Dušan Mihailović

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor (Full) at University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy

Recent research in the southern Central Balkans has resulted in the discovery of the first Middle Paleolithic sites in this region. Systematic excavations of Velika and Mala Balanica, and Pešturina (southern Serbia) revealed assemblages of Middle Paleolithic artifacts associated with hominin fossils and animal bones. This paper focuses on Pešturina...

Major changes in the technological, economic, and social behavior of Middle Pleistocene hominins occurred at the onset of the Middle Paleolithic, 400–200 ka. However, until recently it was not possible to establish when, where, and how certain forms of Middle Paleolithic behavior appeared and spread into Southeastern Europe, mainly owing to gaps in...

Neanderthals are Eurasian fossil hominins whose distinctive morphology developed in the southwestern corner of Europe and later spread throughout the continent, reaching Southwest Asia before the Late Pleistocene and spreading into Central Asia by 59–49 ka. The timing, tempo, and route of the Neanderthal movements eastward are poorly documented. Th...

The Last Glacial Maximum (MIS 2) was a period of rapid and extreme environmental change, prompting remarkable human adaptive responses across the world. While large parts of the temperate zone were uninhabitable during this interval, other areas served as refugia for plant, animal and human populations. The Balkans region is identified as a biotic...

Significance The microbiome plays key roles in human health, but little is known about its evolution. We investigate the evolutionary history of the African hominid oral microbiome by analyzing dental biofilms of humans and Neanderthals spanning the past 100,000 years and comparing them with those of chimpanzees, gorillas, and howler monkeys. We id...

European early hominins have typically been pictured as hunter-gatherers relying on the large mammalian prey that they hunted or scavenged using heavy-hafted stone or sharpened wooden implements to bring down and dismember the prey, while fowling is regarded as a subsistence adaptation that occurs rather late in Neanderthal and modern human cogniti...

Despite extensive research and excavations across the central Balkans, Early Holocene sites have so far been documented only in the Iron Gates region – for which there are several possible explanations. Some scholars argue that the apparent lack of Mesolithic sites is due to inadequate research efforts in the region, while others suggest that the e...

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 Neander-thals and migration of modern human populations during Late Glacial Period. This study presents pollen analyses of sediment and hyaena c...

The strategic geographical position of the Balkan Peninsula, at the crossroads between southwest Asia and central and western Europe, make of this territory a key area for understanding the different human migrations into Europe during the Pleistocene. This long-time neglected area for the Palaeolithic research, last years has experienced a ‘blosso...

The strategic geographical position of the Balkan Peninsula, at the crossroads between southwest Asia and central and western Europe, make of this territory a key area for understanding the different human migrations into Europe during the Pleistocene. This long-time neglected area for the Palaeolithic research, last years has experienced a ‘blosso...

Since the end of the 19th century until today, a significant number of Palaeolithic sites have been recovered on the territory of Serbia, and they are classified into three chronological groups. Extensive archaeological excavations revealed four (4) sites belonging to the Lower Palaeolithic, eighteen (18) to the Middle Palaeolithic and twenty-one (...

The strategic geographical position of the Balkan Peninsula, at the crossroads between southwest Asia and central and western Europe, make of this territory a key area for understanding the different human migrations into Europe during the Pleistocene. This long-time neglected area for the Palaeolithic research, last years has experienced a ‘blosso...

The strategic geographical position of the Balkan Peninsula, at the crossroads between southwest Asia and central and western Europe, make of this territory a key area for understanding the different human migrations into Europe during the Pleistocene. This long-time neglected area for the Palaeolithic research, last years has experienced a ‘blosso...

A recent study from Central Europe has changed our perception of the cat's domestication history. The authors discuss how this has led to the development of an interdisciplinary project combining palaeogenetics, zooarch-aeology and radiocarbon dating, with the aim of providing insight into the domestic cat's expansion beyond the Mediterranean.

The aim of this paper is to perform a tourist assessment of the representative speleoarchaeological geoheritage in Serbia for the purposes of establishing new cave tourism destinations in Serbia. Seven caves have been selected based on their speleoarcheological values. However, only two of them are currently available for visiting. The research res...

This paper analyzes the karst landscape of Southeastern Serbia, Mount Kalafat. The evaluation of five representative caves was performed using M-GAM (modified geosite assessment model) and the perspectives and potentials of karst-based geotourism were presented, through speleology, paleoclimate, and archaeology. Moreover, a unique proposal was pres...

Research has shown that the territory present-day Serbia was continuously inhabited from the earliest prehistoric to historic times. Covering most of what is Serbia today, the Central Balkans acted as an important migration corridor that connected Southwest Asia with Central and Western Europe. Moreover, the Central Balkans represented an important...

