At the Crossroads of Europe and Asia: Human evolution in the Central Balkans

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The Balkan Peninsula is a crucial area for understanding the peopling of Europe, from the initial movement of human ancestors into the continent, through the origin of Neanderthals and their spread from Europe into Central Asia, to the arrival of modern humans and the extinction of the Neanderthals during the last glacial period. The Central Balkans - south of the Sava and Danube rivers and north of Greece - played two important roles in the Pleistocene era as the crossroads between corridors of migration from the Levant, Anatolia and Caucasus regions to Europe, and one of the three southern peninsulas that provided refuge to humans, animals and plants during glaciations. Our work in the region has already challenged some of the prevalent ideas about human evolution in Europe and we expect that the proposed research, with new hominin material and a focus on the palaeoenvironmental constraints of human movement and settlement, will further contribute to changing the picture of human evolution and interactions between hominin groups on the continent. Our recent find of the human mandible from the site of Mala Balanica in Serbia (BH-1), taxonomically identified as Homo heidelbergensis and dated to 500 thousand years before present (kBP), demonstrated that human populations in this area did not follow the same process of `Neanderthalisation' observed further west, and prompted us to redefine H. heidelbergensis in a recent paper. Findings of the genetic transfer of modern human DNA into the Neanderthal lineage around 270 kBP support our interpretation of H. heidelbergensis, suggesting contact between early Neanderthals and a different archaic population. More hominin fossils from the Central Balkans are necessary to test the validity of the model, and to better define this purported "different population". The proposed research program consists of three concurrent projects that I am co-directing with colleagues from Serbia: 1) survey and excavation of Pleistocene areas in the Central Balkans to identify, excavate and date potential hominin-bearing sites; 2) comparative analysis (including ancient DNA) of the excavated hominin material with contemporaneous specimens; 3) understanding and dating environmental changes in the Central Balkans and human adaptation during the Pleistocene. These projects are based on an international multidisciplinary collaboration and involvement of both Canadian and Serbian students.