Apidima caves
| Apidima cave
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| Location: | on the west coast of the Mani Peninsula , Greece | |
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Geographic location: |
36 ° 39 ′ 41 ″ N , 22 ° 21 ′ 48 ″ E | |
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| Geology: | Karst | |
| Particularities: | Only accessible from the sea (e.g. by boat) | |
| Website: | Website | |
The Apidima caves ( Greek Σπήλαια Απήδημα Spílea Apídima ) are a karst cave complex on the west coast of the southern Greek peninsula of Mani .
location
The Apidima cave complex is located in the south of the Peloponnese peninsula on the steep west coast of the Mani peninsula on the Messenian Gulf between the bays of Diros and Limenes west of Areopoli . The access to the four small cave rooms is between 4 and 19 meters above sea level.
The caves were created as a result of the limestone being washed out and were partially filled with sediments from the Pleistocene , which were then heavily eroded by the effects of the sea. During the Pleistocene, sea levels were at a lower level. Presumably at this time a small valley extended northeast to Itylo . After the last ice age around 10,000 years ago, the living conditions in the valley changed due to the sea level and made access more difficult.
Archaeological exploration
Excavations were carried out in the caves between 1978 and 1985, which, among other things, produced fragments of two human skulls (Apidima 1 and 2), which, however, could not initially be assigned to any particular species of the genus Homo . In 2019, computer-generated virtual reconstructions of the skull shapes for both fragments were published, according to which the fossil Apidima 2 had “ Neanderthal- like morphological features”, while the fossil Apidima 1 “a mixture of modern and primitive features” of Homo sapiens . If the reconstruction of Apidima 1 and the resulting assignment to anatomically modern humans as well as the dating of the fossil (210,000 years old) are correct, this find would be the oldest evidence of the presence of Homo sapiens in Europe. However, technical doubts were expressed about this immediately after the reconstruction was published.
Web links
- Urs Willmann: Old Greek. In: The time. 10/11 July 2019.
- Roland Knauer: A very old Greek. In: Spektrum.de. July 10, 2019.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Andreas Darlas: Σπήλαια Απήδημα: περιγραφή. Ephorie for Paleoanthropology and Speleology, Ministry of Culture and Sport (Greek).
- ↑ Katerina Harvati et al .: Apidima Cave fossils provide earliest evidence of Homo sapiens in Eurasia. In: Nature . Online advance publication of July 10, 2019, doi: 10.1038 / s41586-019-1376-z ( full text ).
- ↑ Antje Karbe: Earliest Homo sapiens found outside Africa in Greece. In: idw-online.de. July 10, 2019.
- ↑ Lizzy Wade: Skull fragment from Greek cave suggests modern humans were in Europe more than 200,000 years ago. In: sciencemag.org. July 10, 2019.