Kalamakia cave (Grèce): Trove of Neanderthal Bones Found

Source - http://www.archaiologia.gr/en/blog/2013/04/02/trove-of-neanderthal-bones-found-in-greek-cave/

A trove of Neanderthal fossils including bones of children and adults, discovered in a cave in Greece hints the area may have been a key crossroad for ancient humans. The timing of the fossils suggests Neanderthals and humans may have at least had the opportunity to interact, or cross paths, there.

Kalamakia. Cranial fragment. (a) Ectocranial and (b) endocranial views. Scale in centimetres. Source: ScienceDirect.

This is the argument supported by Dr. Katerina Harvati, a researcher at the University of Tübingen in Germany. Harvati and her colleagues from Greece and France detailed their findings online March 13 in the Journal of Human Evolution.

Over the course of 13 years, the team  excavated a site known as Kalamakia, a cave stretching about 65 feet (20 meters) deep into limestone cliffs on the western coast of the Mani Peninsula on the mainland of Greece.

The archaeological deposits of the cave date back to between about 39,000 and 100,000 years ago to the Middle Paleolithic period. During the height of the ice age, the area still possessed a mild climate and supported a wide range of wildlife, including deer, wild boar, rabbits, elephants, weasels, foxes, wolves, leopards, bears, falcons, toads, vipers and tortoises. In the cave, the researchers found tools such as scrapers made of flint, quartz and seashells. The stone tools were all shaped, or knapped, in a way typical of Neanderthal artifacts.

Now, the scientists reveal they discovered 14 specimens of child and adult human remains in the cave, including teeth, a small fragment of skull, a vertebra, and leg and foot bones with bite and gnaw marks on them. The teeth strongly appear to be Neanderthal, and judging by marks on the teeth, the ancient people apparently had a diet of meat and diverse plants.

The discoveries are confirming the existence of a thriving and long-standing Neanderthal population in the region. According to Harvati, “Kalamakia, together with the single human tooth from the nearby cave site of Lakonis, are the first Neanderthal remains to be identified from Greece”. As a result, the fossil record from Greece potentially holds answers about the earliest dispersal of modern humans and earlier hominins into Europe, about possible late survival of Neanderthals and about one of the first instances where the two might have had the opportunity to interact.

Neanderthals are the closest extinct relatives of modern humans, apparently even occasionally interbreeding with our ancestors. Neanderthals entered Europe before modern humans did, and may have lasted there until about 35,000 years ago, although recent findings have called this date into question. “Greece lies directly on the most likely route of dispersals of early modern humans and earlier hominins into Europe from Africa via the Near East [...]. It also lies at the heart of one of the three Mediterranean peninsulae of Europe, which acted as refugia for plant and animal species, including human populations, during glacial times — that is, areas where species and populations were able to survive during the worst climatic deteriorations [...]. Until recently, very little was known about deep prehistory in Greece, chiefly because the archaeological research focus in the country has been on classical and other more recent periods,” adds Harvati.

In the future, the team will conduct new fieldwork in other areas in Greece to address mysteries such as potential coexistence and interactions between Neanderthals and modern humans, the spread of modern and extinct humans into Europe and possible seafaring capabilities of ancient humans.

Notes

Harvati et al, "New Neanderthal remains from Mani peninsula, Southern Greece: The Kalamakia Middle Paleolithic cave site", J Hum Evol 2013 Mar 12, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248413000365 (12/03/2013)