Cave of the Angel facts for kids
The Cave of the Angel is a group of cave-like places found in the Aras mountains, close to Lucena in Spain. This important site shows signs of human activity from a very long time ago, specifically from the Middle Pleistocene to the Upper Pleistocene periods. Scientists have found many stone tools and animal bones here. These findings, along with signs of fire, suggest that ancient humans lived here for a long time and cooked large animals.
Contents
Where is the Cave of the Angel?
The Cave of the Angel is an ancient site from the Middle and Upper Pleistocene times. It is located near the town of Lucena in the Córdoba province, in Andalusia, Spain. You can find it on the southwest side of the Aras mountain range, about 620 meters (2,034 feet) above sea level. Its exact location is 37°24′32″N 4°24′59″W / 37.40889°N 4.41639°W.
How was the Cave of the Angel discovered?
In 1995, people illegally digging in the area led to the first official archaeological dig. Cecilio Barroso Ruíz led this urgent work. The main goals were to see how big the site was, how important it was for history, and to plan how to protect it. During this dig, they found speleothems (cave formations), which showed that a cave was once there. They also found a trench from mining activities in the 1700s. Miners were looking for a type of rock called travertine and found old, petrified bones. A text from 1792, "Lucena Desagraviada," even mentions these findings.
Archaeologists continued to clear the site in 1996. They found a large pit, over 2 meters (6.5 feet) wide, filled with limestone blocks. However, the team didn't get a research permit until 2004. That's when Spanish and French research groups started working together at the site.
In 2012, Cecilio Barroso started a non-profit group called the "Foundation for Research into Prehistory and Human Evolution." Its goal is to share and support research about ancient times in Southern Spain.
What is the geology of the Cave of the Angel?
The cave is made of dolomite and limestone, which form a karst system. This system dates back to the Mesozoic era, specifically the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The site has three main areas:
The Outdoor Platform
This area is an open-air platform. Until 2011, it was the only part that had been dug up. Here, you can find blocks of breccia, limestone, and speleothems. The speleothems suggest there was once a rocky shelter that collapsed a long time ago, probably during the Upper Pleistocene. This collapse created the structure we see today.
The Cave Area
A few meters northeast of the platform is a cave. It is filled with collapsed rock blocks. This cave seems to be the last part of the original, larger cave system.
The Chasm
Below the cave area is a deep chasm, about 100 meters (328 feet) deep. The cave and chasm are connected by two small openings. Inside the chasm, there is a 70-meter (230-foot) tall pile of debris. This pile includes rock blocks, sand, small rock pieces, animal bones, and stone tools. In 2009, a tunnel was dug to make it easier for researchers and visitors to access this area.
Scientists also found a very large fire structure, over 1.5 meters (5 feet) deep. It doesn't look like many small campfires, but rather one big, long-lasting fire. This suggests that groups of humans lived at the site for extended periods.
What animals lived at the Cave of the Angel?
Many animal remains have been found at the Cave of the Angel. These remains help scientists understand what the environment was like long ago.
Amphibians and Reptiles
Amphibian bones found include types of frogs and toads like Discoglossus, Alytidae, and Bufo. Specific toad species identified are B. bufo and B. calamites.
Reptile remains include lizards like Chalcides, Timon (T. lepidus), Podarcis, and Blanus (B. cinereus). Snakes like Coronella, Malpolon (M. monspessulanus), and Hemorrhois (H. hippocrepis) were also found. There were also bones from tortoises, specifically Testudo (T. hermanni).
Some of these animals are "bioindicators." This means they tell us about the climate of the past. For example, T. hermanni, T. lepidus, B. cinereus, M. monspessulanus, and H. hippocrepis all live in Mediterranean climates. This suggests the area had a similar climate back then.
Mammals
Many mammal bones were found, but most are broken into small pieces. About 88% of them show clear signs of being exposed to fire.
Most of these bones belong to horses (Equus ferus), followed by cattle-like animals. Other animals found include red deer (Cervus elaphus), fallow deer (Dama dama), wild boar (Sus scrofa), rhinoceros (Stephanorhinus hemitoechus), elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus), brown bear (Ursus arctos), Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus), rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), and Iberian ibex (Capra pyrenaica).
