Between the Woods and the Water: The Early Upper Paleolithic from the Romanian Karst

Abstract

Romania has thousands of karstic caves in the Carpathian and Dobrudja regions, some of which have yielded important early prehistoric finds including human fossils and cave art. However, despite over a century of exploration and systematic archeological investigations, cave excavations have yet to produce large, well-stratified Pleistocene artifact assemblages that are known in neighboring regions. "is article explores possible reasons for the low number of significant assemblages and discusses the ramifications for the Paleolithic record while making future recommendations for research.