Risovaca Pecina

Risovaca Cave - Arandjelovac Cave


Useful Information

Location: Location: The Risovaca Cave is located at the entrance to the town of Arandjelovac.
Open: All year Tue-Sun 10-17.
Fee:  
Classification: SpeleologyKarst cave
Light:  
Dimension: L=450 m, A=230 m asl.
Guided tours: L=167m
Photography:  
Accessibility:  
Bibliography: Dr Radenko Lazaravic (1987): Risovaca Pecina, 50 pp 24 photos. (Serbian)
Address: Information: Tourist Office of Arandjelovac, Tel: +381-34-724-097, Fax: +381-34-724-097. E-mail: contact
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
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History

1950 discovered during mining operations.
1950 archaeological excavation by Professor Doctor Branko Gavela, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade.
1975 speleological exploration Doctor Radenko Lazarevic, Institute of Forestry and Wood, Belgrade.
19-SEP-1987 opened to the public.
2009 restauration and new light system.

Description

The entrance to the cave is located at a height of 16 meters above the Kubrsnica River bed.

Traces of the Palaeolithic man were found in it, as well as the remains of fauna from the Ice Age and the bones of 20 animal species: the cave bear, cave lion, mammoth, leopard, hyena, deer and others. No human remains were found and it is thought that these were in the entrance passages which were destroyed by quarrying. The cave has been turned into an underground museum of the Palaeolithic man. In the Archaeological passage, the evolution of Palaeolithic man is shown and in the largest hall a family group depicting Risovaca man around the hearth has been reconstructed in polyester. The family members are shown doing the usual chores in their communal life: a male figure is coming back from hunting expedition, a man is polishing a stone making a tool; a woman brings fire wood while another male is breaking a bone with his hand probably to reach its core or make a tool he needs in his everyday life. Prehistoric man lived in extremely severe climatic conditions. He consciously used his brain to make the tools he needed to hunt an animal, to skin it or make some sort of clothes for himself. Since his food was usually the blood-thirsty animals, one can imagine how much effort he must have used to fight them or how much intelligence he needed to trap them. He therefore always lived near a cave entrance, not so deep in it as depicted in Risovaca Cave, which is just a reconstruction to remind us of how it once looked.

The archaeological material discovered in Risovaca cave has confirmed, for the first time in archaeological science, the existence of prehistoric cultures in the areas south of the Danube and Sava. On the basis of shapes of the found bone and stone tools, it has been determined that a Neanderthal type man lived there. Hunting was his main activity and it was a completely conscious, intelligent being who made tools for particular purposes.


Text by Tony Oldham (2002). With kind permission.