Cultural changes and population movements in the early Prehistory of the central Balkans

The project is concerned with cultural changes and population migrations in the early prehistory of the central Balkans. Special attention would be paid to the migrations related to the influx of populations from the southeast: a) colonization of Europe in Early and Middle Pleistocene, b) transition from Middle to Upper Palaeolithic and the emergence of modern man and c) process of Neolithization. The migrations in the opposite direction (during Middle and in the middle of Upper Palaeolithic) that could have happened at the peak of the glacial periods in the time when the Balkans was the refugium area would also be studied. The attempt would be made to reconstruct the time, scope and direction of population migrations and level of integration of newly arrived population and local communities on the basis of analysis of the paleogeography of the region, population density of the central Balkans, chronology of investigated sites and variability of anthropological and archaeological finds. Against that background it would be possible to determine to what extent the cultural, economic and social changes in certain phases had been influenced by a) environmental factors, b) appearance of foreign populations and c) local development.