The Early–Middle Upper Palaeolithic transition in Eastern Central Europe across MIS3–2 and the Bodrogkeresztúr–Henye site, NE Hungary

The Gravettian site of Bodrogkeresztúr–Henye in northeastern Hungary has long been considered the oldest of its kind in the region. Fieldwork in 2019 revealed a stratigraphic succession spanning from the Late Aurignacian to the Late Gravettian. The Late Aurignacian component is represented by few artefacts and lacks archaeozoological remains, suggesting a short-term occupation, whereas the Late Gravettian yielded an abundant archaeological record indicative of a base camp within a highly mobile settlement system connected to Eastern Central (ECE) and Eastern Europe. The Late Aurignacian corresponds to a climatically milder phase, while the Late Gravettian is associated with colder conditions. The sequence is incomplete, lacking Early Gravettian and Pavlovian layers, comparable to Early–Middle Upper Palaeolithic sequences in Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary. These data suggest that the Early Gravettian in western ECE was contemporaneous with the Late Aurignacian in eastern ECE, and that eastern ECE experienced a brief human occupation hiatus during the Pavlovian. The Late Gravettian represents the Middle Upper Palaeolithic cultural that spread across Eastern Central and Eastern Europe with the onset of colder conditions at the MIS 3–2 transition, likely reflecting adaptive strategies to cold environments, including long-distance human mobility.