New insights into regional Middle Paleolithic technological behavior

In this paper we present techno-typological and raw material analysis of the Mousterian lithic assemblage from Vinica cave (Hrvatsko zagorje, Croatia) excavated during late 1990s and early 2000s. Lithic artefacts are found in two Mousterian layers, c and d, whose age is determined by 14C AMS dating. Sample from layer d brought indefinite age older than 50,300 years BP while calibrated age for the sample from layer c is 36-34.5 ka BP. Quartz is predominant raw material in both layers followed by different cherts. Quartz cobbles were knapped on-site while at least some chert artefacts were not flaked in the cave but brought from elsewhere as blanks and tools. Among small number of tools, scrapers are the most frequent. Small lithic assemblages from both layers suggest that cave was used as short term Neandertal camp during Middle Paleolithic.