Masters on the matters of ecology: Novelties in the early Neanderthal ungulate procurement and palaeoecology from MIS8/7 record of the Velika Balanica cave (Serbia)

Recent new insights have revealed complex shifts in socioeconomic aspects during the Lower to Middle Palaeolithic transition (MIS 9-7), which is important to understand how the Neanderthals established themselves in Eurasia. These include novelties in lithic industry devised for different economic tasks, spread use of fire, and first appearance of primarily human accumulated herbivore remains with little or no interference of other carnivores. As the early sites with Quina assemblages were discovered in the Near East, and in the Central Balkans at Velika Balanica cave, it is argued that this technology originated among eastern hominins, and was first introduced to the northern Mediterranean arch and its hinterlands much earlier, around the time of MIS 9/8. Unlike the classic and much later Quina Mousterian in Western Europe, which is associated with a cold climate (MIS 4), the Quina behavior in Balanica occurs in moderate climatic and ecological conditions. Here in the Central Balkans the Quina is used on a novel prey – the ibex. At Velika Balanica, in the Layer 3 presented here and dated to MIS 8/7, beside red deer, considerable part of fauna is comprised of ibex, which is the one of earliest evidence about the Neanderthal technology adapted for this prey and in different ecological settings such as rugged mountainous terrain. This is an important point in human subsistence behavior because ibex exploitation by classic Neanderthals in the southern European peninsulas has a long tradition, and it is a subsistence adaptation originally devised by the Neanderthals. Red deer and ibex were acquired and processed in different manners, but interestingly with the same toolkit. Spatial organization in Velika Balanica is also identified, with an activity and a refusal zone, further attesting to organization of the living space that arose around the fireplace.