Magura Cave, Bulgaria: A multidisciplinary study of Late Pleistocene human palaeoenvironment in the Balkans

Abstract

Two trenches excavated at Magura Cave, north-west Bulgaria, have provided Late Pleistocene lithic artefacts as well as environmental evidence in the form of large and small mammals, herpetofauna and pollen recovered from Crocuta coprolites. One of the trenches also has a visible tephra layer which has been confirmed as representing the major Campanian Ignimbrite eruption and is accurately dated at the source area to 39,280 ± 55 yrs and radiocarbon determinations have added to chronological resolution at the site. The palaeoenvironment of the region during the Late Pleistocene is discussed in the context of hominin presence and shows a mosaic landscape in a region considered a crucial refugium for both plants and mammals, including hominins.

Introduction

Modern-day Bulgaria occupies a crucial geographical position between Asia and Europe, with potential routes to and from central and western Asia to the north or south of the Black Sea, the latter also ultimately providing a link to the African continent (Sirakov et al., 2010, Ivanova et al., 2012a). The Danube corridor has always been a critical route for early human migration (Mellars, 2006, Mellars, 2011) as evidenced by the large number of Palaeolithic sites in the region and in Bulgaria in general, and the hills, river and adjacent floodplains of the area provided early hominins with abundant raw materials of flint and quartzite for lithic tool manufacture, as well as considerable plant and animal resources. Pleistocene sites in Bulgaria with evidence of human activity range in chronology from the Lower Palaeolithic (e.g Kozarnika at 1.4 Ma; Guadelli et al., 2005, Ivanova, 2009, Sirakov et al., 2010) through to the Epigravettian (e.g. Kozarnika, Bacho Kiro and Temnata Dupka) and include cave sites as well as inland and coastal open air sites (see Table S1 in Supplementary Information [SI]). The latter two sites are particularly relevant to the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transitional period covered in this paper (Kozłowski, 1982, Kozłowski et al., 1992, Ginter et al., 1994, Ginter et al., 2000). Many of the sites shown in Table S1 were investigated in older studies, although there is now an accumulation of more recent research and publications related to the better known Palaeolithic settlements.

Here we report on dating, environmental finds and some lithic tools from Late Pleistocene layers from excavations of two trenches in Magura Cave, undertaken during field seasons of 2011 and 2012, providing an environmental background for human occupation and dispersals in the region between about 60 ka and 30 ka. The Balkans are seen as a critical region for refugial populations of plant and animal taxa during the Late Pleistocene and as one of the three core centres for Neanderthal occupation and expansion at this time (Churchill, 2014). The main purpose of this paper consists in presenting a multidisciplinary study of one of the most interesting and promising Palaeolithic cave sites in Bulgaria, which is part of a larger project on Late Pleistocene environments and human adaptation in the Balkans. The data recovered (from lithic, faunal, aDNA, pollen and coprolite analyses, and chronological precision through ¹⁴C and tephra dating) offer an opportunity for subsequent correlation with other sites on regional and supra-regional scales. The aim is to assess the influence of environmental factors in this region during the Late Pleistocene on dispersals of plants and mammals, including hominins.