Research compendium for 'Early Upper Paleolithic technical behavior at Apidima (Peloponnese, Greece): Technological analysis of the lithic assemblage from the Cave C legacy collection'

Lombardo, S., Thompson, N. C., Gorgoulis, V. G., Evangelou, K., Harvati, K., & Tourloukis, V. (in press) “Early Upper Paleolithic technical behavior at Apidima (Peloponnese, Greece): Technological analysis of the lithic assemblage from the Cave C legacy collection” Paleoanthropology, DOI: (added once manuscript published) Details about the files provided here: - Supplementary information SI 2: complete dataset containing discrete and metric attributes of the lithic assemblage - Supplementary information SI 3: R scripts used to perform the analyses presented in the paper Please cite this repository as: Lombardo, S., Thompson, N. C., Gorgoulis, V. G., Evangelou, K., Harvati, K., & Tourloukis, V. (2026). Research compendium for “Early Upper Paleolithic technical behavior at Apidima (Peloponnese, Greece): Technological analysis of the lithic assemblage from the Cave C legacy collection”. Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20325569 Abstract The Apidima cave complex, located in the Peloponnese, Greece, stands as one of the most significant Paleolithic sites in southeastern Europe. The site is well-known due to the discovery of two fossilized crania, a Homo sapiens and a Neanderthal, respectively, found in Cave A during investigations by T. Pitsios in the late 1970s and 1980s. A presumed Early Upper Paleolithic human burial was also uncovered in Cave C, along with isolated human remains, pierced shells, faunal remains, and a lithic assemblage. Despite the significance of these findings, only a limited sample of this lithic assemblage has undergone preliminary study. Given the scarcity of data on the Upper Paleolithic in Greece, a detailed analysis of the Apidima lithic industry holds great potential for deepening our understanding of population dynamics in the southern Balkans during this period. Here, we provide the first comprehensive technological analysis of the lithic finds uncovered in Cave C. The assemblage predominantly consists of local flint (pebbles and blocks) used to mainly produce elongated blanks. The two main concepts of debitage identified at the site are, firstly, an integrated concept with volumetric cores exploited by direct percussion and, secondarily, an additional concept with the use of the bipolar-on-anvil percussion technique. Bladelets were the main target of production, frequently modified along the edges using direct marginal retouch, occasionally inverse or alternate. Several refits were also identified, enabling the reconstruction of the reduction sequences, at times obliterated by the dominant presence of bipolar percussion, particularly employed during the residual phase of blank exploitation. The analysis of the reduction sequences, combined with typological analysis, allows us to frame the Apidima Cave C lithic assemblage within the early phases of the Upper Paleolithic, aligned with Protoaurignacian variability. This study significantly enhances our understanding of the Aurignacian technological behavior in Greece and contributes to broader discussions of human occupation and migration in southeastern Europe during this critical period.