The cave of Petralona opens in the western foothills of Mount Katsika, in Chalkidiki, northern Greece. Formed probably more than a million years ago in Upper Jurassic limestones (about 150 million years old), it covers an area of approximately 10,000 sq.m. with large galleries decorated with colourful stalactite and stalagmite formations.

The visitors enter the cave crossing a horizontal artificial tunnel and follow the approximately 300 m-long route through its main galleries and chambers where they have the opportunity to admire this magnificent natural monument. The site and its touristic facilities recently underwent extensive restoration in the framework of the EU-Greece co-funded project ?Enhancement of the Petralona Cave and Upgrading of its Infrastructure?, which highlighted the cave?s natural beauty.

The original entrance to the cave is currently blocked by debris. It was a circular opening in the ceiling of a large hall, allowing people and animals to pass through for many tens of millennia. Stones and soil also fell through the hole, forming over the years a huge talus, which gradually completely blocked the natural entrance.

The cave was discovered in 1959 by villagers who found numerous fossil animal bones inside, and, more particularly, a human skull in 1960. This fossil is the oldest human remain found to date in Greece and is particularly important for the study of human evolution and the presence of human ancestors in Europe. It is referred to the species Homo heidelbergensis.

Excavations carried out in the cave, initially by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Anthropological Society of Greece, and more recently by the Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology?Speleology of the Ministry of Culture, yielded numerous Palaeolithic findings dating back to the Middle Pleistocene, approximately 600,000 to 200,000 years ago. The Petralona cave is then one of the earliest archaeological sites in Europe. The cave space served as a refuge for humans as well as carnivores. Obviously, humans and carnivores were not simultaneously present in the cave but alternated with each other. Preserved traces of the activity of its Palaeolithic occupants mainly include animal bones from their dietary remains, which document their hunting practices and dietary habits, as well as stone tools providing evidence of their technology and culture. When people went away, the cave became refuge for carnivores, which carried their prey inside it, mainly herbivorous animals. Moreover, the carnivores themselves often happened to die inside the cave. This process led to deposition of large quantities of fossil bones from both categories of animals, which are valuable sources of information about the fauna and the environment of those periods.

The findings including fossils and the remains of human activity are exhibited in the Petralona Museum, which was reorganized in the context of the EU-Greece co-funded project ?Re-exhibition of Petralona Museum Collections? and is open to the public since August 2024.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gruen R. (1996): A re-analysis of electron spin resonance dating results associated with the Petralona hominid. Journal of Human Evolution, 30 (3): 227-241.

Koufos G., Tsoukala E. (2007): Petralona Cave. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Darlas A.I. (2014): In search of the identity of Petralona cave and its importance for the Greek and European Prehistory. Proceedings of the International Conference ?A century of research in prehistoric Macedonia, 1912?2012?, Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki: 195-204.

Tsoukala E. (1989). Contribution to the study of the Pleistocene fauna of large mammals (Carnivora, Perissodactyla, Artiodactyla) from Petralona Cave, Chalkidiki (N. Greece). Scientific Annals, Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, University of Thessaloniki, 1 (8): 1-360.