The 2002-2003 excavation in the Dzerava skala cave, west Slovakia

The new excavations at the Dzerava skala cave opened a complex stratigraphic section, showing combination of in situ developed sediments, in-blown loess, and clays, paleosols and clasts removed from elsewhere, most probably from the above cave chimneys. In terms of paleobotany and paleontology, this sequence illustrates the climatic record from the Holocene over the Last Glacial Maximum to the more temperate oscillations of the Interpleniglacial, and, possibly, even before that. Two aspects are of importance: the almost constant presence of cave bears throughout the Pleistocene layers, and the repeated human visits. The archaeological record comprises the Neolithic, probably Late Paleolithic, Gravettian (25-31.7 ka BP), Early Upper Paleolithic (34-37 ka BP), and the Late Middle Paleolithic (50.4 ka BP). The isolated human molar (right lower M2), found by Hillebrand in 1913, may be correlated with the EUP layers.