial organisation in archaeological contexts, and it provides robust proxy data that significantly enhances interpretations of Middle Palaeolithic site use and Neanderthal behavioural complexity.

RATIONALE:Bone is commonly used in radiocarbon dating in archaeology and other disciplines. Despite advances in collagen extraction protocols, the process remains destructive, requiring sawing, drilling or crushing of bone material. While non-destructive approaches have recently been applied in ancient genomics and palaeoproteomics, no equivalent approach has been established for radiocarbon dating of bone. We explored whether this is possible using a series of experiments. METHODS:We experimented by using a water-based approach to extract soluble collagen from whole bone and teeth samples. We heated the samples in hot (75°C and 90°C) water for several hours. We obtained the soluble collagen fraction of the bone and purified and AMS dated the extracts. We used standard reference bones and samples from archaeological sites. RESULTS:We found that the amino acid composition, C/N atomic ratios, δ13C and δ15N values of the hot-water-extracted soluble collagen were comparable to collagen isolated from the same bones using classic Longin collagen methods. Bone and teeth from Bronze Age and Middle and Upper Paleolithic sites, which had been dated previously using routine destructive methods that involved acid demineralization, yielded dates on the water-soluble fraction that were in good agreement with these earlier results. CONCLUSIONS:We show that a minimally destructive collagen extraction, coupled with an additional purification step such as ultrafiltration or XAD-2 purification, yields identical radiocarbon ages to those obtained via the routine destructive methods, but without any visible external damage. The method may allow us in future to date precious artefacts, ornaments and museum objects without significant alteration.

For many decades, a Gravettian site cluster situated on the left bank of the Odra River (near Ostrava City, Czech Republic) has represented the prevailing and best documented evidence of Palaeolithic occupation in the Odra Basin (Northern Moravia and the Czech part of Silesia). The Magdalenian occupation was unknown until the excavations in 2022–2023 at Hošťálkovice II. Finds were concentrated in a small anthropic structure consisting of sandstone plates, mostly broken, lithic industry based on blades, quartz river pebbles and the remains of a combustion area. Directly in this structure, a siltstone pebble with an engraving of a mammoth and a horse was found. This unique piece of art is the first example of Magdalenian art in northern Moravia and the Czech part of Silesia. 3D microscope analysis shows the presence of two engraved animals—a horse and possibly a mammoth—with additional grooves and pits on the surface. The style of the engraving corresponds to the typical Magdalenian template known from Central Europe, although we note certain deviations in the depiction of individual anatomical parts. The presence of the horse is not surprising, contrary to the second animal that we identified as a mammoth. This animal has not yet been depicted in the Moravian collections. Such interpretation opens the questions related to the extinction of megafauna in Moravia during the Magdalenian period.

Over the last 150 years archaeologists in Europe have targeted caves and rock-shelters. This has both enriched our knowledge of Palaeolithic cultures, and significantly reduced the number of sites with pristine, unexcavated cultural deposits dated to the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic (MP-UP) transition available for study today. In this paper we report the discovery of in situ sediments which preserve artefacts dating to the Neanderthal-Homo sapiens transition period, at a site previously assumed to have been excavated in its entirety. Our results demonstrate the utility of re-investigating previously excavated sites and provide further support for hominin presence in the Moravian Karst during the MP-UP transition. In situ sediments with excavation potential still remain at this site. As well as their archaeological potential, these remnant deposits, which span the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 and possibly earlier stages, have considerable potential for enhancing our understanding of the palaeoenvironmental history of the Moravian Karst.

In the early 1950s, the bones of AMH ZlatP kiln 1 were discovered alongside a small collection of artefacts deep within the Koneprusy Caves system. Modern genetic research and dating techniques have placed this individual at the beginning of the modern human penetration of Europe, around 45,000 years ago. The small artefact assemblage consisted of six pieces of chipped stone industry, seven bones bearing traces of human impacts, and foreign seashell, which originated from either the Tertiary sediments of the Alpine Foredeep or the Mediterranean Sea. While the assemblage is not significant, it does not contain typical features of the younger, more evolved Aurignacian; rather, general analogies can be found in the Lincomb-Ranis-Jerzmanowice complex, which is documented at the closely related Ranis site.

