Denisova Cave

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Denisova Cave

Entrance to Denissowa Cave

Entrance to Denissowa Cave
Location: Altai region , Russia
Geographic
location: 		51 ° 23 '51 .3 "  N , 84 ° 40' 34.3"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 23  '51.3 " N , 84 ° 40' 34.3"  E
Denissowa Cave (Altai Region)
Denisova Cave

The Denissowa Cave (actually Denis Cave or Denis Cave , from Russian Денисова пещера , Denissowa peschtschera , wis. Transliteration Denisova peščera ) is a cave in the Altai Mountains in the Russian Altai region in Siberia . The cave is located about 4 km northwest of the village of Chorny Anui ( Чёрный Ануй , already in the Altai Republic ) and about 220 km as the crow flies south-southeast of the regional capital Barnaul and 130 km south of Biysk . The district center of Solonezhnoye is about 40 km northwest.

The cave is located at about 670  m above sea level and about 28 m above the right bank of the Anui , a left tributary of the Ob . It has a floor area of ​​approximately 270 m 2 . Shortly behind the entrance is the approximately 9 m × 11 m large main room with the archaeological settlement layers, there are also smaller ancillary rooms. The Denissowa Cave is a relatively horizontal karst cave in layers of the Upper Silurian . It is considered to be the best explored cave with Paleolithic finds in North Asia and is the only known site of the Denisova people so far .

Younger story

In the 18th century a hermit named Дионисий / Dionissi (Denis) lived in the cave, which was then named after him. The native Altai people call them Aju-Tasch (Bear Rock).

Prehistoric settlement

In the 1970s, Soviet scientists led by paleontologist Nikolai Owodow discovered numerous stone tools in the cave while searching for cave bear remains , which led to further archaeological investigations. In 1982, researchers at the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography in Novosibirsk identified 22 layers with archaeological finds that span a period from Dionissi to between 125,000 and 180,000 years ago. The layers were dated using thermoluminescence dating and partly using radiocarbon dating . Among the archaeological finds are tools in the Moustérien and Levallois styles, which are ascribed to the Neanderthals .

Also unusual are jewelry from layer 11, which was dated to an age between around 45,000 and 30,000 years. (Next perforated teeth two fragments of a cut arm ring of dark green "Chloritolit" were here . English : chloritolite ) found that for the early Upper Paleolithic is a singular findings. In a newspaper article from 2015, however, with reference to the excavation manager Anatoli Derewjanko , chlorite is mentioned several times , which makes the initial determination appear to be an erroneous formulation and suggests a variety of green slate.

  • Finds from Denissowa Cave (originals)

  • Fossil Denisova 5: the toe bone (base member) of a Neanderthal man found in the Denisova cave with traces of sampling (original)

  • Finger joint (replica) of a Denisova man discovered in the Denisova Cave in 2008

In March 2010, the DNA analysis of the phalanx Denisova 3 of a Denisova human was published, which had already been found in 2008 in the shift package 9-11. Since it doesn't get warmer than about 7 degrees Celsius in the cave, the only seven millimeter long piece of bone with intact DNA has been preserved in the cave sediment. A morphologically archaic molar tooth M2 or M3 of the Denisova man from layer 11.1 of the cave was first published in December 2010. It bears the fossil name Denisova 4 and - like the finger bone - has been dated between 30-48,000 BP via the layer context using the 14 C method . The molar Denisova 8, published in 2015, is at least 50,000 years old .

The DNA from a toe bone of a Neanderthal man discovered in 2010 could also be extracted and almost completely reconstructed. The Denisova 11 fossil - a small fragment of a long bone that was discovered in the cave in 2012 - belonged to a young person believed to be at least 13 years old, whose mother was a Neanderthal woman and whose father was a Denisovan.

Dating 2019

At the beginning of 2019, two studies with new dates on the settlement of the cave based on optically stimulated luminescence and a variant of mass spectrometry (ZooMS) were published in the journal Nature . According to this, based on stone tool finds, there were indications that the cave was settled for the first time 300,000 years ago. The evidence for Neanderthals was dated between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago, the evidence for Denisova people is at least 200,000 years old. According to the analysis, the mixed race child (Denisova 11) is around 100,000 years old. The most recent bone find (Denisova 14), whose attribution to a specific population is unclear, is 46,300 ± 2600 years old.

