Dolní Věstonice I. Excavations 1990–1993

Large-scale excavations of complete Gravettian living-floors at Dolni Věstonice I were primarily realised between 1924–1952 whereas later fieldwork had rather a character of separate trenches. Here we report the results of last excavation organized at this site in 1990 and 1993. A series of trenches along the western and southern boundary brought additional chronostratigraphic and archaeological evidence concerning the overall situation of the site. In the lower part of the site we detected superimposed charcoal deposits dated by C14 to Early Gravettian but without artefactual context. In the uppermost part we identified the previously excavated units K2 and K3 and we show that these were discrete instalations dated to the Evolved Gravettian (Pavlovian). With the newly acquired data, this paper addresses the questions of general stratigraphy and local microstratigraphies, radiometric chronology, center-periphery relationships (on levels of the whole site and of the individual residential units), and structure of relevant faunal and lithic assemblages.