Mala Balanica Cave

Mala Balanica Cave
Location:	Svrljig Mountains , Svrljig , Serbia
Height :	332 m. i. J.
Geographic ; location:	43 ° 20 '12.7 " N , 22 ° 5' 6.9" E Coordinates: 43 ° 20 '12.7 " N , 22 ° 5' 6.9" E
Geology:	limestone
Overall length:	25 m
Particularities:	Homo heidelbergensis fossils

The Mala-Balanica Cave (“small Balanica cave”; spoken: “Balanitza”) is a paleoanthropological and archaeological site in southeast Serbia near Niš . In 2009 a partially preserved hominine lower jaw was discovered in it, the lower jaw of Mala Balanica , which is considered to be the most easterly evidence of the presence of the Middle Pleistocene species Homo heidelbergensis in Europe .

Description of the cave

The Mala Balanica Cave is a 25 meter long karst chamber, eight meters wide and 2.80 meters high. The mountains from which the cave was washed free emerged in the transition from the Jura to the Chalk . Today it is about 100 meters above the current course of the Nišava River , on the southern slope of the Svrljiške Mountains near the exit of the Sićevačka Gorge . From the entrance to the cave you can look to the south-southwest over the river valley. The entrance to the neighboring Velika Balanica Cave (“Great Balanica Cave”) is only seven meters away from its entrance.

Rainwater, which penetrates the cover rock through crevices and cracks, currently ensures that calcium carbonate is dissolved from the limestone and the clear space of the cave is expanded. The floor of the cave is filled with several distinguishable layers , some of which are limestone-gravel, some of which are clay and sand. A detailed analysis of the history of the formation of the cave and its backfilling is still pending and was described by the authors in the description of the cave published in 2011 as “currently beyond our possibilities”.

Archaeological digs

The equally protected and easily accessible cave has been scientifically explored since 2005. During an exploratory excavation , stone tools of the Quina type (a variant of the Middle Paleolithic Moustérie ) were discovered on the western cave wall, immediately below the present-day cave floor, and a filled pit in the southwest corner of the cave. In the following four years around twelve square meters of soil were examined and other stone tools were discovered at a depth of up to 30 centimeters. At the same time, the backfilling of the pit was removed, so that at this point the sequence of layers could finally be traced down to a depth of two meters below the current cave floor.

In the same layer as the mittelpaläolithischen artifacts the excavators discovered remnants of charcoal and animal bones and teeth, including the remains of wolves , wild cats , brown bear , red foxes , tree Martens , cave hyenas , red deer , fallow deer , roe deer , chamois , Alpenstein goats , beaver , Steppenpfeifhasen and forest mice . Numerous bones have been bitten by predators or rodents , and some have cut marks .

The BH-1 fossil

The fossil lower jaw BH-1 (Balanica Hominin 1) was discovered five centimeters below the bottom of the pit, at a depth of 1.5 meters below the current cave floor. No further evidence of human activities was found in this layer, which, according to the excavators, may be due to the relatively small investigation area. The bones of wolves, bears, cave hyenas, fallow deer and Alpine ibex were also found in the layer of finds from BH-1.

BH-1 is the 6.7 centimeter long fragment of a left lower jaw. It covers the area from the rear edge of the canine - tooth socket until the beginning of the ascending ramus (ramus), including all three molars that sit still in their dental subjects. Since the third (rear) molar has already completely erupted, it can be concluded that it is the remnant of an adult individual. The very little abrasion of the tooth enamel also allows the conclusion that it was a relatively young adult.

From the detailed description of the structure of the jawbones and teeth in 2011, it was deduced that the fossil is beyond doubt the remnant of an individual of the genus Homo . However, it was initially avoided in a certain way. The reason for this was in particular the discrepancy between, on the one hand, the “non-modern” morphology of the lower jaw, which indicated belonging to an archaic species of the genus Homo ; all typical characteristics of the Neanderthals are missing , other characteristics indicate a proximity to Homo heidelbergensis and even to Homo erectus . On the other hand, radiometric dating only assigned the fossil a minimum age of around 70,000 to 156,000 years.

In 2013, however, a second date was published that resolved the contradictions: According to this, the fossil is at least 397,000 to 525,000 years old and therefore falls at least into the epoch of Homo heidelbergensis . The fossils from the Sima de los Huesos in Spain, the man from Tautavel from France and the lower jaw from Mauer from near Heidelberg are similarly old . Based on this dating, BH-1 is considered to be the most eastern fossil found in Europe from the Middle Pleistocene .

At the same time, far-reaching conclusions were drawn regarding the evolution of Homo heidelbergensis : Based on a study published in 2011, the “non-modern” characteristics of BH-1 (in particular the lack of characteristics that prove a proximity to the later Neanderthals) were used as indications of a separate further development of the Western European and Eastern European homo populations interpreted. According to this, the western European population of Homo heidelbergensis was isolated from all other populations during the repeated ice age cold spells, while gene flow to populations further south was still possible in the eastern population . The Neanderthals later emerged from the western European population, while the later development of the eastern population has not yet been clarified due to a lack of sufficient finds.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Mirjana Roksandic et al .: A human mandible (BH-1) from the Pleistocene deposits of Mala Balanica cave (Sićevo Gorge, Niš, Serbia). In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 61, No. 2, 2011, pp. 186–196, doi: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2011.03.003 , [1]
↑ ^a ^b William J. Rink et al .: New Radiometric Ages for the BH-1 Hominin from Balanica (Serbia): Implications for Understanding the Role of the Balkans in Middle Pleistocene Human Evolution. In: PLoS ONE. Volume 8, No. 2: e54608, doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0054608
↑ Robin Dennell et al .: hominin variability, climatic instability and population demography in Middle Pleistocene Europe. In: Quaternary Science Reviews. Volume 30, No. 11-12, 2011, pp. 1511-1524, doi: 10.1016 / j.quascirev.2009.11.027

[Roksandic_2011-1] Mirjana Roksandic et al .: A human mandible (BH-1) from the Pleistocene deposits of Mala Balanica cave (Sićevo Gorge, Niš, Serbia). In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 61, No. 2, 2011, pp. 186–196, doi: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2011.03.003 , [1]

[Rink_2013-2] William J. Rink et al .: New Radiometric Ages for the BH-1 Hominin from Balanica (Serbia): Implications for Understanding the Role of the Balkans in Middle Pleistocene Human Evolution. In: PLoS ONE. Volume 8, No. 2: e54608, doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0054608

[3] Robin Dennell et al .: hominin variability, climatic instability and population demography in Middle Pleistocene Europe. In: Quaternary Science Reviews. Volume 30, No. 11-12, 2011, pp. 1511-1524, doi: 10.1016 / j.quascirev.2009.11.027