Karain (cave)

Main article: History of Turkey

Location

Karain Cave is located near the village of Jagca (Yağca), 31 km northwest of the city of Antalya in the Mediterranean region of Turkey. The cave is located at an altitude of 450 m above sea level and 150 m up from the level of the valley at the foot of Mount Katran.

The plain of limestone tuff (travertine), located below, is one of the largest plains of its type in the world and contains excellent water sources. The site was well suited for hunters and gatherers, and later for early farmers.

Photo TAdviser, April 11, 2021

The location of the cave on a hill also allowed the inhabitants to more effectively defend themselves from rivals. Researchers found traces of the many open settlements that existed in the Paleolithic^[1] on the plain^[2]The cave is located near the Kubuk Passage, connecting the Mediterranean region with inland Anatolia and the Lakes region.

Ancient inhabitants

Karain is the largest ancient cave in Turkey.

Studies have confirmed the residence of people here during the Paleolithic period (500 thousand years ago), the Mesolithic, Neolithic, Copper and Bronze Ages, the era of the reign of Rome and Byzantium until the 4th century AD.

It is assumed that during the Greek colonization of Asia Minor in the Iron Age, the cave was a cult place.

Outside the cave there are numerous niches and Greek inscriptions.

Cave plan

The Karain cave complex consists of 7 cavities (A, B, C, D, E, F, G) and corridors located along a slope descending 50 meters down from the entrance. The chambers are separated by calcite walls and narrow, winding passages.

Karain Cave Plan from Entrance Information Stand, 2021

A separate chamber east of the entrance to Karain is called Dölin.

Stalactites and stalagmites previously enriched the amazing appearance of the cave.

Mass tourism has radically changed the appearance of the monument. Photo by TAdviser, April 2021

It is believed that the far Karain chamber, into which a narrow path leads, previously surrounded by stalactites and stalagmites, for a long time served as a cemetery.

Fragment of the information stand at the Museum of Antalya, 2021

Researchers and their findings

Karain was discovered in 1946 and became the first cave discovered in Turkey, inhabited in ancient times. Excavations were carried out by Professor of Ankara University Kilich Kokten from 1946 to 1973.

Excavations led by Kokten were carried out in chambers E and B.

Since 1985, research has been resumed in the same chambers under the leadership of Professor Isin Yalchinkaya in collaboration with Liège (Belgium) and some other foreign universities.

Many Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens bones have been found in Karain Cave, as well as fossils of cave bear, elephant, rhino, hippopotamus and invertebrate shells.

Paleolithic and Neolithic knives, scrapers, arrowheads, bone sculptures were discovered in Karain Cave. Particular attention of researchers was attracted by the image of a person's face, stylistically similar to the analogues of the Natufian culture, which flourished in the Levant during the Mesolithic period. This discovery suggests the presence of ties between the population of southern Asia Minor and Palestine.

The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara houses a large collection of artifacts discovered during excavations of the Karain Cave - stone products and bone of hunter-gatherers who lived in the cave.

Camera E

The archaeological and geological layer reaches 11 meters. The thickness of the cultural layer in chamber E reaches 8 meters. The upper layer is represented by finds of the Upper and Middle Paleolithic (Mustier of the Karain type) 160-60 thousand years BC.

Neanderthal bone finds were also reported to have been made in this layer.

A fragment of the skull and tooth of a Neanderthal child found in the cave confirms that Karain was already inhabited in the early Paleolithic (150-200 thousand years ago).

Neanderthal skull fragment from Karain Cave at Antalya Archaeological Museum

The age of the finds of the lower layer was determined by the Uranian-Thorium method as 350 thousand years BC.

In 2007, an axe of Ashel culture with bilateral processing was discovered. The find is of great importance, since the age of the layer in which it was discovered was determined by the Uranian-Thorium method as 500-450 thousand years.

Information stand at the Museum of Antalya in 2021

Camera B

The lower archaeological layer in chamber B is referred to the Mesolithic. Above, in the Upper Paleolithic layer, scrapers and awls dated by the carbon-14 method of age 39-22 thousand years BC were found.

A stylized image of a person's head, made of animal bone, is also attributed to the Upper Paleolithic era, which makes it the oldest object of art created on the territory of ^[3].

Above were found microlites, tools and beads made of bone, multiple fragments of pottery, finds associated with the Early Bronze Period, the era of Roman and early Byzantine rule.

Notes