Following a series of published analyses ranging from architecture to prehistoric diet of the Iron Gates’ inhabitants, our research aims to present new results regarding use-wear analysis of knapped stone artefacts from Lepenski Vir and Padina with a particular focus on the transition from Mesolithic to Neolithic in this region. Use-wear and residu...

The specific character of the Iron Gates Mesolithic material culture derives from the geomorphological and ecological features of the Iron Gates gorge in the Early Holocene. However, the Mesolithic of this geographic area can be entirely linked to the general flows of Mesolithic development in Europe as well as to the phenomena observed in the Adri...

The Carpathian Basin is a key region for understanding modern human expansion into western Eurasia during the Late Pleistocene because of numerous early hominid fossil find spots. However, the corresponding archeological record remains less understood due to a paucity of well dated, contextualized sites. To help rectify this, we excavated and sampl...

During the last International Congress of Paleobotany and Palynology (Dublin, 2018), participants discussed Paleoecology through the lens of Art and Science. These talks identified an urgent need for a more synergistic interaction between the visual arts and the sciences. Importantly, such consilience could inform research. This is because, while f...

Paleolithic art offers unique perspectives on prehistoric societies and cultures. It is also considered a key component of modern human behavior. Until recently, Paleolithic artworks were thought to be geographically restricted to a very few areas, especially southwestern Europe. Discoveries of art in other parts of Europe and other parts of the gl...

Two phases of archaeological investigation were performed in the Novi Sad City Museum at Petrovaradin Fortress. In this study, we summarize the results of geo-archaeological investigations of the second period of excavation inside the Novi Sad City Museum building. The fortress is situated on a Danube terrace with the top of the bedrock at ca.123 m...

The Central Balkans represents a significant geographical gap in the human fossil record of Eurasia. Here we present two new human fossils from Pešturina Cave, Serbia: a partial atlas vertebra (C1) and a fragment of radial diaphysis. The atlas (Pes-1) derives from the lower portion of Layer 2 and conforms to modern human morphology. This layer is c...

For decades, a closed eco-niche like Iron Gates in Eastern Serbia enabled specialists to explore the transition to a sedentary life, with an exceptional record of human occupation during the Late Glacial and Early Holocene. Following the series of published analysis from the architecture to the prehistoric diet of the Iron Gates inhabitants, our re...

Recent research into the Paleolithic in the Balkans has provided better insights into the push-and-pull factors that influenced the expansion of modern humans into Europe, and the processes which led to the demise of the Neanderthals. This research has shown that modern humans probably used the Danubian corridor as the main route for their migratio...

What happened at the transition between late Pleistocene and early Holocene in Italy and the Western Balkans remains up to now an unresolved question. While in recent years, research has been conducted in several regions, it is still difficult to propose a synthetic model for the changes that occurred in material cultures during this period. Multip...

Neanderthals were the only human group in Europe throughout the Late Pleistocene until the arrival of modern humans, and while their presence has been confirmed in the surrounding regions, no Neanderthal fossils are known to date from the Central Balkans. Systematic excavations of Pešturina Cave (Serbia) resulted in the discovery of a permanent rig...

The Central Balkans, in present-day Serbia, was a potentially dynamic zone during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic (MP-UP), as it is situated between hypothesized dispersal routes of modern humans and refuges of late Neanderthals. However, the population history of the region remains poorly understood because there are little chronometric data from...

In 2012 a new survey Project aiming at the investigation of the Paleolithic rock art in Serbia was started. The primary working hypotheses is that the first Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) to reached Western Europe already possessed an incipient graphic and symbolic behavior. Therefore, evidence of early graphic activity should be found along the...

We present the detailed analysis of a cervical vertebra from a cave bear, found at Pešturina cave, Serbia, in a Mousterian archaeological level dated by radiocarbon at 43.5–44.6 kyr cal BP, and by ESR to between 93.5 and 102.5 kyr BP. Identified as a portion of the cranial articular facet, the fragment displays ten subparallel grooves. The microsco...

Crvena Stijena represents one of the key Middle Paleolithic sites in southeastern Europe. In the course of earlier investigations, the upper part of the Mousterian sequence was excavated on two occasions: in 1956 and 1958 by M. Brodar and from 1961 to 1964 by Đ. Basler. Materials from these campaigns were published separately and interpreted differ...

Hadži Prodanova Cave in western Serbia is a multilayered site which, in addition to Palaeolithic tools, has yielded a relatively rich fauna of small and large vertebrates. In this paper the rodent fauna from this site is described. In total, 13 species of rodents have been found: Spermophilus cf. citelloides, Sicista subtilis, Mesocricetus newtoni,...