For the jewelry items, which are presumably to be assigned to anatomically modern humans ( Homo sapiens ), an age of around 48,000 to 43,000 years ago cal BP has now been published. According to the findings, the settlement of the cave was not continuous, but episodic, especially during the interglacial periods .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Денисова пещера. Denisova-Denisova Cave-Denis Cave . Retrieved September 16, 2015.
  2. ↑ a b c d K. Kris Hirst: Denisova Cave (Siberia) Altai Mountain Paleolithic Site of Denisova Cave . Retrieved September 16, 2015.
  3. ↑ a b Maria Mednikova: A proximal pedal phalanx of a Paleolithic hominin from denisova cave, Altai. In: Archeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia. Volume 39, No. 1, 2011, pp. 129-138, doi : 10.1016 / j.aeae.2011.06.017
  4. ^ Michael Marshall: Mystery relations. In: New Scientist . Volume 222, No. 2963, 2014, pp. 34-38
  5. ↑ no author's name: Денисова пещера information portal Barnaul and Altai region. Retrieved September 16, 2015
  6. ^ AP Derevianko et al .: A Paleolithic Bracelet From Denisova Cave. In: Archeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia. Volume 34, No. 2, 2008, pp. 13-25 doi : 10.1016 / j.aeae.2008.07.002
  7. ↑ Stone bracelet is oldest ever found in the world. On: Siberian Times, May 7, 2015 (last accessed January 31, 2019).
  8. ↑ Johannes Krause et al: The complete mitochondrial DNA genome of an unknown hominin from southern Siberia. In: Nature . Volume 464, No. 7290, 2010, pp. 894-897, doi : 10.1038 / nature08976 , full text (PDF) .
  9. ↑ Katrin Blawat: Homo X. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. No. 70 of March 25, 2010, p. 18
  10. ↑ a b David Reich et al: Genetic history of an archaic hominin group from Denisova Cave in Siberia. In: Nature , Volume 468, No. 7327, 2010, pp. 1053-1060 doi : 10.1038 / nature09710 (on the situation in the shift context, especially in: Supplementary Information 12, pp. 81-86).
  11. ↑ Susanna Sawyer et al .: Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences from two Denisovan individuals. In: PNAS . Online advance publication of November 16, 2015, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.1519905112 .
  12. ↑ Kay Prüfer, Fernando Racimo et al .: The complete genome sequence of a Neanderthal from the Altai Mountains. In: Nature. Volume 505, No. 7481, 2014, pp. 43-49, doi: 10.1038 / nature12886 .
  13. ↑ A high-quality Neandertal genome sequence. On: eva.mpg.de , accessed on October 6, 2017.
  14. ↑ Samantha Brown, Thomas Higham , Viviane Slon, Svante Pääbo et al .: Identification of a new hominin bone from Denisova Cave, Siberia using collagen fingerprinting and mitochondrial DNA analysis. In: Scientific Reports. Volume 6, Article No. 23559, 2016, doi: 10.1038 / srep23559 .
  15. ↑ Viviane Slon, Fabrizio Mafessoni, Benjamin Vernot et al .: The genome of the offspring of a Neandertal mother and a Denisovan father. In: Nature. Volume 561, 2018, pp. 113–116, doi: 10.1038 / s41586-018-0455-x .
  16. ^ Zenobia Jacob et al .: Timing of archaic hominin occupation of Denisova Cave in southern Siberia. In: Nature. Volume 565, 2019, pp. 594-599, doi: 10.1038 / s41586-018-0843-2
  17. ↑ Katerina Douka et al .: Age estimates for hominin fossils and the onset of the Upper Palaeolithic at Denisova Cave. In: Nature. Volume 565, 2019, pp. 640-644, doi: 10.1038 / s41586-018-0870-z .
  18. ↑ Robin Dennell: Dating of hominin discoveries at Denisova. In: Nature. Volume 565, 2019, pp. 571-572, doi: 10.1038 / d41586-019-00264-0
  19. ↑ Ancient-human species mingled in Siberia's hottest property for 300,000 years. On: nature.com from January 30, 2019 (with an overview graphic of the settlement history).
  20. ↑ New studies reveal deep history of archaic humans in southern Siberia. On: eurekalert.org from January 30, 2019.