Palaeoenvironmental, stratigraphic and geochronological study of the coastal site of Dalani i Vogël (Vlora, Albania): new evidence for late Neanderthal occupation and prehistoric archaeology

The Balkan Peninsula is a key biogeographical region in Southern Europe, which acted as a refugium for late Pleistocene flora and fauna during cold spells and favoured the survival of Neanderthals and the migration of modern human populations. This study focuses on the site of Dalani i Vogël (DIV), selected from a cluster of open-air coastal sites north of Vlora (Triporti-Portonovo area, Albania), where lithic artefacts have been related to a multi-layered profile exposed by sea erosion. We sampled the DIV sequence for geochronological analyses (OSL and ¹⁴C), magnetic susceptibility, sedimentary proxies [Loss On Ignition (LOI) steps, calcimetry, nutrients], microstratigraphy, micropaleontology and microbotanical analyses. This exploratory multi-proxy study reveals a long sequence spanning the last 43,000 years, i.e., the period from MIS 3 to 1. Sedimentological and palynological data, although sparse at some intervals due to the poor preservation of palynomorphs, generally corroborate the chronological data and help to interpret the palaeoenvironment in a lowland situated not far from the sea-coast during MIS 3. Between at least 42,900 and 38,700 years BP, Neanderthals occupied the area in a context of mainly open and patchy environments in a fluvial plain. During the Late Glacial, steppe environments were established at the time of the Heinrich Stadial 1, i.e., 16,200 ± 600 years BP. The beginning of the Holocene favoured an ecological transition from steppe to grassland vegetation communities, the latter being much more prone to wildfires. Vertic soils that developed at this time were then eventually subjected to erosion processes that resulted in a hiatus of several millennia. An Early Neolithic settlement associated with impresso pottery made its appearance in the area in a context of open woodlands, further changing to drier and more anthropised contexts. Considering the geographical position of Albania, the chronostratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental setting obtained from this study is expected to shed new light on the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition and human dynamics that occurred in SE-Europe during MIS 3 to 1.