Looking for hominins in Museum drawers - possible Upper Pleistocene specimens from Serbia: morphological descriptions and radiocarbon dating

Abstract

With the exact nature of the interactions between Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans, and the identity of the of the bearers of early Upper Paleolithic technology still open questions essential to expand the human fossil data of Southeast Europe. In our attempt to do so, we investigated a small collection of six previously unpublished human cranial fragments from Serbia, housed at the Natural History Museum in Belgrade and the National Museum in Kraljevo. Tenuous contextual evidence suggested a possible Pleistocene age for the specimens. We conducted a macro-morphological analysis and accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dating in order to assess taxonomical positions and absolute dates for the specimens. Thorough prescreening and chemical characterization of bone samples were used to ensure high reliability of 14C dates. Although the results showed all specimens to be Holocene-aged anatomically modern humans, this should not discourage future research. On the contrary, if indeed we want to understand the early presence of modern humans in the Central Balkans, more research is needed. This includes further checking of old museum collections, but emphasis will need to be placed on new excavations of Pleistocene sites in the region.