jats:pBrînzeni cave occupies an important place in the Palaeolithic of Moldova. Its significance is reconsidered in the light of work carried out at the site in 1992–1993 and subsequently, and the opportunity is taken to bring together both published and previously unpublished reports about it, to shed light on its environmental history and archaeological characterisation. On current evidence, the principal occupation layer occupies a chronologically intermediate position between the Aurignacian and the Gravettian in the region, and the archaeological assemblage is certainly distinctive, although probably not ‘transitional’ in the sense previously claimed.</jats:p>