Badanj Cave () is located in Borojevići village near the town of Stolac,

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

. It began to attract public attention after the 1976 discovery of its cave engravings, which date to between 14,000 and 18,000 years ago. Thanks to local natural benefits and preferable composition, topography, climate, hydrography and vegetation and rich hunting grounds have long attracted prehistoric settlers: the region has been settled since antiquity. The site is rock shelter or overhang recessed beneath a cliff that descends to the right bank of the river Bregava. Two chronologically distinct strata of

Palaeolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehist ...

occupation were identified beneath the surface layer. Of particular significance was the discovery of a particular carving of the Badanj site, as it ranks among the oldest works of art in

. The carving is cut into the diagonal surface of a large polished block of stone, and probably represents a horse seen from the offside flank that has been hit by arrows. Only the rear half of the body survives, with flanks typical for a horse and part of the body; the rest of the drawing has been partly damaged. The Badanj carvings include depictions of animals and symbols, as is typical of

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

prehistoric art. The site was dated to the late

Upper Palaeolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories ...

. The cave is part of ''The Natural and Architectural Ensemble of Stolac'', submitted by the Stolac municipality, and the Herzegovina-Neretva county to be recognized a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

heritage site in 2007 and inducted into UNESCO's tentative list. It has also been designated as a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2003.

See also

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