A new open-access paper co-authored by CAHO’s William Davies presents an updated stratigraphy and chronology for Grub-Kranawetberg I, a Gravettian open-air site in Lower Austria, about 30 km north-east of Vienna.
Led by Philip R. Nigst (University of Vienna), the study describes the site’s 5.5 m deep sequence for the first time and reports 12 new radiocarbon dates on charcoal, more than doubling the site’s existing dates. The results place two archaeological horizons between about 30,000 and 27,700 years ago, at the boundary between the Middle and Late Gravettian, and a later horizon at about 26,350–25,850 years ago.
The contrast between these horizons is consistent with a suggested shift towards more short-lived, specialised settlement as conditions became colder and drier at the onset of the Last Glacial Maximum. The findings provide essential data for exploring how modern humans adapted to Central Europe during the Upper Palaeolithic.
Read the paper: Nigst, P.R., Davies, W., Pirson, S., Antl-Weiser, W. & Bosch, M.D. (2026). At the onset of the Late Gravettian: an updated chronology and stratigraphy for the multi-layered Gravettian open-air site Grub-Kranawetberg I (Austria). Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 76, 106116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2026.106116