Satsurblia Cave Natural Monument ( ka, საწურბლიას მღვიმე) is a paleoanthropological site located 1.2 km from Kumistavi village,

Tsqaltubo Municipality Tsqaltubo ( ka, წყალტუბოს მუნიციპალიტეტი) is a district of Georgia, in the region of Imereti. Its main town is Tskaltubo. Tskaltubo Municipality is a self-governing unit in the Imereti region. Peopl ...

, in the

Imereti Imereti ( Georgian: იმერეთი) is a region of Georgia situated in the central-western part of the republic along the middle and upper reaches of the Rioni River. Imereti is the most populous region in Georgia. It consists of 11 munic ...

region of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, 287 meters above sea level. The karst cave was first excavated in 1976 by A. N. Kalandadze. In the Middle Ages the cave was used as a refuge.საწურბლიას მღვიმის ბუნების ძეგლი
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Morphology

Satsurblia Cave is a

karst cave Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant r ...

, formed in the Sataphlia-Tskaltubo karst massif. The cave has many

stalactite A stalactite (, ; from the Greek 'stalaktos' ('dripping') via ''stalassein'' ('to drip') is a mineral formation that hangs from the ceiling of caves, hot springs, or man-made structures such as bridges and mines. Any material that is soluble ...

stalagmite A stalagmite (, ; from the Greek , from , "dropping, trickling") is a type of rock formation that rises from the floor of a cave due to the accumulation of material deposited on the floor from ceiling drippings. Stalagmites are typicall ...

travertine Travertine ( ) is a form of terrestrial limestone deposited around mineral springs, especially hot springs. It often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, cream-colored, and even rusty varieties. It is formed by a p ...

s and large

gourd Gourds include the fruits of some flowering plant species in the family Cucurbitaceae, particularly ''Cucurbita'' and '' Lagenaria''. The term refers to a number of species and subspecies, many with hard shells, and some without. One of the ear ...

s of limestone. The entrance to the cave is 6 m wide. The first cave tunnel is 80 m long and has 12 to 150-degree slope. The tunnel evolves into steps of 1 - 1.5 m height. At 125 meters from the entrance there is a 5 meter thick flat plate in a large hall measured 30 meters by 25 meters.

Fauna

The inhabitants of the cave are '' Plutomurus'' and ''

Oxychilus ''Oxychilus'' is a genus of small air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropods in the subfamily Oxychilinae of the family Oxychilidae, the glass snails. Synonyms * ''Aplostoma'' Moquin-Tandon, 1855 * ''Cretozonites'' Kobelt, 1890 ...

''.Barjadze, Sh., Arabuli, T., Mumladze, L., Maghradze, E., Asanidze, Z., Kutalia, T
Satsurblia Cave
Cave Biodiversity of Georgia, Open Access Database, 2019. Institute of Zoology at

Ilia State University Ilia State University ISU ( Georgian: ილიას სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტი) was founded in 2006 as a result of a merger of six different academic institutions with long and varied histories. Current ...

Archaeology

Prehistoric people first occupied the cave from around 25,500 to 24,400 BP. The next period of human occupation at Satsurblia took place from around 17,000 to 16,200 BP. The hiatus in human occupation at Satsurblia coincides with the

Last Glacial Maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent. Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Eu ...

. Lithic artefacts, bone artefacts, charcoal,

flax Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, ''Linum usitatissimum'', in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. Textiles made from flax are known in ...

fibers, and pottery were discovered at the cave. The lithic artefacts show similarities to eastern Epigravettian sites. Perforated pendants made out of

and polished bovid bone were also discovered. The remains of yellow, red and brown

ochre Ochre ( ; , ), or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colours produced ...

were also found at the site. Unlike most other Paleolithic sites found in Georgia that relied primarily on hunting one species, the people of Satsurblia appeared to have hunted a slightly more diverse range of species. The animal remains found at Satsurblia were dominated primarily by

wild boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species i ...

, followed by

red deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of ...

