Kozarnika

The excavation site in 2017

Kozarnika , Bulgarian Козарника Kosarnika (" Abri of the goat"), is a cave in the far north-west of Bulgaria . It was first used by hunters and gatherers around 750,000 years ago. However, the useful life of the cave extends almost to the present day. Fossils were found with traces of cuts that were initially dated up to 1.6 million years ago. The latest investigations revise this classification as the oldest discovery site in Europe with human traces.

Kozarnika is located 6 km from Belogradchik , not far from the Danube plain, and has a length of 210 m. Its entrance is 480 m above sea level and 85 m above the plain. He points south.

Although it has been known since 1933, excavations did not begin until 1984. From 1996 the annual campaigns took place under the direction of Nikolay Sirakov from Sofia and Jean-Luc Guadelli from Bordeaux .

A distinction is now made between 21 strata , which range from the Old Paleolithic (13–11a) to the Middle Paleolithic (10b – 9a) and the Upper Paleolithic (6 and 7), as well as a layer with a blade industry, which the excavators named "Kozarnikien" ( 5c – 3a), finally layers from the early Neolithic through the Copper and Bronze Ages to the late Middle Ages .

According to the excavators, the reversal of the earth's magnetic field around 786,000 years ago proved that the artifacts must have originated before this time, the archaeozoological analysis even revealed an age of 1.4 to 1.6 million years. A molar was considered the oldest human remnant in Europe. Also, cuts on bones were classified as the oldest evidence of symbolic thought. These classifications remained controversial, however, and a closer examination could show that the oldest layers only emerged after the aforementioned reversal of the magnetic field.

The Middle Paleolithic layers could be classified using the Levallois technique and thus assigned to the Neanderthals , some artefacts could be assigned to Jerzmanowicia .

The excavators dated the Upper Paleolithic artifacts between 43,000 and 39,000 years ago, making them one of the oldest traces of the Cro-Magnon man .

literature

• Giovanni Muttoni, Nikolas Sirakov, Jean-Luc Guadelli, Dennis V. Kent, Giancarlo Scardia, Edoardo Monesi, Andrea Zerboni, Enzo Ferrara: An early Brunhes (<0.78 Ma) age for the Lower Paleolithic tool-bearing Kozarnika cave sediments, Bulgaria , in: Quaternary Science Reviews 178 (2017) 1-13.
• Anne-Marie Tillier, Nikolay Sirakov, Aleta Guadelli, Philippe Fernandez, Svoboda Sirakova, Irena Dimitrova, Catherine Ferrier, Guillaume Guerin, Maryam Heidari, Ivailo Krumov, Jean-Claude Leblanc, Viviana Miteva, Vasil Popov, Stanimira Taneva, Jean-Luc Guadelli : Evidence of Neanderthals in the Balkans: The infant radius from Kozarnika Cave (Bulgaria) , in: Journal of Human Evolution 111 (2017) 54-62 ( online ).
• Nikolay Sirakov, Jean-Luc Guadelli, Stefanka Ivanova: An ancient continuous human presence in the Balkans and the beginnings of the settlement of western Eurasia. The Lower Pleistocene example of Lower Palaeolithic in Kozarnika cave (North-western Bulgaria) , in: Quaternary International 223–224 (2010) 94–106.
• Tsenka Tsanova: Les débuts du Paléolithique supérieur dans l'Est of the Balkans. Réflexion à partir de l'étude taphonomique et techno-économique des ensembles lithiques des sites de Bacho Kiro (couch 11), Temnata (couches VI et 4) et Kozarnika (level VII) , Diss. University of Bordeaux 1, 2006.
• Jean-Luc Guadelli, Nikolay Sirakov, Stefanka Ivanova (2005) Une séquence du Paléolithique inférieur au Paléolithique récent dans les Balkans: la grotte Kozarnika à Orechets (north-ouest de la Bulgarie) , in: Données récentes sur les modalités de peuplement et sur le cadre chronostratigraphique, géologique et paleogéographique des industries du Paléolithique inférieur et moyen en Europe , N. Molines, M.-H. Moncel, M.-H., J.-L. Monnier (Ed.): BAR International Series 1364, Actes du Colloque International de Rennes, September 22-25, 2003 , pp. 87-103.

Remarks

1. ↑ Giovanni Muttoni, Nikolas Sirakov, Jean-Luc Guadelli, Dennis V. Kent, Giancarlo Scardia, Edoardo Monesi, Andrea Zerboni, Enzo Ferrara: An early Brunhes (<0.78 Ma) age for the Lower Paleolithic tool-bearing Kozarnika cave sediments, Bulgaria , in: Quaternary Science Reviews 178 (2017) 1-13.
2. ↑ Nikolay Sirakov, Tsenka Tsanova, Svoboda Sirakova, Stanimira Taneva, Ivaylo Krumov, Irena Dimitrova, Natalia Kovatcheva: Un nouveau faciès lamellaire du début du Paléolithique supérieur dans les Balkans , in: PALEO 19 (2007) online .