Mezmaiskaya cave

Area around Mezmaiskaya Cave

Mezmaiskaya Cave (Мезмайская пещера) is a cave overlooking the right bank of the Sukhoi Kurdzhips (a small tributary of the Kurdzhips River) in the southern Russian Republic of Adygea, located in the northwestern foothills of the North Caucasus in the Caucasus Mountains System.

Archaeology

Neanderthal

Preliminary excavations in Mezmaiskaya cave recovered Mousterian artifacts, dated to about 35,000 B.P. and older, in the middle of the last glacial period.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

However, a rib fragment from the partial skeleton of a Neanderthal infant found in the cave was radiocarbon-dated to 29,195 ± 965 B.P., and therefore belonging to the latest lived Neanderthals. The value obtained from the bone rather than from associated material gives the most reliable date for this individual.

Ancient DNA was recovered for a mtDNA sequence showing 3.48% divergence from that of the Feldhofer Neanderthal, some 2,500 km to the west in Germany. Phylogenetic analysis places the two in a clade distinct from modern humans, suggesting that their mtDNA types have not contributed to the modern human mtDNA pool.[7]

Three Neanderthal individuals were recovered from the cave. The first, Mezmaiskaya 1, is the almost complete skeleton in a well preserved state due to calcite cementation covering much of the skeleton and preserving the bones and their arrangement. It is believed to be that of an infant about two weeks old, making it the youngest Neanderthal ever recovered and one of the best preserved. Although no burial pit was found, it is believed that the body was buried intentionally, explaining the good preservation and the lack of scavenger marks. Only the skull fragments of a Neanderthal child were found for Mezmaiskaya 2, and for Mezmaiskaya 2 only a tooth.[8]

Fauna

Faunal remains show a very low degree of weathering, with many bones having traces of stone tool cuts and carnivore modification. The most common large mammals are steppe bison (Bison priscus), Caucasian goat (Capra caucasica), and Asiatic mouflon (Ovis orientalis). Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) remains were encountered for the first time in the Caucasus.

Although most of the smaller vertebrate remains appear to have been accumulated by nonhuman processes (for example, owl predation), the majority of the ungulate remains probably represent animals hunted by the Mousterian era occupants of the cave.[9][10]

Analysis of the animal bones found here revealed that during the middle and late Paleolithic four kinds of buffalo lived in the vicinity of [11]

Description

The cave entrance is a hole in the cliff several meters high, behind which the course is narrowed to a few meters, but almost all along remains quite high. Within a few tens of meters of the entrance to the cave, the floor is transformed from rocky to clay.

Geology

Evidence recovered from the cave suggests that a Campanian ignimbrite volcanic super-eruption around 40,000 years ago may have been a setback for the Neanderthal, with an as yet only postulated eruption contributing to their demise about 29,000 years ago.[12][13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ L. V. Golovanova, John F. Hoffecker, V. M. Kharitonov and G. P. Romanova , Mezmaiskaya Cave: A Neanderthal Occupation in the Northern Caucasus Current Anthropology Vol. 40, No. 1 (February 1999), pp. 77-86 .
  2. ↑ John Hawks and Milford H. Wolpoff, Brief Communication: Paleoanthropology and thePopulation Genetics of Ancient Genes AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 114:269–272 (2001) page 269-272.
  3. ↑ L. V. Golovanova, John F. Hoffecker, V. M. Kharitonov, and G. P. Romanova, Mezmaiskaya Cave: A Neanderthal Occupation in the Northern Caucasus, Current Anthropology Volume 40, Number 1 | February 1999 73.
  4. ↑ Есть вопросы? 21 февраля петербуржцы смогут задать их нашим Экспертам лично.
  5. ↑ Скелет новорожденного неандертальца проливает свет на эволюцию рода Homo.
  6. ↑ mtDNA of Okladnikov Neandertal PNAS February 11, 2014 vol. 111 no. 6 .
  7. ↑ Igor V. Ovchinnikov; Anders Götherström; Galina P. Romanova; Vitaliy M. Kharitonov; Kerstin Lidén; William Goodwin (30 March 2000). "Molecular analysis of Neanderthal DNA from the northern Caucasus". Nature. 404 (6777): 490–493. doi:10.1038/35006625. PMID 10761915. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
  8. ↑ Timothy D. Weaver, Hélène Coqueugniot, Liubov V. Golovanova, Vladimir B. Doronichev, Bruno Maureille, and Jean-Jacques Hublin "Neonatal postcrania from Mezmaiskaya, Russia, and Le Moustier, France, and the development of Neandertal body form" PNAS 2016, 113 (23) 6472-6477; published ahead of print May 23, 2016, doi:10.1073/pnas.1523677113
  9. ↑ Baryshnikova, Gennady; John F. Hoffeckerb; Robin L. Burgess (May 1996). "Palaeontology and Zooarchaeology of Mezmaiskaya Cave (Northwestern Caucasus, Russia)". Abstract. Journal of Archaeological Science. Volume 23, Issue 3: 313–335. doi:10.1006/jasc.1996.0030. Retrieved 3 March 2011. Over 6000 large mammal and numerous small vertebrate remains have been recovered from preliminary excavations at Mezmaiskaya Cave
  10. ↑ L. V. Golovanova; John F. Hoffecker; V. M. Kharitonov; G. P. Romanova (February 1999). "Mezmaiskaya Cave: A Neanderthal Occupation in the Northern Caucasus". Current Anthropology. The University of Chicago Press on behalf of Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. 40: 77–86. doi:10.1086/515805. JSTOR 10.
  11. ↑ Ни о каких контактах неандертальцев и сапиенсов в Европе говорить не приходится.
  12. ↑ Liubov Vitaliena Golovanova; Vladimir Borisovich Doronichev; Naomi Elancia Cleghorn; Marianna Alekseevna Koulkova; Tatiana Valentinovna Sapelko; M. Steven Shackley (2010). "Volcanoes Wiped out Neanderthals, New Study Suggests" (news release). Current Anthropology. University of Chicago Press Journals. 51 (5): 655–691. doi:10.1086/656185. Significance of Ecological Factors in the Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition
  13. ↑ Bruce Bower (October 23, 2010). "Neandertals blasted out of existence, archaeologists propose". Science News Vol.178 #9. p. 12. Retrieved March 3, 2011. Modern humans may have thrived thanks to geographic luck, not wits

Coordinates: 44°10′N 40°00′E / 44.167°N 40.000°E / 44.167; 40.000

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