Apidima Cave

Apidima Cave (Greek: Σπήλαιο Απήδημα, Spilaio Apidima) is a complex of five caves located on the western shore of Mani Peninsula in southern Greece. The partial crania of two hominins are attributed by one research group to early Homo, before the full separation of Neanderthals and the anatomically-modern humans. Other researchers identify the older specimen, some 210,000 years old, as Homo sapiens and therefore the oldest anatomically-modern human discovered in Europe.

The Apidima Cave complex consists of five (previously reported as four) karstic caves in the limestone cliffside on the west shore of the Mani Peninsula in southern Greece. Today the caves open on the face of a large sea cliff and are accessible only by boat, but during the ice ages the sea level went lower by more than 100 m (330 ft), and several seashore caves around the world, today submerged or situated at the wave zone—Apidima Cave belonging to the latter category—rose well above the water surface and were occupied by early people. The complex consists of four small caves, designated "A", "B", "C" and "D". It was formed by erosion within the Middle Triassic to Late Eocene limestone of depth 500 m (1,600 ft), from 4–24 m (13–79 ft) above sea level, in a vertical zone of depth 20 m (66 ft). The development of the caves is due to the vertical strikes of the limestone, while the horizontal opening is made by the sea.

The scientific research programme at Apidima began in 1978 and is being conducted by the National Archaeological Museum of Greece in collaboration with the Laboratory of Historical Geology-Palaeontology of Athens University, the Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploitation and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Cave data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).