<< Text Pages Oblazowa Cave - Cave or Rock Shelter in Poland in Malopolskie
Submitted by C_Michael_Hogan on Monday, 30 June 2025 Page Views: 1
Natural PlacesSite Name: Oblazowa CaveCountry: Poland Voivodeship: Malopolskie Type: Cave or Rock Shelter
Nearest Village: Krempachy
Latitude: 49.428680N Longitude: 20.125750E
Condition:
| 5 | Perfect |
| 4 | Almost Perfect |
| 3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
| 2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
| 1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
| 0 | No data. |
| -1 | Completely destroyed |
| 5 | Superb |
| 4 | Good |
| 3 | Ordinary |
| 2 | Not Good |
| 1 | Awful |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
| 4 | Short walk on a footpath |
| 3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
| 2 | A long walk |
| 1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
| 4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
| 3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
| 2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
| 1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
| 0 | no data |
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Cave or Rock Shelter in Malopolskie
Oblazowa Cave, Poland
By C. Michael Hogan
The Oblazowa Cave in Poland is a paleolithic habitation, which has yielded rich artifacts from early European hominids. The cave is located within the Przelom Bialki Nature Reserve near Krempachy, southern Poland. The cave has a 9 metre long chamber accessed via a short corridor.
With advanced Bayesian modeling and indirect dating of nearby human and animal remains, an international team headed by Sahra Talamo has dated the likely habitation of H. Neanderthalensis originated between 42,000 and 39,000 years ago. Ten habitation layers have been identified, six of which are H. Neanderthalensis and four H. Sapiens.
One of the key artifacts found at Oblazowa is a paleolithic throwing device very similar to the boomerangs of Australia. However, aeronautical engineers have found that the Oblazowa boomerang was specifically designed for very high speeds and not to return to the thrower; thus it is specifically assigned to be one of the earliest hunting tools known. Dimensions of the boomerang: height 71 cm, width 5,2 cm, thickness 1,5 cm. This finding is supported by the recovery of ancient animal remains (skeletons of Arctic Fox, various avifauna, and antlers) in Oblazowa Cave dating to the middle to late Paleolithic. The boomerang is exquisitely crafted with crescent shape and smooth flattened underside (which is the source of the one-way travel design). There is continuing debate as to whether the boomerang dates to a Neanderthal or modern human layer.
This dating of the Oblazowa boomerang places the ivory boomerang not only before agriculture, but well ahead of the final Ice Age’s peak. And importantly, it places the artifact in a world still co-occupied with Neanderthals— a time when anatomically modern humans H. Sapiens was beginning to make symbolic and technological advances around the European continent.
Another interesting feature recovered from the limestone Oblazowa Cave was an impressive ritual style granite stone circle. These large very smooth oblate spheroid stones likely came from the river bed of the proximate Bialki River. Some of these granite stones measured about one meter in length. Amazingly the ivory boomerang was found in the middle of this ritual circle, implying the hunting boomerang was more than a functional hunting tool, but was also revered in Neanderthal culture. That finding is underscored by some groove and glyph carvings on the boomerang, further suggesting this hunting tool was highly revered.
A variety of stone tools were recovered from Oblazowa Cave, including: Jurassic Kraków flint, chocolate flint, both imported from northern regions, local radiolarite, and rock crystal probably from northern Slovakia. The main cave entrance had been covered with millennia of silt, which enabled the prehistoric contents and well defined habitation layers to be extremely well preserved.
References
Valde-Nowak, Paweł, Nadachowski Adam, Madeyska Teresa (2003):Obłazowa Cave: Human Activity, Stratigraphy and Palaeoenvironment. Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology Polish Academy of Sciences. ISBN 83-908823-7-X.
Valde- Nowak, Paweł (2009): Obłazowa and Hłomcza: Two Paleolithic sites in the North Carparthians province of Southern Poland. In Adams, Brian; S. Blades, Brooke (Eds.), Lithic Materials and Paleolithic Societies (pp. 196– 207). Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-405-16837-3.
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