Atapuerca's site Sima de los Huesos, in Spain. Assessment The Middle Pleistocene is becoming increasingly recognized as an important period in the biocultural evolution of humans. 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. 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. The transition was marked by the controlled use of fire, and organized hunting. This corresponds with sudden elevation of cognitive abilities of human ancestors, and the process of encephalization. The Middle and Late Pleistocene specimen from western Europe show derived Neandertal traits, however, this is different for the eastern and the southern Europe. 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. Hence, population of Europe in the Pleistocene may have been more complex than previously thought. Based on the fossil records, the reasons may include any number of different genetic processes including drift, founder effect, directional adaptation and hybridization. The remains coincide with the period when humans began their permanent presence in Europe. Unlike west European Heidelberg man, remains from Mala Balanica have no Neanderthal elements. It indicates that in colder periods, the Balkans wasn't isolated from the rest of Eurasia, like the western Europe was. Scientists predicted that at some point humanoid remains would also be discovered in Velka Balanica, which happened in 2017. The Balkans served not only as a refugium in the ice age periods, but after the glaciers retreated, contributed to 80% of animal and plant species that repopulated Western Europe, and 100% of all the species that repopulated Eastern Europe. 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. A number of questions remain open: What was the exact method of dissemination of the cultural innovations? Were those migrations of people or exchange of ideas, and who was the initial carrier of the original technologies? At this moment, it is not even clear which species of hominins made contact. It could be meeting of European and Middle