2017. године обављена су сондажна ископавања у Јелашничкој пећини 2 (Пећина код стене) у Јелашничкој клисури. У сонди димензија 2 x 1 m истражена су четири геолошка слоја до дубине од 1,6 m. У геолошким слоје-вима 2a, 2b, 2c1 и 2c2 нађени су окресани артефакти и остаци фауне који могу да се вежу за граветијен и епиграветијен, односно период пре, то...

RISOVAČA AND THE PROBLEM OF THE REGIONAL DIFFERENTIATION OF THE MIDDLE PALAEOLITHIC LEAF-POINT INDUSTRIES SUMMARY The excavations of Branko Gavela in the Risovača Cave near Aranđelovac and in Jerinina's Cave near Kragujevac during the 1950s marked the beginning of the systematic exploration of the Palaeolithic in Serbia. Explorations at Risovača...

Recent archaeological investigations have enabled preliminary insight into the Lower to Middle Paleolithic transition in the Central Balkans. Industries containing tools made from pebbles and flakes, within which Levallois artifacts were present to a lesser (Kosovska Kosa) or greater (Samaila) extent, have been encountered at the sites in the Zapad...

The Mousterian site at Pešturina overlooks a tributary to the Nišava River southwest of Niš, in southern Serbia. In all three sedimentological layers, the large mammalian faunae suggest a mixed environment with temperate forest, rocky cliffs, and steppe within walking distance from the cave. Although hyenas likely contributed some bone to the site,...

This paper presents results from a recent survey of the Mesolithic sites in the atlands and mountainous hinterlands of the Danube Iron Gates region. Previously explored and currently submerged sites located along the Danube Gorges’ riverbanks represent only a fraction of the regional early Holocene hunter-gatherers’ settlement network. Based on pr...

A relatively small number of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic open-air sites have been registered in southeast Europe. There are only two regions where sites from this period have been systematically surveyed, and where they have been encountered in considerable numbers: the valley of the Pineios river in Greece and northern Bosnia. Not a single site...

[This corrects the article on p. e54608 in vol. 8.].

Newly obtained ages, based on electron spin resonance combined with uranium series isotopic analysis, and infrared/post-infrared luminescence dating, provide a minimum age that lies between 397 and 525 ka for the hominin mandible BH-1 from Mala Balanica cave, Serbia. This confirms it as the easternmost hominin specimen in Europe dated to the Middle...

Electron spin resonance signal intensity (arbitrary units) as a function of added dose, fitted with a single saturating exponential function. (TIF)

Normalized Infrared Luminescence/Post Infrared Luminescence Ratios a function of regeneration dose. (TIF)

In-situ, US-ESR and Sediment Dosimetry Results for Mala Balanica, Serbia. (DOC)

[37]–[45]. (DOC)

Isotopic Data for Enamel and Dentine and Calcite Speleothem Mala Balanica, Serbia. (DOC)

Dating Sample and Gamma Spectrometer in-situ Dose Rate Locations (GAM) for Mala Balanica, Serbia. (DOC)

US-ESR and CSUS-ESR Age Calculation Input Data for Mala Balanica, Serbia. (DOC)

Late Pleistocene voles (Arvicolinae, Rodentia) from the Baranica Cave (Serbia) Baranica is a cave system situated in the south-eastern part of Serbia, four kilometers south to Knjaževac, on the right bank of the Trgoviški Timok. The investigations in Baranica were conducted from 1994 to 1997 by the Faculty of Philosophy from Belgrade and the Nation...

Neandertals and their immediate predecessors are commonly considered to be the only humans inhabiting Europe in the Middle and early Late Pleistocene. Most Middle Pleistocene western European specimens show evidence of a developing Neandertal morphology, supporting the notion that these traits evolved at the extreme West of the continent due, at le...

Baranica is a cave in the Balkan mountain range in the eastern part of Serbia. It contains four layers of sediments of Quaternary age. The Upper Pleistocene deposits (layers 2-4) have yielded a rich and diverse assemblage of vertebrate fauna, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and small and large mammals. In this work, preliminary results...

The excavations and geological studies made in 2004–2006 at the Paleolithic site of Crvena Stijena in Montenegro are described in preliminary form. Earlier excavations had removed virtually all of the layers later than the Middle Paleolithic, as well as a large part of the Middle Paleolithic, leaving a 9 m tall profile through these deposits. A sma...

In this article the new results of research of the Gravettian and Early Epigravettian in the region of the western Balkans are considered. Results are presented from the analysis of the chipped stone industries from layer 4 at Salitrena Pecina and layer X at Crvena Stijena. The industry from Salitrena Pecina is most likely Late Gravettian. There ar...

The Neolithization of the Balkans could be considered as a very complex social phenomenon. In this work we study the causes for the cultural and social integration of hunter-gatherer communities in the Late Glacial and Early Holocene, social networks and contacts in the Iron Gates Mesolithic, and also factors having an impact on the spread of the N...