EXPECTED AND UNEXPECTED RESULTS FROM 14C DATING AND ZOOMS ON A LATE UPPER PALAEOLITHIC OSSEOUS PROJECTILE POINT FROM THE NOVÁDRÁTENICKÁ CAVE IN THE MORAVIAN KARST (CZECH REPUBLIC)

Abstract

This contribution presents new information on a long-known Late Upper Palaeolithic site in the Moravian Karst in the Czech Republic: the Nová Drátenická Cave. Previous interpretations of the peculiar archaeological assemblage oscillated between attribution to the Epigravettian on the one hand and to the Magdalenian on the other, as both industries were present in Moravia after the end of the Last Glacial Maximum. In either case, a rather early dating has been supposed. We reassessed the stratigraphy, lithic and osseous industry, and subjected an antler projectile point to 14C dating and palaeoproteomic analysis. We did not find any evidence for stratigraphic mixing and, thus, propose that the assemblage of Nová Drátenická reflects a single or several successive occupations. On typo-technological grounds, we come to the conclusion that the finds are rather consistent with the Magdalenian. The radiocarbon date of the point is 16–15.7 ka cal BP, which places it in the first half of GS-2a. This is congruent with the identification of the raw material as reindeer through ZooMS. Hence, the Nová Drátenická Cave currently provides the earliest solid evidence for the Magdalenian in the Moravian Karst. Together with the contemporaneous assemblages of Kniegrotte in eastern Germany, Dzierżysław 35 in southern Poland, and potentially also Vilshofen-Kuffing in south-eastern Germany and Hranice in Moravia, it probably attests to the first major expansion of the Magdalenian into eastern Central Europe at around 16 ka cal BP.