Continuation of the After the Ice project

Beniamino Mecozzi, Nicolò Fasser and Alice Vinet (Ferrara University) worked in the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the past few weeks as part of a new scientific research project called "After the ice-Forager uses of persistent places", which was presented to the Bosnian public in June this year. 

Beniamino Mecozzi, Nicolò Fasser and Alice Vinet spent three weeks in the Museum studying the material from Badanj (16,000-12,500 BC) that was deposited in the 1970s during the research led by, the then curator of the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Đuro Basler. Working on the lithic material, Nicolò Fasser and Alice Vinet sorted the cores by cut and the retouched pieces by typology and divided them by quadrants and cut to facilitate future research. During his stay, Beniamino Mecozzi analyzed the remains of the fauna. More than 2,000 bone and tooth samples were catalogued, measured and photographed. Morphological analyzes enables the identification of animal remains and the reconstruction of what was hunted by the groups that stayed in the Badanj cave at the end of the last ice age. Horses, deer, roe deer, chamois, ibex, bovids were found among the remains. Canidae remains were also identified, which will be further analyzed for DNA to check whether they belong to wolves or already domesticated dogs.

The AFTER THE ICE project, financed by the Ministry of Science of Italy, investigates the adaptation of people in the Mediterranean part of Europe during the significant climatic and ecological changes of the late Pleistocene. Focusing on the area around the Adriatic, the project investigates how these changes, such as the evolution of glaciers and the opening of the Great Adriatic Plain, affected hunter-gatherer communities. Epigravetian groups responded with adaptive technologies, developed extensive social networks, and established long-lasting, important sites of aggregation. The project focuses on two key permanent sites: Riparo Tagliente (Italy) and Badanj (Bosnia and Herzegovina), analyzing settlement patterns, material culture and ecological remains. AFTER THE ICE aims to reveal broader evolutionary trends in the behavior and organization of prehistoric hunter-gatherers. The students of the Department of Archeology of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Sarajevo actively participated in the work, and we would like to thank them and the assistant Elma Abaspahić. The next arrival of experts from Italy is planned for December this year.