Ždrilo cave

Ždrilo Cave is a complex karstic site situated on the eastern side of the Novigrad Strait (Novigradsko Ždrilo; Northern Dalmatia, Croatia), a submerged Late Pleistocene canyon formed by the Zrmanja River that was flooded at the onset of the Holocene period. The cave has a wide northwest-facing entrance, a spacious entrance chamber, and several branching side corridors. Archaeological investigations conducted in 2021 and 2023 revealed a long stratigraphic sequence spanning from the Middle and Upper Paleolithic to the Neolithic and later periods. 

The lowermost horizon rests directly on bedrock and yielded Middle Paleolithic lithic assemblages characterized by Levallois technology and typical Mousterian scrapers. A radiocarbon date older than 43,500 BP confirms this as one of the rare securely dated Mousterian contexts on the eastern Adriatic. 

Above this, Early Upper Paleolithic layers dated to ca. 38,600–36,700 cal BP produced blade industries with Aurignacian technological traits, as well as perforated animal teeth indicating symbolic behavior. These finds represent the first securely dated Aurignacian occupation in northern Dalmatia and provide direct evidence for the dispersal of early Homo sapiens into this region. 

The uppermost Paleolithic phase is associated with Epigravettian blade-based industries and is stratigraphically linked to a thin tephra layer correlated with the Neapolitan Yellow Tuff eruption (~15 ka).  

Current research is focused on the expansion of the excavation areas completed in 2023, with the primary aim of obtaining new samples for high-resolution chronological refinement, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, and ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis.  

Despite significant post-depositional disturbance from animal burrowing, rockfall, and flowstone formation, Ždrilo Cave preserves a unique, long-term record of human occupation from the Middle Paleolithic through the Late Upper Paleolithic. The site is therefore crucial for understanding Neanderthal persistence, the arrival of modern humans, and Late Glacial hunter-gatherer mobility along the eastern Adriatic coast.