The Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition in Moravia in the context of the Middle Danube region

The Middle Danube area is one of the key regions of Europe, in which significant interactions between Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans occurred at the transition of Middle and Upper Palaeolithic. In the last few decades, interdisciplinary research of the key sites has produced valuable findings that may be applied in the creation of a model of the populations' behaviour in the area. Characteristic features of archaeological cultures in the given period may be reconstructed on the grounds of a critical assessment of the available data. A model of the development of the Palaeolithic at the transition between its Middle and Upper phases was created through a comparison of technology, typology, composition, and distribution of lithic raw materials, settlement strategies, and dating of archaeological sites. The model assumes a relatively long occupation of Neanderthals in Moravia, with Szeletian, the manifestation of their material culture, territorially respecting Bohunician, the penecontemporaneous culture. Judging by the known radiocarbon dating, anatomically modern humans penetrated to Moravia relatively late, and their arrival was probably a cause of disappearance of the Bohunician. Distribution of lithic raw materials and a typological comparison suggest a possibility of local interactions between Aurignacian and the developed Szeletian. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.