Peştera Muierii
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Peştera Muierii or Peştera Muierilor (Romanian for "women's cave") is a branched cave system in the municipality of Baia de Fier , Gorj County , Romania .
description
The remains of cave bears and a skull were found in the cave system , which was dated to 30,150 ± 800 years using the radiocarbon method . Based on this, it was estimated to be 35,000 years old. The skull was discovered in 1952 and is assigned to anatomically modern humans ( Homo sapiens ). In addition to similar finds in the Cioclovina Cave , estimated to be around 29,000 years old, they are among the oldest finds made by early modern man in Romania's prehistory.
The skull is interpreted as that of a woman with anatomically modern features. It has a high forehead, a small jaw and small supraorbital ridges . Despite the high roof of the skull, the occiput has a distinct dome, a property that is normally associated with Neanderthals . The largely intact facial bones show a woman with "rugged facial features".
From this combination of different features, which are similar to those of the finds in the Peștera cu oasis ("bone cave"), it is concluded that Neanderthal genes were mixed in. It is also conceivable that it is just a "robust" archaic Homo sapiens . The early dating allows this find to be related to the Cro-Magnon man .
See also
Web links
- PNAS (PDF; 776 kB), Andrei Soficaru, Adrian Dobos and Erik Trinkaus: Early modern humans from the Pestera Muierii, Baia de Fier, Romania . (English)
- Romania.Info , caves tour. Cave paradise. Pestera Muierii (The Women's Cave).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Soficaru A, Dobos A, Trinkaus E: Early modern humans from the Peştera Muierilor, Baia de Fier, Romania . In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 103, No. 46, November 2006, pp. 17196-201. bibcode : 2006PNAS..10317196S . doi : 10.1073 / pnas.0608443103 . PMID 17085588 . PMC 1859909 (free full text).
- ↑ BBC Science news: Cave fossils are early Europeans , October 30, 2006