Europe is characterized by an uneven record of Middle Paleolithic occupations. Specifically, large parts of southeastern Europe display markedly lower site densities and less intensive evidence of human presence than is found elsewhere; this has often resulted in the exclusion of the Balkans from debates related to Pleistocene human adaptation. The discrepancy stems either from the lower population densities of southeastern Europe or an imbalance in research across Europe. Additionally, our understanding of Balkan Middle Paleolithic stone tool industries suffers from the use of Mousterian labels defined when Bordian typology was the chief method of lithic analysis. Industrial facies then defined and still in use include Balkan Charentian, Levallois Mousterian, Micromousterian, Denticulate Mousterian; their relation with the rest of the Eurasian record was and remains unclear. This paper sets aside the issue of scarcity of Pleistocene occupations and tries to address Neanderthal biogeography, and variations in Neanderthal technological behavior and subsistence, based on the available record. It reviews the current Middle Paleolithic record in the Balkans, presents the apparent temporal and spatial trends, and presents the provisional biogeography of hominins, including scenarios for the demise of Neanderthals at or soon after the arrival of modern humans in Europe. The paper ends with a discussion of perspectives for future research arising from this analysis of the available record and proposes some hypotheses regarding the role of the Balkans in the overall context of the occupational history of western Eurasia in the Middle/Late Pleistocene.

欧洲的特点是旧石器时代中期的占领记录参差不齐。具体来说，与其他地方相比，东南欧大部分地区的遗址密度明显较低，人类存在的证据也较少；这常常导致巴尔干地区被排除在与更新世人类适应有关的辩论之外。这种差异要么源于东南欧人口密度较低，要么源于整个欧洲的研究不平衡。此外，我们对巴尔干旧石器时代中期石器工业的理解受到莫斯特标签使用的影响，而莫斯特标签的使用是在博尔迪亚类型学是石器分析的主要方法时定义的。当时定义并仍在使用的工业相包括巴尔干夏朗德相、勒瓦卢瓦莫斯特相、麦克莫斯特相、齿状莫斯特相；它们与欧亚大陆其他记录的关系过去和现在仍不清楚。本文搁置了更新世职业稀缺的问题，并试图根据现有记录来解决尼安德特人的生物地理学以及尼安德特人技术行为和生存的变化。它回顾了巴尔干地区当前旧石器时代中期的记录，呈现了明显的时间和空间趋势，并呈现了古人类的临时生物地理学，包括尼安德特人在现代人类到达欧洲时或之后不久消亡的情景。本文最后讨论了对现有记录的分析所产生的未来研究的观点，并提出了一些关于巴尔干半岛在中/晚更新世欧亚大陆西部占领历史整体背景中的作用的假设。