Further rescue archaeological research was conducted in 2024 in the urban centre of Brno (Styrice cadastral area), where relics of a Palaeolithic settlement dating back to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM)/Last Glacial Termination (LGT) period had been repeatedly documented in the past. Construction interventions made it possible to archaeologically investigate new sites located near previous research. Specifically, these investigations focused on probes at Polni and Vojtova, where numerous paleontological remains and traces of a Palaeolithic settlement were discovered within the re-mains of intact Pleistocene sediment in a stratigraphic position identical to previous research. In this paper, we present the results of the latest research and interpret them within the context of previously acquired data. The paleontological findings demonstrate the prolonged survival of mammoth fauna representatives until the LGT period in the context of human settlement, exploiting a suitable biotope (proximity to a watercourse). Together with analyses of charcoal, phy-toliths, and pollen, the presence of assemblages of mollusc fauna indicates persistent glacial conditions. In addition to stratigraphy, intensive use of animal bones as fuel indicates contemporaneous human settlement, with recent research yielding one animal bone with anthropic impacts. The trasology of selected stone artefacts also confirmed, amongst other activities, the processing of hard animal tissues. Consistent AMS dating of Epigravettian finds in the Brno-Styrice cadastre demonstrates repeated human settlement. The investigated sites contribute to mapping and reconstructing the original area of Palaeolithic settlement across a discontinuous area of approximately 4.3 ha.

Several studies have argued that human presence in Central Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) may have been restricted to brief periods of climate warming. In particular, Greenland Interstadial-2 (GI-2, c.23,300-22,800 BP), a brief warm event recorded in Greenland ice-core stratigraphy, has been associated with human activity at Central European sites such as Kastelh & ouml;hle-Nord and Y-H & ouml;hle (Switzerland), and Kammern-Grubgraben (Austria). The Epigravettian open air site of Str & aacute;nsk & aacute; sk & aacute;la IV, a specialized horse hunting site located in Moravia (Czech Republic), purportedly provides further evidence in support of this hypothesis. However, published radiocarbon dates from Str & aacute;nsk & aacute; sk & aacute;la IV have age ranges too broad for evaluating the relationship between the chronology of occupation and Greenland ice core stratigraphy events, and low pollen abundance at the site means pollen analysis is an uncertain indicator of climatic conditions. Through a new program of radiocarbon dating and stable isotope analysis of the hunted horse remains from Str & aacute;nsk & aacute; sk & aacute;la IV, we refine the chronology of the site and provide new insights into environmental conditions during human occupation. Bayesian modelling of seven new ultra-filtered AMS dates moves the timing of site occupation back from 22.8 to 21.1 ka cal. BP to 24.1-23.0 ka cal. BP, indicating that site use occurred prior to GI-2. Stable carbon, nitrogen and sulfur bone collagen isotope results suggest that conditions were cool and arid with an open landscape. Tooth enamel oxygen isotope data indicate mean annual air temperatures of 1.2 degrees C (+/- 3.5 degrees C), consistent with climate-modelled temperature estimates for the region during the LGM. Together these data point to human occupation of the site during pronounced cold conditions characterized by temperatures similar to 8.5 degrees C below the present-day average. Our results demonstrate that human presence in central Europe during the LGM was not confined to brief warm events, adding to a growing body of evidence that early humans could tolerate more extreme climate conditions than previously thought. Perhaps, at certain times in prehistory climate played a less deterministic role in human distribution than is often assumed.

Antler is one of the primary animal raw materials exploited for technical purposes by the hunter-gatherer groups of the Eurasian Upper Palaeolithic (UP) all over the ecological range of deers, and beyond. It was exhaustively employed to produce one of the most critical tools for the survival of the UP societies: hunting weapons. However, antler implements can be made from diverse deer taxa, with different ecological requirements and ethological behaviours. Identifying the antler's origin at a taxonomic level is thus essential in improving our knowledge of humans' functional, practical and symbolic choices, as well as the human-animal interface during Prehistoric times. Nevertheless, palaeogenetics analyses have focused mainly on bone and teeth, with genetic studies of antler generally focused on modern deer conservation. Here we present the results of the first whole mitochondrial genome ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis by means of in-solution hybridisation capture of antlers from pre-Holocene archaeological contexts. We analysed a set of 50 Palaeolithic and Neolithic (c. 34-8ka) antler and osseous objects from South-Western Europe, Central Europe, South-Western Asia and the Caucasus. We successfully obtained aDNA, allowing us to identify the exploited taxa and demonstrate the archaeological relevance of those finds. Moreover, as most of the antlers were sampled using a minimally-invasive method, further analyses (morphometric, technical, genetic, radiometric and more) remain possible on these objects.

Small figurines made from fired clay belonging to the Gravettian (Pavlovian) culture (30-25 ka cal BP) represent one of the main forms of spectacular Palaeolithic art. The most well-known example is the Venus from Dolni Vestonice I in the Czech Republic, which is the biggest and best-preserved human figurine made from clay. Due to its high cultural value, exploration of the internal structures of this figurine has represented a huge challenge, as only non-destructive methods could be applied. Thanks to tremendous technological advancements, we were able to use high-resolution micro-CT imaging. This imaging revealed the structural compositions of the ceramic paste, the technology of the statuette's shaping procedure, and the taphonomy of this piece of art. We reveal that the ceramic paste was prepared from loess sediment containing stones, microfossils, and carbonate aggregates from the basement complex as an natural admixture. The particles are randomly distributed. We did not find any bones or ivory remnants inside the body. Missing joined areas of different parts of the body of the Venus indicate that the figurine was made from a single piece of clay using the non-additive method of shaping. The internal cracks in the body of the Venus statuette represent the main feature of its taphonomy and influence the way it will be manipulated in the future.

