Theopetra Cave is a limestone cave located in Theopetra village of

Meteora The Meteora (; el, Μετέωρα, ) is a rock formation in central Greece hosting one of the largest and most precipitously built complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries, second in importance only to Mount Athos.Sofianos, D.Z.: "Metéora" ...

municipality,

Thessaly Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, The ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

. It is situated on the northeast side of a limestone rock formation that is south of

Kalambaka Kalabaka ( el, Καλαμπάκα, ''Kalabáka'', alternative transliterations are ''Kalambaka'' and ''Kalampaka'') is a town and seat of the municipality of Meteora in the Trikala regional unit, part of Thessaly in Greece. The population was ...

. The site has become increasingly important as human presence is attributed to all periods of the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, the Mesolithic,

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 beyond, bridging the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

with the

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...

Description

Radiocarbon Carbon-14, C-14, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and c ...

evidence shows for human presence at least 50,000 years ago. Excavations began in 1987 under the direction of Ν. Kyparissi-Apostolika, which were meant to answer questions about Paleolithic Thessaly. Several features of the cave indicate human occupation. Theopetra Cave contains one of the longest archaeological sequences in Greece, comprising Middle and Upper

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 ...

as well as Mesolithic and

cultural remains. The records have shown important palaeoenvironmental data based on sedimentary features and botanical remains. Findings include a man-made stone wall that is still standing today, which was built in approximately 21,000 BCE. It is the oldest known example of a man-made structure. The wall is thought to have been built to protect its residents from cold winds at the height of the last ice age. Geologically, the formation of the limestone rock has been dated to the

Upper Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', th ...

period, 135–65 million years BP.

Archaeogenetics

In 2016, researchers successfully extracted the DNA from the tibia of two individuals buried in Theopetra Cave. Both individuals were found in a Mesolithic burial context and separately dated to 7288–6771 BC and 7605–7529 BC. Both individuals were found to belong to mtDNA Haplogroup K1c.

Access

The cave is located just to the north, within walking distance, of the center of Theopetra village. The Theopetra Cave Museum ( el, Μουσείο Σπηλαίου Θεόπετρας) is located in the village. Nearby, the ruins of the Monastery of St. Theodore () are located just to the south of Theopetra village, near the village of Agii Theodori (Άγιοι Θεόδωροι).

References

{{Authority control Caves of Greece Show caves in Greece Landforms of Thessaly Trikala (regional unit)