Recently unearthed ancient stone tools in the area have been identified as some of the oldest ever recovered in a cave in Poland, where they were discovered fifty years ago.
The age of the tools found in the Tunel Wielki cave in Maopolska ranges from 450,000 to 550,000 years. Scientists may be able to learn more about the people who created them, their migration, and their stay in Central Europe throughout prehistory, thanks to this dating.
For instance, the period suggests that the tools were manufactured by the extinct Homo heidelbergensis species, which is typically regarded as the final common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans (us). And it indicates that the area was populated at a time when the harsh climate of Central Europe would have necessitated major physical and cultural adaptation.
According to archaeologist Magorzata Kot of the University of Warsaw in Poland, “This is a really intriguing part of analysis for us.”
“We may look at the boundaries of Homo heidelbergensis’ chances of survival and see how he responded to these challenging circumstances.”
In 2016, archaeologists visited the site of the 1960s excavation of Tunel Wielki cave. Material layers have been dated to the Middle Paleolithic, which dates back as far as 40,000 years ago, and the Holocene, which began about 11,700 years ago.
In 2016, archaeologists visited the site of the 1960s excavation of Tunel Wielki cave. Material layers have been dated to the Middle Paleolithic, which dates back as far as 40,000 years ago, and the Holocene, which began about 11,700 years ago.
Claudio Berto, an archaeologist at the University of Warsaw, felt that the date was in conflict with what he was seeing. He came to the conclusion that the animal bones found at the site were probably certainly older than 40,000 years.
As a result, Kot and her crew visited the cave again in 2018. One of the trenches was reopened and extended as they carefully examined the many layers of material accumulated over time and gathered additional bone material for analysis.
They discovered that bones from creatures that had lived during the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene were present in the top levels. The lower layer, though, was clearly older. The European jaguar, Panthera gombaszoegensis; the Mosbach wolf, an ancestor of contemporary gray wolves, Canis mosbachensis; and the Deninger’s bear, Ursus deningeri, were among the species whose bones were found in the site.
The layer that housed the bones also contained flint flakes, the “blanks” from which further tools can be formed, and the cores from which they are struck, which are signs of flint knapping. Additionally, there were some finished instruments, such knives.
The fact that these objects are from the same strata as the bones indicates that they are extremely comparable in age, according to Kot. Excavations done in the cave in 2018 supported this hypothesis. They supported the layer pattern that scientists had previously described 50 years earlier. Additional manufacturing debris and animal bones were also found.
Previously, Trzebnica and Rusko were the only two known sites in Poland that included tools from the same time period, according to her. The items from the Tunel Wielki cave, however, are unique. Numerous archaeological sites in the region have signs of past human occupation, however they are all outdoor locations.
According to Kot, it is quite surprising to discover artifacts from that era in a cave.
She said, “Given that caverns weren’t the ideal places to camp, we were amazed that people lived here half a million years ago.”
“Low temperatures and moisture would prevent that. A cave, on the other hand, provides natural protection. There is a sense of security because it is a restricted area. We discovered indications that would suggest the inhabitants used fire, which likely assisted in taming these gloomy and swampy areas.”
The method utilized to knap the flint found in the cave was also intriguing. The earliest humans employed this method most frequently, however it was typically reserved for subpar materials or times when flint was scarce. It is the most basic method still in use today.
The technique was being used as the major one at just one other location, Isernia La Pineta in Italy. The flint from Tunel Wielki, which was mined nearby, wasn’t of poor quality or in short supply. This was similarly the case for Isernia La Pineta; discovering a second site with the same features could aid archaeologists in figuring out why these prehistoric people adopted that particular technique.
The team intends to visit the cave once more in order to look for Homo heidelbergensis bones.