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| Image: the village Theopetra with the table mountain where Theopetra Cave is located. |
| Location: | Theopetra village, Tricala. |
| Open: | |
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| Classification: |
 Karst cave
Upper Cretacious limestone
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| Light: | |
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| Bibliography: |
Nina Kiparissi-Apostolika, ed. (2000):
Theopetra Cave, Twelve Years of Excavation and Research 1987-1998.
Institute for Aegean Prehistory, Athens, 2000. Y. Facorellis, N. Kyparissi-Apostolika, Y. Maniatis (2001): The cave of Theopetra, Kalambaka, radiocarbon evidence for 50,000 years of human presence, Radiocarbon 43(2B): 1029-1048. Karkanas, P., Kyparissi-Apostolika, N., Bar-Yosef, O., et al. (1999): Mineral assemblages in Theopetra, Greece, a framework for understanding diagenesis in a prehistoric cave. Journal of Archaeological Science 26 (9): 1171-1180. Karkanas P. (2001): Site formation processes in Theopetra Cave, a record of climatic change during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. Geoarchaeology 16 (4): 373-399. |
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| Last update: | $Date: 2008/10/09 18:31:24 $ |
| 1987 | excavation started. |
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| Image: the location of Theopetra Cave at the foot of the cliff. |
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| Image: the location of Theopetra Cave at the foot of the cliff. |
Theopetra Cave is a famous archaeological site. It is the first excavated cave in Thessalia, but its importance is the fact, that its deposits start at the Middle Paleolithic and last until the end of the Neolithic period (3000 B.C.) without gaps. So it is extremely important for the explortion of the transition from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic way of life in Greece. Theopetra Cave is quite possibly unique in containing within a single site the records of two highly significant cultural transitions. First that of the replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans and then the subsequent transition from hunter-gathering to farming after the end of the last Ice Age.
The excavations started in 1987 and are still ongoing, so the visit of the cave is only possible during excavation works.
The cave is a huge chamber at the foot of a limestone hill. the entrance portal is very big, 17m wide and three meters high. The chamber has a size of 500m².
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