Apidima Cave

Apidima Cave
Map showing the location of Apidima Cave
Map showing the location of Apidima Cave
Location of Apidima Cave in Greece
Map showing the location of Apidima Cave
Map showing the location of Apidima Cave
Apidima Cave (Peloponnese)
LocationOn western Mani Peninsula, west of Areopoli, southern Greece
Coordinates36°39′41″N 22°21′48″E / 36.66139°N 22.36333°E / 36.66139; 22.36333[1]
GeologyKarstic cave in limestone cliffside
Entrances5
List of
entrances
A, B, C, D, E
AccessOnly by boat
Websitefhw.gr/chronos/01/en/pl/housing/apidima.html

Apidima Cave (Greek: Σπήλαιο Απήδημα, Spilaio Apidima) is a complex of five caves[2][3][4] located on the western shore of Mani Peninsula in southern Greece. A systematic investigation of the cave has yielded Neanderthal and Homo sapiens fossils from the Palaeolithic era.[5][6]

One skull fossil, given the name Apidima 1,[4] shows a mixture of modern human and primitive features[7] and has been dated to be more than 210,000 years old, older than a Neanderthal skull ("Apidima 2") found at the cave,[7] which per some interpretations makes Apidima 1 the oldest proof of Homo sapiens living outside Africa,[8][9] the second oldest being the maxilla from Misliya Cave in Mount Carmel, Israel, with a maximum age of about 190,000 years ago.[10] Apidima 1 is more than 150,000 years older than previous H. sapiens finds in Europe.[7]

  1. ^ Apidima Cave - location.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Harvati, Katerina (2022), Vlachos, Evangelos (ed.), "The Hominin Fossil Record from Greece", Fossil Vertebrates of Greece Vol. 1, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 669–688, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-68398-6_19, ISBN 978-3-030-68397-9, S2CID 245038672, retrieved 28 September 2022
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Harvati-Delson 1999 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Delson, Eric (10 July 2019). "An early dispersal of modern humans from Africa to Greece – Analysis of two fossils from a Greek cave has shed light on early hominins in Eurasia. One fossil is the earliest known specimen of Homo sapiens found outside Africa; the other is a Neanderthal who lived 40,000 years later". Nature. 571 (7766): 487–488. doi:10.1038/d41586-019-02075-9. PMID 31337897.
  6. ^ Apidima Cave. Accessed on 10 July 2019.
  7. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Nature Harvati2019 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Earliest modern human found outside Africa. BBC News. 10 July 2019.
  9. ^ Sample, Ian (10 July 2019). "Piece of skull found in Greece 'is oldest human fossil outside Africa' – Remains discovered on Mani peninsula could rewrite history of Homo sapiens in Eurasia". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  10. ^ Herschkovitz, Israel; et al. (26 January 2018). "The earliest modern humans outside Africa". Science. 359 (6374): 456–459. Bibcode:2018Sci...359..456H. doi:10.1126/science.aap8369. hdl:10072/372670. PMID 29371468.