Objectives

The main objective of the project is

to investigate the taphonomy of cave archives from a Western Carpathians site to understand the paleoenvironments and human presence during the Upper Pleistocene (Middle-Upper Paleolithic), using state-of-the-art knowledge and methods.  

To accomplish this goal, we proposed the following key-targets:

1. To estimate the depositional context of cave archives by studying the geology and geomorphology of cave and karst;

2. To extract the available taphonomic and paleoenvironmental information from mixed cave deposits: sediments, speleothems, and fossil remains using geochronological and geochemical tools and techniques (radiocarbon, OSL and U-Th dating, stable isotope analysis);

3. To explain the context of early human occupation of the cave site during the Middle-Upper Paleolithic, and establish regional connections to other primitive communities in the Carpathians.