@article{10902/35432,
year = {2024},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/10902/35432},
abstract = {The Central Balkans are a key biogeographical region in Southern Europe, influenced by a central European- Mediterranean climate, which acted as a refugium for flora and fauna, and favored the dispersion of Neanderthals and migration of modern human populations during Late Glacial Period. This study presents pollen analyses of sediment and hyaena coprolites from Pesturina Cave in Serbia to reconstruct the vegetation landscapes faced by Balkan Neanderthals and early Anatomically Modern Humans between MIS 5e-3. Between MIS 5e-5c (archaeological layers 4c and 4b) and MIS 5b-5a (layer 4a), semi-forested environments prevailed, characterized by Pinus, deciduous Quercus, Tilia and other angiosperm woody taxa, accompanied by heliophytes such as Artemisia and Poaceae. During MIS 4-3 (layers 3-2), the vegetation was dominated by Artemisia-Poaceae steppes with Quercus patches, conifers and legumes. Overall across the sequence, pollen assemblages are highly diverse and include a number of deciduous trees and sclerophylls. In addition, the occurrence of several herbaceous taxa reinforces the view that the Balkans were outstanding for endemicity. Neanderthals and early Upper Palaeolithic hominins lived in a highly diverse refugium, offering multiple opportunities for survival during the warm interstadials and, more critically, the cold stadials of the Pleistocene.},
organization = {This work was supported by the projects: i) HOMEDSCAPE PID2022- 136832NB-I00, funded by FEDER/Ministry of Science and Innovation–Agencia Estatal de Investigación, and ii) European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement number 818299; SUBSILIENCE project). The work of JO was funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU (Margarita Salas postdoctoral grant, Ministerio de Universidades of the Government of Spain). The work of DuM and KB was supported by the NEEMO project of the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia (7746827), while funding was provided to MR by NSERC RGPIN- 2017-04702 and 499 RGPIN-2019-04113.},
publisher = {Elsevier Ltd},
publisher = {Quaternary Science Reviews, 2024,330,108600},
title = {Balkan Neanderthals: the Late Pleistocene palaeoecological sequence of Pešturina Cave (Niš, Serbia)},
author = {Ochando, Juan and Carrión, José S. and Magri, Donatela and Marín Arroyo, Ana Belén and Di Rita, Federico and Munuera, Manuel and Michelangeli, Fabrizio and Amorós, Gabriela and Milosevic, Stefan and Bogicevic, Katarina and Dimitrijevic, Vesna and Nenadic, Drazenko and Roksandic, Mirjana and Mihailovic, Dusan},
}