Balanica (Serbian Cyrillic: Баланица) is a cave complex and paleoarchaeological site in the City of Niš' municipality of Niška Banja in southeast Serbia.

[3] The caves also confirm that the Balkan Peninsula, due to its geographical location, was always an important crossroads, and a migration corridor even for archaic humans,[2] connecting continents already 300,000 years ago.

[7][8] The caves in the surroundings of Niš attracted archaeologists already at the end of the 19th century, few decades after science adopted theories of evolution and glaciation.

However, Balanica and Pešturina caves were discovered during the survey of the terrain for the construction of the Niš-Dimitrovgrad motorway, at the beginning of the 21st century.

It was evident from the start that the localities are important archaeological sources as numerous artefacts, fireplaces, fauna and hominin remains were soon discovered.

The CT scanning was conducted to create a 3D image of the mandible, while the U-series method of radiometric dating was originally used to determine the jaw's age.

Due to the limitation of the process, and some unusual readings, it was tentatively dated to 113,000+72,000-43,000 years, as older specimen was never discovered in this part of Europe.

The mandible is 6.7 cm (2.6 in) long and preserved from the posterior canine alveolus to the mesial aspect of the ascending ramus.

The mesial section of the mandible shows an old breakage filled with sediment, whereas all of the breaks on the distal end are fresh.

[6][11] The presence of the alveolar planum (the distance from the frontmost tooth socket to the back of the jaw), and the overall robusticity indicated a non-modern morphology and primitive character states comparable with the Early Pleistocene.

Shape of the dental arcade and molar morphology placed the remains in the genus Homo, but its fragmentary nature and plesiomorphic character of its traits precluded a more precise taxonomic designation.

[6] However, the 2013 survey which included electron spin resonance combined with uranium series isotopic analysis, and infrared/post-infrared luminescence dating, provided a minimum age between 397,000 and 525,000 years.

Measurements have been conducted by the University of Bordeaux in France, and Université du Québec à Montréal in Canada.

Its older estimate overlaps with Sima de los Huesos in Spain (600,000 BP± 60,000) and is slightly younger than Mauer in Germany (609,000 BP± 40,000).

However, the contemporary Middle Pleistocene hominin population in Western Europe shows unequal presence of Neanderthal traits.

While in the Sima de los Huesos Neanderthal morphology is more pronounced, in the eastern Arago and Ceprano localities not so much.

[9] Lithic assemblages from the Charentian period in both caves, and remains of microfauna, suggest that layer 3a corresponds to the late Middle Pleistocene, probably the interglacial Marine Isotope Stages 9 or 7.

Taking into the account the Proto-Charentian character of industry, and parallels with Karain Cave in Turkey, this would put the layer 3a at 330,000-300,000 BP.

Predators belong to the typical grassland and forested environments, which corresponds to the moderate temperatures and presumed paleo-environment in the interglacial Marine Isotope Stages 7 to 9.

This points to the low role of large mammals in diet, which is generally narrow and heavily influenced by the location of the cave.

Biostratinomic and diagenetic alterations in the assemblage include the abundance of butchery and breakage marks, with thermoalterations (treatment by fire) confirming this.

[1] Specifically, stone tools from Velika and Mala Balanica caves show a distinctive assortment of characteristics, like large flakes with at least one blunt margin, distinctive scalar Quina retouch, extensive reworking of scrapers, and the predominance of scrapers in the assemblage.

These findings strongly suggest movement of population, and possible cultural interactions between Southwest Asia (Levant) and the Balkans during the Chibanian.

Some 30% of total bones was manually hit whilst fresh, producing oblique angles and curved profiles.

That makes them the oldest Neanderthal remains outside of western Europe, indicating massive migration to the east,[1] or the Eastern Mediterranean Area.

Characteristics of the period include exaggerated encephalization, controlled use of fire, temperate zone geographic dispersals, varieties of prepared core lithic reduction techniques, development of effective weaponry (both predatory and defensive), and regional differentiation of human populations.

[10] Remains in Velika Balanica make it one of the oldest localities in Europe where transition from the Lower Paleolithic into the Middle one is recorded.

It appears that Mediterranean peninsulas served as areas of refuge, potentially playing an important role in maintaining the variability of hominins in the continent, by a combination of migratory pulses and in situ evolution.

[2][11] The findings in both Balanica caves point to possible contact between the Balkans and Middle Eastern hominin populations some 300,000 to 240,000 years ago.

The lack of derived Neandertal traits, comparison to the contemporary specimens in Southeast Europe, like Kocabaş, Vasogliano and Ceprano, and coupled with Middle Pleistocene synapomorphies, suggest different evolutionary forces shaped ancient residents in the east of the continent where isolation did not play such an important role during glaciations.