Horse bones mainly include adult skulls and long bones from legs. They show cut marks from when meat was removed and bones were separated. Cattle bones are mostly adult teeth and long bones, also with cut marks. It's hard to tell if the cattle bones are from bison (Bison priscus) or aurochs (Bos primigenius) because they are so fragmented. Many wild boar remains were also found, but fewer than horse or cattle. It's also clear that bones were often broken to get out the marrow inside.
There are very few remains of carnivores like bears, lynx, and wolves (Canis lupus). In other ancient sites, carnivore remains often appear in layers where humans were not present, suggesting humans and carnivores used the site at different times of the year. However, at the Cave of the Angel, there's no break in the human presence in the layers. This suggests humans lived there for a long time. The few carnivore bones found might mean humans hunted and ate them, just like they did with rabbits.
Overall, the animal remains at the Cave of the Angel fall into two groups:
- A large group of big plant-eaters from open plains, like horses, rhinos, elephants, aurochs, and bison.
- A smaller group of animals that lived in forests, like deer, fallow deer, and wild boar.
What stone tools were found?
The stone tools found at the Cave of the Angel belong to the Acheulean culture. This means they are a certain style of tools. Interestingly, even though the site's age matches the later Mousterian period in other parts of Spain and Europe, the tools here remain Acheulean throughout all the layers. This means the tool-making style didn't change much over time at this site.
Most of the tools (over 99%) are made from flint, with very few made from quartzite or calcite. More than 5,000 pieces have been studied. Over half are classified as flakes and blades. More than 800 pieces show signs of being retouched (reshaped), and 70% of these are scrapers. Fifty handaxes were also found, along with burins, small scrapers, cores, and sometimes points and awls. About a quarter of all pieces are just debris from making tools. It's important to note that over a third of these stone pieces show signs of being exposed to high heat.
The Acheulean tools found here are from the Late Acheulean period, which places the Cave of the Angel in the Middle Pleistocene. However, the site's overall timeline extends into the Upper Pleistocene, which is usually associated with Mousterian tools. Researchers have three ideas to explain this:
- Idea 1: The Cave of the Angel shows a time when Acheulean tool-making was slowly changing into Mousterian.
- Idea 2: The Acheulean group living at the site might have learned the Mousterian tool-making style from other groups.
- Idea 3: The Acheulean people at the Cave of the Angel might have developed Mousterian-like tools on their own, without contact from other Mousterian groups in Europe.
Other sites in Western Europe from the Middle and Upper Pleistocene also show unique tool styles. For example, Cueva de Bolomor has no handaxes or Levallois technique (another tool-making method). The site of Ambrona lacks handaxes but does have Levallois tools. These examples, including the Cave of the Angel, suggest that the line between the Middle and Upper Pleistocene periods is not always clear when looking at tool types.
How old is the Cave of the Angel?
To find out the age of the site, scientists used a method called Uranium-Thorium dating. They tested geological and archaeological samples from the highest and lowest layers of the site. The archaeological samples showed that the top layer is about 121,000 years old, and the bottom layer is more than 369,000 years old. Geological tests suggest the oldest parts are about 400,000 years old. These dates confirm that the Cave of the Angel was used during the Middle and Upper Pleistocene periods.
In 2016, during another excavation, stone tools and animal remains were found that suggest parts of the site could be as old as 500,000 years.
What human remains were found?
In 2012, the first human bone was found in the chasm. It was a part of a thigh bone (femur). Because of the Acheulean tools found with it and how fossilized it was, scientists believe it belonged to a pre-Neanderthal human.
The next year, the pile of debris in the chasm was dug for the first time. They excavated an area of 6 square meters (64.5 square feet) and went down 1 meter (3.3 feet). By the end of that season, more than 800 Homo sapiens (modern human) remains were found. These bones belonged to about 50 individuals, including babies, young people, and adults. These remains date back to the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, which are much more recent than the Acheulean tools.
The Neolithic bones show signs of being exposed to fire and having cut marks. However, the Chalcolithic remains do not have these features. Also, how the bones were spread out and the specific types of breaks they had suggest that the bodies were not carefully placed there. Instead, it seems they were thrown into the chasm, likely through the small openings connecting the upper cave to the chasm.
See also
- Paleolithic
- Neolithic
- Pleistocene
- Acheulean
- Mousterian
- Neanderthal
- Prehistoric Iberia
- Lucena (Córdoba)
