Scladina, or Sclayn Cave, is an
archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology a ...
located in
Wallonia
Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...
in the town of
Sclayn
Sclayn ( wa, Scleyin) is a town of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Andenne, located in the province of Namur, Belgium.
It is located by the river Meuse.
Sclayn developed around the collegiate church dedicated to Saint Maurice. The ...
, in the
Andenne hills in
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
, where excavations since 1978 have provided the material for an exhaustive collection of over thirteen thousand
Mousterian
The Mousterian (or Mode III) is an archaeological industry of stone tools, associated primarily with the Neanderthals in Europe, and to the earliest anatomically modern humans in North Africa and West Asia. The Mousterian largely defines the l ...
stone artifacts
and the
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
ized remains of an especially ancient
Neanderthal
Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While the ...
, called the ''Scladina child'' were discovered in 1993.
Scladina cave site
The Scladina cave is located on a hill to the right of the
Meuse
The Meuse ( , , , ; wa, Moûze ) or Maas ( , ; li, Maos or ) is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a t ...
river bank, south-west of ''Sclayn'' village, being one of a number of caves in the middle Meuse river region, where significant paleontological discoveries were made as in the
Spy Cave
Spy Cave (french: Grotte de Spy) is located in Wallonia near Spy, Belgium, Spy in the municipality of Jemeppe-sur-Sambre, Namur Province, Belgium above the left bank of the Orneau River. Classified as a premier Heritage site of the Walloon Region ...
and the ''Lyell Cave''. The caves in the area have undergone systematic exploration since 1949.
Scladina Cave was discovered in 1971 by
caver
Caving – also known as spelunking in the United States and Canada and potholing in the United Kingdom and Ireland – is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems (as distinguished from show caves). In contrast, speleology i ...
s of the CAS (''Archaeological Circle Sclaynois''). In 1978 the ''Scientific Council of the Prehistory Department of the
University of Liège
The University of Liège (french: Université de Liège), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French. As of 2020, ULiège is ranked in the 301 ...
'' began to direct the excavations. Since the site has yielded numerous artifacts of
Mousterian
The Mousterian (or Mode III) is an archaeological industry of stone tools, associated primarily with the Neanderthals in Europe, and to the earliest anatomically modern humans in North Africa and West Asia. The Mousterian largely defines the l ...
Neanderthal origin, amidst
assemblages of stone tools, bones and
faunal remains. After the initially clearing of the entrance the excavations uncovered two strata of Neanderthal occupation, the oldest dating back 130,000 years.
The sediments yielded artifacts and Mousterian stone tools, the earliest were attributed to the
Middle Palaeolithic
The Middle Paleolithic (or Middle Palaeolithic) is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle Pale ...
. The
lithic industry
Industry may refer to:
Economics
* Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity
* Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery
* The wider industrial sector ...
of layer 5 is considered to be instrumental for a deeper understanding of the Mousterian settlements in the region and future studies might support the acquisition of a more accurate chronology and help to draw a more complete image of the contemporary environment of the site.
The remarkably good state of preservation of the fossils,
faunal remains and the sediments have the site allowed to become a point of reference in climatic evolution studies of
Palaeolithic
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος '' lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone to ...
north-western Europe. Two Neanderthal occupation sites were identified, one dated to be 130,000 years old and the other 40,000 years.
Modern humans infrequently occupied the site between 32,000 and 9,000 years ago and used the site as a burial place during the late
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
and
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
between 5,300 and 2,000 years ago. Continued excavations since 1978 have produced a steady stream of findings that culminated in the discovery of the remarkable Sclayn child fossils in 1993. Sclayn cave site has been classified as a
national heritage site
A national heritage site is a heritage site having a value that has been registered by a governmental agency as being of national importance to the cultural heritage or history of that country. Usually such sites are listed in a heritage registe ...
of
Wallonia
Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...
on 27 May 2009 and is since open to the public.
Scladina Neanderthal child
Dated to be around 127,000 years old,
the first fragment of the now nearly complete
mandible
In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone ...
, was found on 16 July 1993. A maxillary fragment and several teeth of the child were excavated in subsequent campaigns. A genetic sample was successfully extracted from one of the
molars
The molars or molar teeth are large, flat teeth at the back of the mouth. They are more developed in mammals. They are used primarily to grind food during chewing. The name ''molar'' derives from Latin, ''molaris dens'', meaning "millstone to ...
at a specific laboratory for ancient
DNA and analyzed at the
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology,
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
.
Physiology and development
The child's DNA is one of the oldest to have been extracted from a ''Homo neanderthalensis'' fossil and has significantly contributed to the genetic mapping of the
Neanderthal genome and the comparison with ''Homo sapiens''.
