Human traces found in 86,000-year-old cave in Çanakkale: A first in Anatolia

In an archaeological excavation at the İnkaya Cave in the Çan district of Çanakkale, which dates back 86,000 years, chipped stone tools belonging to humans from the late Ice Age, who migrated from Europe and lived in the region until 40,000 BC, have been discovered.

Located 55 kilometers from Çanakkale, 15 kilometers from the center of Çan, and 2 kilometers from the village of Bahadırlı, the site—where excavations are continuing under a Presidential Decree—stands out as the first cave from the Paleolithic Period discovered in Western Anatolia.

The İnkaya Cave, which was discovered in 2016 during the 'Muğla and Çanakkale Provinces Surface Survey' led by Prof. Dr. İsmail Özer, a faculty member at Ankara University's Faculty of Languages, History and Geography, Department of Anthropology, Division of Paleoanthropology, was excavated between 2017 and 2020 under the direction of the Troy Museum Directorate.

In the excavation, which has been ongoing since 2020 with the permission of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums and the sponsorship of Truva Copper Mining and T-Design Engineering, nearly 25,000 flint and basalt chipped stone tools and fragments dating to the Middle Paleolithic Period have been reached.

Flakes, blades, side and front scrapers, notched and denticulated tools, tanged points, hammerstones, cores, and Levallois-type tools are among the findings produced by the humans who used the cave.

TOOLS FROM THE LATE ICE AGE DISCOVERED

A significant portion of the chipped stone tools found in the cave, which was determined to have been used until 40,000 BC, were unearthed from an area known as a 'workshop'.

Research has revealed that humans of the late Ice Age lived in this region uninterrupted for many years due to the abundance of flint raw material sources, hot and fresh water sources, and animal and plant food.

The research, which suggests that the findings do not show similarities with those obtained from other ongoing cave excavations in Turkey and may be generally related to the Balkan Paleolithic, aims to both reveal the presence of fossil humans in Western Anatolia and shed light on the mutual migrations of Paleolithic Age humans between Anatolia and the Balkans through the İnkaya excavation.

Excavation Head Prof. Dr. İsmail Özer stated that all ongoing Paleolithic Period cave excavations in Turkey, with the exception of İnkaya, are concentrated in the southern regions of the country.

CAVE REVEALED TO BE A DENSE SETTLEMENT AREA

Stating that the İnkaya Cave consists of deposits dating back 86,000 years, Özer explained that they determined the upper layers of the cave were used continuously for 25,000 years.

Reporting that the cave area consists of a 130-meter-long flint rock formation, Özer continued his words as follows:

'The workshop area in the west of the cave is a space that the people of that period used as a workshop, where they broke pieces from the bedrock and then processed them in this section to turn them into tools they used daily. We have reached a depth of 2.5 meters so far. This is a quite thick layer in terms of a Paleolithic workshop, and the depth of the layer continues. We will leave it at these levels this year and continue to deepen it in the coming years. This is an area that also shows the social structure in the cave. Nearly 25,000 chipped stone tools and fragments, including this year's findings, have been recovered from the cave. Almost half of these were found in the workshop area. There is a dense settlement here.'

REMAINS BELONG TO NEANDERTHALS

Prof. Dr. Özer expressed that the cave could be thought of as a place where people of that period gathered, evaluated their daily activities, socialized in a sense, and at the same time prepared for the next day's hunting.

Touching upon the characteristics of those who lived in the cave, Özer spoke as follows:

'We think that the people living in this region were Neanderthals, based on the period and the tools they made. We have not yet reached their own organic remains, but the clues show us that it is a cave where Neanderthals lived. Neanderthals are a human species of European origin, appearing in Europe about 600,000 years ago. The period they lived in was the Ice Ages. Due to the effect of the Ice Age, they sometimes had to retreat to southern regions.'

Özer stated that it is seen that people known as Neanderthals, based on other find sites, migrated from Europe to Anatolia and the Middle East because they carried out their economies and lives based on animal migrations.

WHAT ARE THE FEATURES OF İNKAYA CAVE?

Explaining that the preference of this region by the late Ice Age humans who settled in İnkaya Cave was due to certain reasons, Özer noted the following regarding the features of the cave:

'The İnkaya cliffs are actually flint cliffs. In other words, it is one of the raw materials that the people of that period primarily used. The 130-meter rock system means a source where they could easily carry out their production in this region for thousands of years without interruption, without searching for any raw material. We know the existence of hot water sources due to the volcanic terrain. The importance of hot water sources in the period they lived in is that they both heat the region and attract animals to this region because they can produce fresh water sources. In addition, people can easily access plant products that they can find in abundance in this region due to the hot water sources.'

'Our most important findings this year are, in terms of the period, what we call 'tanged tools', meaning that for the first time in the world, humans are transforming stone material in nature into a more useful tool by combining it with another raw material, which are usually tree branches, animal bones, horn remains, or leather. It shows us that they have moved to the next step in human thought as well. These were previously coming out of destroyed areas; for the first time this year, we started to obtain these tools from excavation trenches.'

Prof. Dr. İsmail Özer