Bioče Cave is located in the Morača Valley (Montenegro), near the confluence of the Morača and Mala Rijeka rivers, approximately 12 km upstream from Podgorica. The shelter faces northwest and is situated about 30 m above the present river edge, opening onto a large plateau. Archaeological investigations were first conducted in 1986, 1988, and between 1995 and 1997 by the former Archaeological Collection of Podgorica in collaboration with the Centre of Archaeological Research of the University of Belgrade. Renewed excavations carried out between 2010 and 2015 by the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Novosibirsk) focused on cleaning earlier profiles and investigating the deepest part of the shelter. These works confirmed Bioče Cave as one of the most substantial Palaeolithic deposits in the central Balkans. 

Bioče Cave plays a significant role within the LAST NEANDERTHALS project, as it preserves well-stratified deposits suitable for high-resolution excavation and contextual analyses. The site offers an important perspective on Late Pleistocene human occupations in a key geographical corridor connecting the Adriatic coast and the central Balkans. 

Interdisciplinary excavations and sampling are ongoing and include zooarchaeology, lithic analysis, sedimentology, micromorphology, ancient DNA, radiocarbon dating, and pollen analysis. These integrated approaches are designed to investigate site formation processes, environmental variability, and patterns of human land use, contributing to a refined understanding of Neanderthal adaptive strategies in southeastern Europe. 

Bibliography:   

Derevianko, A. P., Shunkov, M. V., Bulatović, L., Pavlenok, K. K., Ulyanov, V. A., Kozlikin, M. B., & Kandyba, A. V. (2017). New findings on the Middle Paleolithic of the Eastern Adriatic: the earliest settlement at Bioče, Montenegro.  Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia, 45(1), 3-14. 

Derevianko, A., Shunkov, M., Bulatović, L., Kozlikin, M., Anoykin, A.A., Pavlenok, K., Agadzhanyan, A., Ulianov, V., Vishnevskiy, A. (2021). New in the Eastern Adriatic Paleolithic. Russian-Montenegrin Investigations in 2008–2021. 10.17746/7803-0321-3.2021. 

Đuričić, L. (2006). A contribution to research on Bioče Mousterian. Glasnik Srpskog arheološkog društva, 22, 179-196. 

Vishnevskiy, A. V., Pavlenok, K. K., Kozlikin, M. B., Ulyanov, V. A., Derevianko, A. P., & Shunkov, M. V. (2019). A Neanderthal refugium in the eastern Adriatic. Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia, 47(4), 3-15.