'Human Evolution in the Southern Balkans'

Fürstenzimmer, Schloß Hohentübingen

December 6-8, 2012

In the framework of the ERC Starting Grant project ‘Paleoanthropology at the Gates of Europe’ (PaGE), Tübingen Paleoanthropology hosted the international symposium ‘Human Evolution in the Southern Balkans’ on Dec. 6-8, 2012.

PaGE is a 5-year intensive field research programme aiming to systematically explore known paleoanthropological localities, to identify new sites and to increase the number of hominin and paleolithic findings known from the Southern Balkans, and specifically from Greece. The PaGE team works in close collaboration with the Ephoreia of Paleoanthropology and Speleology of Southern Greece, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Its ultimate goal is to help document the earliest human dispersals into Europe, the possible role of the region in late Neanderthal survival, the earliest migration of modern humans in the continent and the likely interactions between hominin species. PaGE started in January, 2012, and has already completed its first two field seasons in 2012.

Within this framework, PaGE also aims to promote paleoanthropological and paleolithic research in this region, and to help develop communication and research connections among researchers working in paleoanthropology and paleolithic archaeology. The conference brought together scholars working in Southern Balkan countries to review the evidence from their respective regions and to present new work that they are conducting. The proceedings of the conference are scheduled to be published as an edited volume in the Springer series in Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology.