Minister of Culture Aleksandar Bogdanovic and US Ambassador to Montenegro Judy Rising Reinke visited today the prehistoric site of Red Rock and on that occasion, they met with systematic archaeological research currently conducted by experts from the USA and Montenegro.
It is about continuing the study of one of the most important prehistoric dwelling of men in the world, which contributes to a more complete understanding of the way of life and customs of prehistoric communities living in this area.
Bogdanovic and Reinke agreed that the archaeological research of the Red Rock site is one of a large number of successful projects in Montenegro, which is an indicator of good cooperation between the two countries in preserving the Montenegrin cultural heritage.
The project entitled "The Origin of Fire Use" is part of a grant supported by the US National Science Foundation (NSF), and the expert team for systematic research of the site is headed by Professor Gilbert Tostevin from the University of Minnesota, while on the Montenegrin side leader of the research is archaeologist Mitar Cerovic, head of the Archeological Museum of the National Museum of Montenegro.
A large number of research specialists from the United States, Canada, Israel, Italy, Spain, Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro are working on physical-chemical analyzes, archeology, micro-morphology, sedimentology, archaeomagnetic, C14 dating, crypto tephra, ancient DNA research .
The results of the previous multidisciplinary research provide a complete reconstruction of the life of the Paleolithic man of the Middle Paleolithic period - Mousterian - the time of the Neanderthal culture from 150 000 to 40 000 years BC. In future research, as reported by the expert team, it is expected that Paleolithic cultures of the age of 200 000 years BC will come to life. With modern archaeological and other methodology, they expect that new knowledge will be reached on the world level about this period, and according to them, Red Rock has the possibility for further and new scientific discoveries.
The prehistoric site of the Red Rock was discovered in 1954, when the first systematic archaeological excavations began. Later audit research began in 2004 by the Center for Archaeological Research of Montenegro in cooperation with the University of Michigan, and since last year, the National Museum of Montenegro continued with a multidisciplinary approach. Since 2012, the Ministry of Culture has invested around 270 thousand euros for the needs of archaeological research of the Red Rock site and adaptation of the buildings in the village of Petrovici.
Text by CdM, on July 20th, 2019, read more at CdM