This contribution presents new information on a long-known Late Upper Palaeolithic site in the Moravian Karst in the Czech Republic: the Nová Drátenická Cave. Previous interpretations of the peculiar archaeological assemblage oscillated between attribution to the Epigravettian on the one hand and to the Magdalenian on the other, as both industries were present in Moravia after the end of the Last Glacial Maximum. In either case, a rather early dating has been supposed. We reassessed the stratigraphy, lithic and osseous industry, and subjected an antler projectile point to 14C dating and palaeoproteomic analysis. We did not find any evidence for stratigraphic mixing and, thus, propose that the assemblage of Nová Drátenická reflects a single or several successive occupations. On typo-technological grounds, we come to the conclusion that the finds are rather consistent with the Magdalenian. The radiocarbon date of the point is 16–15.7 ka cal BP, which places it in the first half of GS-2a. This is congruent with the identification of the raw material as reindeer through ZooMS. Hence, the Nová Drátenická Cave currently provides the earliest solid evidence for the Magdalenian in the Moravian Karst. Together with the contemporaneous assemblages of Kniegrotte in eastern Germany, Dzierżysław 35 in southern Poland, and potentially also Vilshofen-Kuffing in south-eastern Germany and Hranice in Moravia, it probably attests to the first major expansion of the Magdalenian into eastern Central Europe at around 16 ka cal BP.

Internal and external bony tissues from diverse mammalian taxa are one of the primary animal raw materials exploited for technical and symbolic purposes by Eurasian Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers. Identifying the source species used for osseous raw material is critical to gain insights into these populations’ behaviour, technology, and subsistence. The study of osseous tools has advanced in the last few years by combining archaeological and biomolecular methods. Ancient genomics opens many new analytical opportunities. Ancient DNA (aDNA) can provide a wealth of information about the animal sources of these objects. Unfortunately, aDNA analyses often involve destructive sampling. Here, we develop and apply a minimally-invasive aDNA sampling method for an assemblage of 42 prehistoric hunting weapons and tools from various Eurasian archaeological sites. We evaluated the impact of our approach on the specimens visually, microscopically and through Micro-CT scans. The surface impacts are marginal, ranging from 0.3-0.4 mm. Using a custom-made DNA capture kit for 54 mammalian species, we obtained sufficient aDNA to identify the taxa of 33% of the objects. For one of the tools, we recovered enough endogenous aDNA to infer the genetic affinities of the individual. Our results also demonstrate that ancient antler, one of the primary raw materials used during a large part of prehistory, is a reliable source of aDNA. Our minimally-invasive aDNA sampling method is therefore effective while preserving osseous objects for potential further analyses: morphometric, technical, genetic, radiometric and more.

As a result of the rescue excavation at 11 Vídeňská Street in 2021, we can specify the extension of a previously excavated area in the cadastral territory of Štýřice. A small collection of chipped stone industry and animal bones was unearthed. The form of these finds, their stratigraphic position, and a radiocarbon date retrieved from one of the animal bones enable us to connect this location with a previously excavated Epigravettian settlement, located just tens of metres to the west from the newly excavated site. The composition of the chipped stone industry (predominance of burins) together with the burin blows indicates the possibility of a short-term site for processing hunted fauna.

For decades, the relationship of pre-modern hominins to anatomically modern humans (AMH) and the transition from mode 3 to mode 4 industries remain topics of ongoing scientific debate. Over the last 20 years, different disciplines have added new data and much detail to these questions, highlighting the demographic and social and cultural complexity underlaying these major changes or turnovers in human evolution. As with most other regions outside Africa, archaeologists faced long-lasting discussions whether or not the central European archaeological record is to be understood as a regional transition from the Middle Palaeolithic (MP) to the Upper Palaeolithic (UP) or if it is characterised by the replacement of Neanderthal MP techno-complexes by industries of overall UP character imported by modern humans. These debates have been re-fuelled by the discoveries of new sites, of new hominin fossil remains and by aDNA studies pinpointing towards the arrival of AMH in Europe several millennia earlier than previously thought (Slimak et al., Science Advances, 8 , eabj9496, 2022; Hajdinjak et al., Nature, 592, 253-257, 2021; Prüfer et al., Nature Ecology & Evolution, 5 , 820–825, 2021). Together with new radiometric age-estimates and detailed archaeological site studies, these developments call to recapture the present knowledge of the Late (LMP) and Final Middle Palaeolithic (FMP) of central Europe, viewed from the perspective of lithic technology and typology, raw material exploitation and land-use strategies. We will review and characterise this record as it represents the demographic and cultural substrate that AMH had met and will discuss to which degree this substrate contributed to the formation of the central European UP.

