Our team is currently in Serbia, working closely with our Serbian colleagues from the team of Prof. Dušan Mihailović at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade. Together, we are sampling several key cave sites to better understand the role of the Balkans in human evolution.
Over the course of three days, we are collecting geo-micromorphological and ancient DNA samples from the cave sites of Mala Balanica, Velika Balanica, and Pešturina. These sites have yielded crucial archaeological and paleoanthropological findings from the Middle and Late Pleistocene, making them central to our investigations.
The Central Balkans represent a potential crossroads for ancient human populations, where Neanderthals, early modern humans, and possibly Denisovans might have interacted. Understanding the environmental conditions and population dynamics in this region could shed new light on how humans dispersed through Europe, adapted to climatic fluctuations, and exchanged culture and genes.
By combining sediment DNA analyses with high-resolution micromorphological studies, our work within the GACT project aims to reconstruct past human presence, mobility patterns, and ecosystem changes. These caves act as natural time capsules, preserving microscopic traces of our evolutionary story that are invisible to the naked eye.
Enjoy some impressions from the field (photos: Andreas Kappler)!