Gravettian occupation of the Beckov Gate in Western Slovakia as viewed from the interdisciplinary research of the Trenčianske Bohuslavice-Pod Tureckom site

Trencianske Bohuslavice-Pod Tureckom is one of the most important Gravettian open-air sites in the Slovak Republic. It is situated inWestern Slovakia, in the middle course of the Vah River, in the area with abundant Upper Palaeolithic settlement. A small (2 m2) amount of revisory research conducted in 2008 had an interdisciplinary character, including detailed sedimentological, stable isotope, seasonality, fired clay pellets, lithic raw materials, pollen and malacofaunal analyses. Stable isotope analyses were used for the first time in Palaeolithic research in Slovakia. The results of most analyses were similar to those obtained from other Gravettian sites in the Middle Danube region. The analyses of sediment and malacofauna indicated cooling in the studied time intervals, Stable isotope analyses indicated the mosaic character of the Gravettian palaeoenvironment.