Pećina pod lipom – paleolitsko stanište na Glasinačkoj visoravni
Pećina pod Lipom – Palaeolithic Settlement on the Glasinac Plateau

Summary/Abstract: The Palaeolithic settlement Pećina pod Lipom was discovered in 1987 in the course of reconnoitering of the area surrounding Gradina in the village of Kadića Brdo, Municipality of Sokolac. It was on this occasion that the group of archaeologists discovered an engraving on the cave wall and collected a number of stone tools bearing morphotechnical characteristics of the Upper Palaeolithic. The initial probing of this newly discovered Palaeolithic site was performed in 1988, whereas the systematic research started in 1991 in cooperation with sister institutions from France, England and Netherlands. However, this cooperation was never fully realised, first due to the war in Croatia and then because of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The systematic excavations were planned in the form of a cross-discipline scientific research titled "The Origin of the Palaeolithic Art in Bosnia and Herzegovina" within the framework of the then long-term program plans known as DC XIII. - segment Phenomena in Archaeology of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The archaeological site Pećina pod Lipom Iies on the very periphery of the village of Kadića Brdo, 2 km to the south of Knežina settlement and at the altitude of approximately 900 m (Annex 2). This location represents a group of drifts and pits situated in amphitheatre¬-like caves in 300 meters long limestone-dolomitic ridge (Annex 3). Forming the terrain below the ridge is the ground sloping down to the valley of the River Bioštica (Annex l). The detailed examination of the drifts and opening of the test probes showed that humans inhabited almost the entire area in different epochs. The profile of horizontal strata proved that the settlement is multi-layered and very important for further studies of the Palaeolithic in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Annex 4). The layers marked as I and II hold younger cultures dating from the Neolithic up to the Middle Ages (T. IV and V) although there is some recent material as well. The Final Palaeolithic is identified in the layer III and it is especially important for the cultural orientation of the engraving on the stone of Pećina pod Lipom (T. I, picture 2; T. Vl and VII). The layers IV and V are rich in remains of stone industry characteristic of the late Mousterian facies. Still, there are also several tools bearing the typological characteristics of the older Aurignacian (T. XI, picture I; T. XII, picture 2; T. XIX, pictures 3 and 4). In the course of the first season of systematic exploration, a rich collection of stone industry was assembled, but it did not have a strati graphic value. The used row material is of local origin and mostly composed of cherts of various colours. All collected stone artefacts were classified and defined as belonging to their respective cultures based on their plentiful typological and morphotechnical characteristics. In order to achieve easier understanding of the presented material, we used the classical Palaeolithic terminology and reduced the number of terms to the necessary minimum.

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