New dating evidence from a Croatian cave shows human activity in the region dates back at least 30,000 years earlier than scientists previously believed, placing early toolmakers on the Adriatic coast during the depths of the last ice age.
The discovery comes from Mujina pećina, a cave in the Dalmatia region of southern Croatia, where researchers used a technique called optically stimulated luminescence, or OSL, to produce the oldest radiometric dates ever recorded at an archaeological site in the area.
The cave sits north of the towns of Trogir and Kaštela, about 280 meters (918 feet) above sea level. It measures roughly 10 by 8 meters (33 by 26 feet) and holds layers of sediment packed with stone tools belonging to the “Mousterian” tradition, a toolmaking style associated with Neanderthals and early humans of the Middle Palaeolithic period.
Cave near Trogir holds rare Middle Palaeolithic tool layers
The study, published in the journal Antiquity, was led by Ivor Karavanić of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. According to the paper, the site is the first in Dalmatia to be fully excavated and dated with a clear Middle Palaeolithic sequence.
Earlier research using radiocarbon dating and electron spin resonance had placed the cave’s occupation between roughly 49,000 and 39,000 years ago. Those methods, however, could not reach far enough back to date the deepest layers.
To close that gap, researchers collected samples in 2020 from three separate layers, one near the top of the sequence and two near the bottom, then sent them to a laboratory in Gliwice, Poland, for OSL analysis.
Evidence confirms early human activity inside Croatian cave
The results showed the uppermost layer dates to between 35,000 and 39,000 years ago, matching earlier estimates. The two deeper layers painted a very different picture.
One came back at between 65,000 and 73,000 years old, while the oldest layer dated to between 73,000 and 82,000 years old, about 30,000 years older than researchers had assumed for that part of the site.
That oldest layer also contains a large share of scraper tools known as “Balkan Charentian,” giving archaeologists a sharper picture of how early toolmaking traditions spread along the Adriatic.
The new dates line up closely with unpublished results from another Dalmatian site, Velika pećina in Kličevica, and with earlier findings from Crvena stijena in Montenegro, pointing to a wider pattern of early settlement across the region.
Researchers noted that scattered surface finds had long hinted at an even older human presence in Dalmatia, though those claims remain unproven. The new results, they said, offer the first solid radiometric evidence confirming just how far back human activity in this Croatian cave truly extends.
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