The mysterious human skull of Petralona

Awe and admiration causes the scientific community the so -called “Petralona skull” Decades after his discovery in our country, as a study by a team of scientists, according to Smithsonian, shows. When discovered, at first glance it looked like anything that exists on this planet – a creature with a sharp object protruding from his head, looked like Half a man, half unicorn.

Petralona skull is a rare fossilized human skull, The most important anthropological find in Greecefound in the Petralona Cave in Halkidiki in 1960. It is one of the most well -preserved human fossil skulls in the world and its age has been determined in about 300,000 years, While its nature, which belongs to neither the modern man nor the Neanderthals, remains the subject of scientific research.

‘This fossil holds a central position In the evolution of man in Europe » Researchers from China, France, Greece and the United Kingdom declared researchers from China, France, Greece.

Petralona’s skull was found with a characteristic peak protrude from the top, which is a stalagmite of the homonymous cave. Stalagmites grow slowly as the water drips from the roof of the cave.

Petralona’s skull was first found by a local peasant, the Christos Sariannidis, in 1960. Scientists later found that it had merged with the wall by the gradual calculation of calcite, a common mineral usually found in the caves. Lime is also found in the Great Stalagmitis protruding from his head, which has since been removed during a cleaning process before being transported to the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, where it was exhibited.

Our ancestor would live in Europe with the Neanderthals, the extinct group of archaic people and our closest ancient relatives. However, researchers estimate that it was part of a different human group known as Homo Heidelbergensis (Haidelberg man), which preceded the Neanderthals and was more primitive.

The European populations of Homo Heidelbergensis evolved into Neanderthals, while a separate population of Homo Heidelbergensis in Africa It evolved into our own genre, Homo Sapiens.

The skull almost certainly belonged to a man based on the size and durability of the fossil, so he is also referred to as the “Petralona man”.

The teeth of the skull had only moderate deterioration, so it probably belonged to a young adult, the author of the study Professor Chris Stringer, an anthropologist at the Museum of Natural History in London, told live science.

Homo Heidelbergensis characteristically shares with both modern people and our ancestors Homo erectus.

This early man also opened new roads. It was the first species to make shelters, creating simple wood and rock houses.

The males were an average of 1.75 meters high and weighed 62 kg, while the females had an average of 1.57 meters high and weighed 51 kg.

Only stone tools were found in the Petralona Cave, made mainly of quartz and bauxite, near the ancient entrance of the cave. These tools were manufactured and used by Paleolithic people mainly to process their food. In some cases, even fragmented bones of animals found near or next to the stone tools have obvious traces of cutting and breaking, as a result of the slaughter and cutting of animals by humans, using these tools. These findings are one of the first testimonies of the habitation of the Greek geographical area.

The investigation into the cave continues today by the competent department of the Ministry of Culture, the Ephorate of Paleoanthropology -Spilaology, with modern methods and detailed documentation.