“Pešturina”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

Coming from the archaic Serbian name for cave, peštera (cf. Pešter) means the "great cave". It is also known as the Jelašnica Cave ({{lang-sr|Јелашничка пећина|Jelašnička pećina}}).^[1]

Geology

The cave is located on the hillock on the northern slopes of the Suva Planina mountain at an altitude of {{convert|330|m|abbr=on}}. The entrance is oriented to the west, it is {{convert|15|m|abbr=on}} wide and {{convert|3.5|m|abbr=on}} high. The cave itself is {{convert|22|m|abbr=on}} long. Stones are accumulated at the entrance, while the parent rock protrudes above the ground in the back part of the cave.^[1]

Excavations

Pešturina has been excavated on three occasions. In 2006, the back of the cave was explored, where a trench (or probe) was dug. The search yielded artifacts from later prehistory on top, rock blades and numerous bones in the central, light-brown sediment, while the lowest section, at the depth of {{convert|1.3|m|abbr=on}}, was estimated to be from the Middle Paleolithic. At that level the parent rock was reached so the excavation stopped. In 2008 and 2010-12 the remaining sections were explored. The thickest sediments are near the entrance. The depth reached so far is {{convert|2|m|abbr=on}} and the bedrock still hasn't been hit.^[1]

Layers

Layer 1

Layer 2

Made of light-brown compact sediment. Artifacts from the Upper Paleolithic were discovered: bladelets, unretouched blades, straight backed points and combined tools. They were characteristic for the Gravettian and early Epi-Gravettian periods. The layer is disturbed by the rodent activities but also as the later inhabitants leveled and dug the terrain. As a result, some Middle Paleolithic artifacts can be found but they do not originate in this layer. Fauna remains are very fragmented. Most abundant remains of the carnivorous animals belong to the grey wolf while the prey animals include aurochs, horse and Alpine ibex. Remains were also found of the hares, cave hyena, Mustelidae and red deer. Over 100 artifacts were found. They were mostly made of chalcedony and the beige and brown flint stone and their structure point to the short term habitation.^[1]^[2]

Layer 3

Consists of brown sediment. Artifacts generally belong to the Denticulate Mousterian culture, from the Middle Paleolithic period. It is quite disturbed in the later periods, with rodent holes. Fauna remains are numerous, mostly corresponding to the one discovered in Layer 4. Most plentiful are those of horses and aurochs while the main predators found is the cave hyena. Other remains include hares, red fox, cave bear, Eurasian lynx, Mustelidae, roe deer and Alpine ibex. The structure of artifacts found in the layer for the most part also corresponds to Layer 4. Apart from chalcedony and the beige and brown flint, the grey-green flint is also used but the most common are tools made of quartz.^[1]^[2]

Layer 4

Reddish and loose in structure, the layer consists of larger crumbs. In the back section large fragments of rock were discovered and the sediment is dark brown. Because of that, the layer is divided into Layer 4-a (reddish) and Layer 4-b (dark brown), which hasn't been fully explored yet. The assemblage is dated to the Middle Paleolithic and as part of the Charentian Mousterian period, with Quina Mousterian elements. There are many fauna remnants and they are well preserved. Predominant are the bones of horse and aurochs with red deer and Alpine ibex to the lesser extent. Bones of rhinoceros and woolly mammoth have also been found. Remains of the cave hyena, fragmentation of the bones, marks of the hyena teeth on the bones and huge amount of coprolites, points to hyenas being on top of the food chain in this period. Other animal remnants include Eurasian beaver, hare, cave bear, leopard, Mustelidae and chamois. Over 100 artifacts were discovered, which mostly made of quartz, while the flint and chalcedony were also found. Though artifacts from all three phases of the flint-knapping were discovered (blades, tools, pressure flaking), the cores were not discovered which means that the tools were most likely made somewhere else and then brought into the cave.^[1]^[2]

Mammals belonged to the different biomes (forest, mountain, steppe), with the steppe animals being more numerous in the upper layers. It suggests that savanna (with the grazing horse and aurochs herds), temperate forest (red deer, roe deer) and rocky cliffs (Alpine ibex, chamois) were all located within walking distance from the cave. Though majority of the remains were brought into the cave by hyenas, remains of large animals like rhinoceros and mammoths, so as the artifacts, show that some remains were human kills.^[1]^[2]

A major roof collapse near the entrance, or the possible bedrock which separated two caves, is later labeled the Layer 4-c. It still remains unexplored.^[2]

Hominids

All Paleolithic sites in the Central Balkans, including Pešturina, have the noticeable absence of the Aurignacian layers. That points to the theory that the expansion of the early modern humans into Europe occurred via the Danube corridor, which allowed for the small Neanderthal communities to survive beyond 40,000 BP in some isolated pockets.^[1] Based on the dating of the animal remains, and comparing it to the corresponding tools, Pešturina is the first site in the region with the quasi-continuous habitation from 102,000 BP+ 5,000 to 39,000 BP+ 3,000.^[2]

References

1. ^¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹{{cite book|title=Istraživanja paleolitskog nalazišta Pešturina kod Niša |date=2012|author= Dušan P. Mihailović, Stefan P. Milošević |publisher=Journal of Serbian Archaeological Society |language= Serbian, English}}
2. ^¹²³⁴⁵⁶{{cite book|title=Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Research in the Central Balkans |date=2014|author= Dušan Mihailović |publisher=Serbian Archaeological Society|isbn=978-86-913229-9-1}}
3. ^{{Citation | last = | first = | author = Toma Todorović | title = Bogatstvo za koje se malo zna| newspaper = Politika | pages = 14 | language = Serbian | date = 24 July 2017 | url = }}

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