Petralona Cave

The Petralona Cave. Jeweled with stalagmites and stalactites, which became internationally known when the fossilized skull of Petralona man was found, Petralona Archanthropus (i.e. an archaic Homo sapiens), a man who lived 700,000 years ago, which is the oldest known Europeoid man!

The Skull of Petralona 1

It was discovered on 16 September 1960 at the Hill of Katsika of Petralona by Christos Sarigiannidis (published in the newspaper “Macedonia” on 18-9-1960), inside a limestone cave and attached to a dripstone, 23cm from the surface.

Petralona 1 is particularly transitory as for its morphology- so much that many believe that it represents an interim situation between Homo neanderthalensis and its primitive ancestor. Actually, it shares many characteristics with other Neanderthal fossils but there are also characteristics that are quite primitive. In its general appearance, Petralona 1 has the face of a Neanderthal but the skull of a more archaic type. Initially, Petralona 1 was categorized as Homo Neanderthalensis but later it was reconsidered as Homo erectus. Today, though, the majority of researchers agree that it belongs to the type of fossils that were found in Atapuerca and other sites of Europe, the Homo heidelbergensis.

Initially, Petralona 1 was dated 70.000 years ago, a date that corresponds to the most recent remains of Neanderthal. The most recent dating go back to 700.000 years ago. The most recent of those, based on the techniques of electron echo, in combination with radiometric dating, and stratigraphic data, take us back to 200.000 years. However, the morphology of the skull shows a greater specificity to the dating of 300.000 or 400.000 years.

* Source Wikipedia