Čertova pec ( en, Devil's furnace) is a small
karst cave in the
Považský Inovec mountains of
Slovakia
Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...
. It is located near
Radošina, in the
Nitra Region
The Nitra Region ( sk, Nitriansky kraj, ; hu, Nyitrai kerület) is one of the administrative regions of Slovakia. It was first established in 1923 and from 1996 exists in its present borders. It consists of seven districts ( sk, okres) and 354 m ...
. As well as being a modern recreational site, the cave is known to have yielded material evidence of repeated human presence and habitation during the
Stone Age.
Overview
The cave with total length of ,
is a protected natural monument due to its paleontological significance.
The surrounding area of Certova pec is also a recreational site which includes a motel, a campsite, and a playground.
There are three hiking trails in the vicinity.
Paleontology
The site has yielded relics of multiple habitation phases during the
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 ...
period.
The earliest finds are attributed to the
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 ...
culture (associated primarily with
Neanderthals).
In addition to this is an
assemblage of objects tentatively associated with the ''
Szeletian culture'', a local designation that roughly corresponds with the contemporary
Gravettian
The Gravettian was an archaeological industry of the European Upper Paleolithic that succeeded the Aurignacian circa 33,000 years BP. It is archaeologically the last European culture many consider unified, and had mostly disappeared by ...
culture.
A
radiocarbon date
Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon.
The method was dev ...
of Szeletian cultural artifacts suggests prehistoric human presence in the cave at around 38,400 years ago.
References
External links
Devil's Furnace Cave Topoľčany Cluster project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Certova pec
Archaeological sites in Slovakia
Tourist attractions in Nitra Region
Caves of Slovakia
Neanderthal sites
Mousterian