Initially it was suggested that the Scladina child was 2 to 4 years older than current estimates, based upon traditional assessments of the progressive dental development. Results of an international research collaboration allow the proposal that ''Homo neanderthalensis'' children had a faster rate of dental development than modern human children as well as other aspects of physical development were likely to be more rapid in juvenile Neanderthals, such as a quicker onset of sexual maturity and different and faster patterns of early
cognitive development
Cognitive development is a field of study in neuroscience and psychology focusing on a child's development in terms of information processing, conceptual resources, perceptual skill, language learning, and other aspects of the developed adult bra ...
.
[
*]
The study further elaborates, that
tooth development
Tooth development or odontogenesis is the complex process by which teeth form from embryonic cells, grow, and erupt into the mouth. For human teeth to have a healthy oral environment, all parts of the tooth must develop during appropriate st ...
is related to overall physiological development, noticeable as the first molar eruption coincides - universally across the
primate
Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians ( monkeys and apes, the latter including ...
phylum - with the beginning of the
weaning
Weaning is the process of gradually introducing an infant human or another mammal to what will be its adult diet while withdrawing the supply of its mother's milk.
The process takes place only in mammals, as only mammals produce milk. The infan ...
stage, whereas the upsurge of the third molar indicates the onset of
sexual development
Puberty is the process of physical changes through which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction. It is initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads: the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a boy. I ...
. Some scholars, though debate universal periods of anterior tooth growth, as it is known that anterior tooth growth takes longer in
great apes
The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); ''Gorilla'' (the ...
than in humans and varies among human populations.
The study of the child turned out to support the idea that extremely prolonged duration of
human development Human development may refer to:
* Development of the human body
* Developmental psychology
* Human development (economics)
* Human Development Index, an index used to rank countries by level of human development
* Human evolution
Human evoluti ...
is unique to ''
Homo sapiens
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
'' and a relatively recent development in human evolution. Although the matter is still debated, the more rapid development apparent in ''Homo neanderthalensis'' children (wherein sexual onset may have occurred up to 4 years sooner) puts Neanderthal development patterns at a progressive stage in between modern ''Homo sapiens'' and that of earlier species, such as ''Homo erectus''. This trend suggests to many scientists the necessary prevalence of differing patterns of behavioral and social development as well.
A single tooth of another Neanderthal infant, also found at the site, was analysed by Christine Austin and
Tanya Smith, whose analysis suggests that this particular child has received 7 months of breastfeeding and supplementation for additional 7 months, which adds up to roughly 14 months of breastfeeding.
[
*] This cycle is indeed longer than that of some contemporary human cultures, which implies that Neanderthal children might have grown up faster, a process that began only after the stages of early infancy.
Behavior and tool use
Neanderthal diet consisted to over 70% of meat, unlike that of contemporary ''
Homo sapiens
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
''
hunter-gatherer societies. although some cooked vegetables are evident.
Provisioning
In telecommunication, provisioning involves the process of preparing and equipping a network to allow it to provide new services to its users. In National Security/Emergency Preparedness telecommunications services, ''"provisioning"'' equates to ...
techniques, made superior by extensive
tool use
Tool use by animals is a phenomenon in which an animal uses any kind of tool in order to achieve a goal such as acquiring food and water, grooming, defence, communication, recreation or construction. Originally thought to be a skill possessed ...
, aided early ''Homo'' in pursuits of worldwide expansion. One large game evident in the diets of Scladina Neanderthals is bear. Several bear bones were found amongst other stone tools and modifiers within the Scladina cave site. Wear marks on the bones, 4 of the 6 bear bone tools which originated from a single
femur
The femur (; ), or thigh bone, is the proximal bone of the hindlimb in tetrapod vertebrates. The head of the femur articulates with the acetabulum in the pelvic bone forming the hip joint, while the distal part of the femur articulates wit ...
, exhibit abrasion traits that classify them as
lithic retouchers.
Public education
The ''ASBL Archéologie Andennaise'' has established an educational mission in consequence of the prolonged, intense and insightful study of the site and the enormous implications of the acquired information and data. The idea is to correctly inform about prehistory, deemed to be still perceived as nebulous and mythical by the general public. The site and its documentation center are open to the public all year round. Private groups, school classes are permanently granted access to the cave, the laboratory, the museum gallery with multimedia program rooms, accompanied by the researchers and scientists themselves.
[
]
See also
* List of human evolution fossils
The following tables give an overview of notable finds of hominin fossils and remains relating to human evolution, beginning with the formation of the tribe Hominini (the divergence of the human and chimpanzee lineages) in the late Miocene, roug ...
References
External links
Scladina Cave Archaeological Center
The Scladina cave Archéologie Andennaise
*
{{Homo neanderthalensis, state=expanded
1971 archaeological discoveries
Show caves in Belgium
Archaeological sites in Belgium
Caves of Wallonia
Wallonia's Major Heritage
Landforms of Namur (province)
Tourist attractions in Namur (province)
Neanderthal sites
Limestone caves
Prehistoric sites in Belgium
Mousterian
Andenne