; the remains of

aurochs The aurochs (''Bos primigenius'') ( or ) is an extinct cattle species, considered to be the wild ancestor of modern domestic cattle. With a shoulder height of up to in bulls and in cows, it was one of the largest herbivores in the Holocene ...

steppe bison The steppe bisonSeveral literatures address the species as ''primeval bison''. or steppe wisent (''Bison'' ''priscus'')
– Y ...

, ''

Capra caucasica The West Caucasian tur (''Capra caucasica'') is a mountain-dwelling goat-antelope native to the western half of the Caucasus Mountains range, in Georgia and European Russia. It is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, as the wild populatio ...

'', and

roe deer The roe deer (''Capreolus capreolus''), also known as the roe, western roe deer, or European roe, is a species of deer. The male of the species is sometimes referred to as a roebuck. The roe is a small deer, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapt ...

were also found. Some

brown bear The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear species found across Eurasia and North America. In North America, the populations of brown bears are called grizzly bears, while the subspecies that inhabits the Kodiak Islands of Alaska is k ...

, wolf, fox, and

Eurasian beaver The Eurasian beaver (''Castor fiber'') or European beaver is a beaver species that was once widespread in Eurasia, but was hunted to near-extinction for both its fur and castoreum. At the turn of the 20th century, only about 1,200 beavers survi ...

remains were also found at the site.

Genetics

In 2013, archaeologists found a

temporal bone The temporal bones are situated at the sides and base of the skull, and lateral to the temporal lobes of the cerebral cortex. The temporal bones are overlaid by the sides of the head known as the temples, and house the structures of the ears. ...

fragment of an ancient human in the cave. Direct AMS dating of the bone yielded an estimated date of 13,300 BP for the age of the bone. Researchers successfully extracted DNA from the petrous part of the temporal bone and managed to recover low coverage genomes. The ancient individual from Satsurblia was male with black hair and brown eyes; however, the individual is one of the earliest found to carry the derived HERC2 allele for blue eyes. The Satsurblia individual also likely had light skin, as he was found to carry the derived

SLC24A5 SLC may refer to: Places * Salt Lake City, Utah * Salt Lake City International Airport, IATA Airport Code Education * Sarah Lawrence College, NY * School Leaving Certificate (Nepal) * St. Lawrence College, Ontario, Canada * Small Learning Com ...

allele for light skin. The Satsurblia individual was also lactose intolerant and did not carry the derived

EDAR Ectodysplasin A receptor (EDAR) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the EDAR gene. EDAR is a cell surface receptor for ectodysplasin A which plays an important role in the development of ectodermal tissues such as the skin. It is structura ...

allele commonly found in East Asians and Native Americans. The Satsurblia individual belongs to mtDNA Haplogroup K3 and Y-DNA Haplogroup J1-Y6313*. About 1.7-2.4% of the Satsurblia individual's DNA was

Neanderthal Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an Extinction, extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ag ...

in origin.

Caucasus hunter-gatherers

The Satsurblia individual is genetically closest to an ancient individual, dating to around 9,700 BP, found at the Kotias Klde rock shelter in Georgia. Together, they form a genetically distinct cluster referred to as '' Caucasus Hunter-Gatherer'' (CHG). In comparison to modern human populations, the Satsurblia individual is closest to the modern population in Georgia. The Caucasus hunter-gatherers contributed significantly to modern European populations by way of the Yamna people. Around half of the Yamna people's DNA come from the Caucasus hunter-gatherers. The Caucasus hunter-gatherers also contributed genetically to modern Central Asians and South Asians.

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

Europe's fourth ancestral 'tribe' uncovered

Some popular medicinal plants and diseases of the Upper Palaeolithic in Western Georgia
{{Navbox prehistoric caves Natural monuments of Georgia (country) Caves of Georgia (country) Protected areas established in 2011 Prehistoric sites in Georgia (country) Neanderthal sites Mesolithic Homo sapiens fossils Geography of Imereti