This chapter presents the first collective synthesis of Late Middle Palaeolithic lithic technology (MIS 4–3, ≈ 70–40 ka) from the Altai mountains to the Atlantic coast of Western Europe and the Mediterranean regions of Europe and the Levant. As early as the first half of the 20th century, archaeological debates focused on characterising and interpreting Mousterian techno-typological variability. In recent decades, new data concerning several specific aspects of this question have modified our understanding of Neanderthal technology in terms of lithic economy. This chapter presents the main characteristics of Late Middle Palaeolithic lithic technologies, raw material management, tool forms, and artefact transport patterns. This extensive overview reveals that it is still largely unclear whether spatio-temporal trends in the mosaic of reduction strategies exist, at least during MIS 4–3. Furthermore, disparities in available data from the different geographical areas currently preclude exhaustive interregional comparisons and introduce biases for identifying which variables reflect local adaptations or potentially more general trends. Currently, the degree to which lithic assemblage variability, including retouched stone tools, results from adaptations to different factors remains difficult to reliably assess. These factors include environmental constraints and the influence of local contexts, including the characteristics and accessibility of raw materials and the duration of site occupation. Stone tools assemblages may equally reflect specific traditions of certain Neanderthal populations or groups and communities of practice. Differences in assemblage composition and tool types most likely result from the combined influences of these aspects in association with subsistence strategies and other ecological factors, as well as social structure and other cognitive and behavioural features. Finally, the possibility that the specific dynamics between different Neanderthal populations and between Neanderthals and other human groups affecting aspects of technology cannot be ruled out.

The dietary proclivities of an early adolescent Neandertal, Kůlna 1, are reconstructed using dental microwear texture analysis. Examining the diet of Kůlna 1 provides new information about the lifeways and paleoecological conditions faced by Neandertals living in the Moravian karst, an area of extensive anthropogenic activity during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3. Comparative samples include Hortus cave (n = 6), La Quina 5, Malarnaud, Spy I, Krapina (n = 19), and Vindija (n = 4) as well as human foragers, farmers, and pastoralists (n = 181). Kůlna 1 yields a relatively low value for anisotropy (epLsar) compared to most of the Neandertals investigated, suggesting heterogeneous jaw movements typical of Holocene foragers. In contrast, Kůlna 1 exhibits one of the highest Middle Paleolithic complexity (Asfc) values. Since elevated complexity is associated with Holocene humans who consumed poorly processed, abrasive, and mechanically hard resources, the diet of Kůlna 1 is reconstructed as based largely on hard and brittle plant foods, perhaps available from an interval of higher temperatures during an interstadial period of MIS 3 or possibly from other factors, including individual variation in diet preferences, food availability, grit load, seasonality, and group cultural traditions.

Only a few loess-palaeosol sequences from the last climatic cycle (Eemian-Weichselian) in East-Central Europe have been studied and correlated with up-to-date stratigraphic frameworks such as marine isotope stages (MIS) and Greenland Stadials/Interstadials (GS/GI). This paper examines the relations of local conditions and climatic trends to soil development, and the character of vegetation during MIS 5 period at the Palaeolithic site Moravsky Krumlov IV. To revise the chronostratigraphy and interpretation of palaeosols, we applied a multi-proxy approach based on soil micromorphology, physical and geochemical analyses together with palaeobotanical evidence and results of optically stimulated luminescence dating. The part of the loess-palaeosol sequence under study was correlated with the Dolni Vestonice sequence and represents a time span from MIS 5e to MIS 5b. It comprises an Eemian luvisol (MIS 5e, Interglacial), an Early Weichselian chernozem (MIS 5e, GI 25) and a colluvium with a pedogenic imprint (MIS 5d, GI 24), loess (MIS 5d, GS 24), regosol (MIS 5c/5d, GI 23), and loess deposits (MIS 5c, GS 23). Unlike for the Dolni Vestonice, the record of MIS 5a has not been proved and there are no markers dividing individual palaeosols. The intensity of weathering is similar to comparable records from the Czech Republic and is elevated compared to Hungarian loess-palaeosol sequences. Evidence of forest vegetation with both deciduous and coniferous trees (MIS 5e, Interglacial) is followed by that of a steppe environment with a mosaic of trees (MIS 5e, GI 25) and, finally, a tundra or forest-tundra vegetation (MIS 5d, GI 24). Eemian luvisol is rarely preserved but recorded in contemporary sequences from the Czech Republic. The Early Weichselian part is rather similar to the record documented across sites in Lower Austria, in contrast to sites from the Czech Republic, and does not fit into the earlier established system of pedocomplexes.