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<< Text Pages >> Theopetra Cave - Cave or Rock Shelter in Greece in Central Greece

Submitted by coldrum on Saturday, 10 April 2010  Page Views: 8124

Natural PlacesSite Name: Theopetra Cave
Country: Greece
NOTE: This site is 24.596 km away from the location you searched for.

Region: Central Greece Type: Cave or Rock Shelter
Nearest Town: Kalambaka  Nearest Village: Theopetra
Latitude: 39.679192N  Longitude: 21.680659E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4

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External Links:

Cave in Greece. Oldest Man-Made Structure Found in Greek Cave. The oldest known example of a man-made structure was found within a prehistoric cave in central Greece, according to the Greek culture ministry.

The structure is a stone wall that blocked two-thirds of the entrance to the Theopetra cave near Kalambaka on the north edge of the Thessalian plain. It was constructed 23,000 years ago, probably as a barrier to cold winds.

“An optical dating test, known as Optically Stimulated Luminescence, was applied on quartz grains nested within the stones. We dated four different samples from the sediment and soil materials, and all provided identical dates,” Nikolaos Zacharias, director of the laboratory of archaeometry at the University of Peloponnese, told Discovery News.

According to a statement by the ministry of culture, “the dating matches the coldest period of the most recent ice age, indicating that the cavern’s inhabitants built the stone wall to protect themselves from the cold.”

Excavated since 1987, the Theopetra cave is well known to palaeontologists as it was used and inhabited continuously from the Palaeolithic period onwards (50,000 to 5,000 years ago).

“The newly discovered stone structure is important as it shows the technological level of humans at that time,” Zacharias said.

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 6.0km NW 313° Metéora* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature
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 88.6km NE 51° Dio.* Ancient Village or Settlement
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 106.0km ESE 109° Sesklo* Ancient Village or Settlement
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"Theopetra Cave" | Login/Create an Account | 2 News and Comments
  
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Re: Prehistoric Theopetra Cave opens to public by davidmorgan on Sunday, 11 April 2010
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Very interesting. What a fascinating site.
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Prehistoric Theopetra Cave opens to public by Andy B on Saturday, 10 April 2010
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Theopetra Cave is a famous archaeological site, and the first excavated cave in Thessaly, with excavations starting in 1987 and continuing to the present. Its deposits begin in the Middle Paleolithic period and continue without gaps until the end of the Neolithic period (3000 BC). Its uniqueness is that in contains, within a single site, the records of two greatly significant cultural transitions: The replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans, and the later transition from hunter-gathering to farming after the end of the last Ice Age. The cave, situated just three kilometers from Meteora, consists of an immense 500 square meter rectangular chamber at the foot of a limestone hill, which rises to the northeast above the village of Theopetra, with a very big entrance 17m wide by three metres high. It lies at the foot of the Chasia mountain range, which forms the natural boundary between Thessaly and Epirus prefectures, while the Lithaios River, a tributary of the Pineios River, flows in front of the cave.

Excavations, which have been systematically carried out, have unearthed light geological deposits dating to the Pleistocene and Holocene periods as well as anthropogenic deposits, indicating that the cave had been continuously inhabited during the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic, the Mesolithic and the Neolithic periods. Specimens found, such as coal and human bones, prove that the cave was occupied from about 50,000 BC to 4000 BC, and that temporary use continued during the Bronze Age and historic times up to 1955. Even after that the cave was used occasionally to by shepherds to shelter their herds right up until the excavations began. It is the first time that cave dwelling was recorded in Thessaly during the Palaeolithic period. The stratigraphic sequence of Theopetra extends through three cold periods: during the Middle era circa 25,000 BP (BP being the archaeological term for ‘years Before the Present’, with the ‘present’ referring to 1950 when carbon dating was first implemented), during the Upper Palaeolithic, and during the final Upper Palaeolithic period (end of the Pleistocene era). The excavations and study of the finds at Theopetra have been conducted since 1987 by the scientific research group of the Ephorate of Paleoanthropology-Speleology, under the direction of Dr. Ekaterini (Nina) Kyparissi-Apostolika. Objects discovered in the cave include stone tools of the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic periods, as well as Neolithic pottery, bone and shell objects, skeletons from 15000, 9000 and 8000 BC, and traces of plants and seeds that reveal dietary habits.. In March 2009, Kyparissi made an even more important and exciting discovery. Excavations brought to light three human footprints which have been dated to approximately 135,000 BP in the cretaceous period. The find consists of four human footprints in a row, from four individuals believed to have been children. The prefecture of Trikala and the municipality of Vassiliki, to which Theopetra belongs, have scheduled a concert featuring well-known musicians/singers Pantelis Thalassinos and Melina Kana on Friday, to celebrate the official opening of the cave to visitors.

Theopetra Cave. Twelve Years of Excavation and Research 1987-1998. Edited by Nina Kiparissi-Apostolika. Institute for Aegean Prehistory, Athens, 2000. Reviewed by Andrew Chamberlain Sediments in caves and rock shelters provide much of the archaeological evidence for the occupation of the Mediterranean region first by Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers and subsequently by the earliest Neolithic farmers. Excavations at the Upper Palaeolithic rockshelter site of Klithi in northwest Greece and of Mesolithic and Neolithic deposits in Franchthi Cave in southern Greece have provided valuable insights into the earliest inhabitants of Greece (Bailey, 1999; Jacobsen et al., 1987-2000) but Theopetra Cave is quite possibly unique in containing within a single site a record of two highly significant cultural transitions, that of the replacement of Neanderthals by moder

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