Peștera Muierilor, or Peștera Muierii (

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

for "The Women's Cave", or "The Woman's Cave"), is an elaborate cave system located in the

Baia de Fier Baia de Fier is a commune in Gorj County, Oltenia, Romania. It is composed of two villages, Baia de Fier and Cernădia. It is traversed by the river Pârâul Galben; to the east flows the river Olteț. Peștera Muierilor (''women's cave'') is loc ...

commune,

Gorj County Gorj County () is a county () of Romania, in Oltenia, with its capital city at Târgu Jiu. ''Gorj'' comes from the Slavic ''Gornji'' Jiu (“upper Jiu”), in contrast with Dolnji (“lower Jiu”). Demographics At the 2011 census, the count ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. It contains abundant

cave bear The cave bear (''Ursus spelaeus'') is a prehistoric species of bear that lived in Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene and became extinct about 24,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum. Both the word ''cave'' and the scientific name '' ...

remains, as well as a human skull. The skull is

radiocarbon dated Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was de ...

to 30,150 ± 800, indication an absolute age between 40,000 and 30,000 BP. It was uncovered in 1952. Alongside similar remains found in Cioclovina Cave (from 29,000 BP), they are among the most ancient early modern humans in Romanian prehistory. The human skull is that of a woman with obvious

anatomically modern human Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science ...

traits, including a high forehead, small jaw, and small

supraorbital ridge The brow ridge, or supraorbital ridge known as superciliary arch in medicine, is a bony ridge located above the eye sockets of all primates and some other animals. In humans, the Eyebrow, eyebrows are located on their lower margin. Structure The ...

s. Despite the tall

cranial vault The cranial vault is the space in the skull within the neurocranium, occupied by the brain. Development In humans, the cranial vault is imperfectly composed in newborns, to allow the large human head to pass through the birth canal. During bir ...

, the

occipital bone The occipital bone () is a neurocranium, cranial dermal bone and the main bone of the occiput (back and lower part of the skull). It is trapezoidal in shape and curved on itself like a shallow dish. The occipital bone lies over the occipital lob ...

forms a distinct dome, a trait normally associated with

Neanderthal Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...

s. The largely intact facial bones indicate a woman with "rugged traits". This mosaic of features mirrors that seen in the

Peștera cu Oase Peștera cu Oase (, meaning "The Cave with Bones") is a system of 12 karstic galleries and chambers located near the city Anina, in Caraș-Severin County, southwestern Romania, where some of the oldest European early modern human (EEMH) remai ...

find, indicating possible

Neanderthal admixture Interbreeding between archaic and modern humans occurred during the Middle Paleolithic and early Upper Paleolithic. The interbreeding happened in several independent events that included Neanderthals and Denisovans, as well as several unidentifi ...

or generally robust (archaic) traits (or both). The early date makes the find referable to the early

Cro-Magnon Cro-Magnons or European early modern humans (EEMH) were the first early modern humans (''Homo sapiens'') to settle in Europe, migrating from western Asia, continuously occupying the continent possibly from as early as 56,800 years ago. They in ...

group of finds. On the basis of

radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for Chronological dating, determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of carbon-14, radiocarbon, a radioactive Isotop ...

and also the analysis of the

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

context, some researchers advanced the hypothesis of the association of these bones with

s and the

Aurignacian The Aurignacian () is an archaeological industry of the Upper Paleolithic associated with Cro-Magnon, Early European modern humans (EEMH) lasting from 43,000 to 26,000 years ago. The Upper Paleolithic developed in Europe some time after the L ...

archaeological culture An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of types of artifacts, buildings and monuments from a specific period and region that may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between thes ...

. Others mention the possibility that these findings could belong to a certain regional culture from the

Southern Carpathians The Southern Carpathians (also known as the Transylvanian Alps; ; ) are a group of mountain ranges located in southern Romania. They cover the part of the Carpathian Mountains located between the Prahova River in the east and the Timiș and ...

, from the period of the Final

Middle Paleolithic The Middle Paleolithic (or Middle Palaeolithic) is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle P ...

and Early

Upper Paleolithic 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 ...

DNA analysis

The remains of three individuals were found at the site. In a 2016 study, researchers extracted DNA from two upper molars from one of the three individuals, ''Peștera Muierii 1'' (35,000 BP), and confirmed that the individual was a fully modern human; mtDNA analysis shows that ''Peștera Muierii 1'' comes from a previously unknown basal mtDNA Haplogroup U6* lineage. As Haplogroup U6 is today common in

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

, researchers believe that the U6 lineage in North Africa was the result of migration from Western Asian back into North Africa. Researchers also extracted DNA from the

temporal bone The temporal bone is a paired bone situated at the sides and base of the skull, lateral to the temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex. The temporal bones are overlaid by the sides of the head known as the temples where four of the cranial bone ...

of ''Peștera Muierii 2'' (33,000 BP). This individual also comes from basal mtDNA Haplogroup U6 and was confirmed as being a female. A full genome study conducted on the remains in 2021 revealed that the Peștera Muierii woman is related to modern Europeans, but not a direct ancestor. The woman also displays close genetic affinities to other Paleolithic Europeans, such as Kostenki-14. It was also found that the Paleolithic European hunter-gatherers displayed higher genetic diversity than expected, "demonstrating that the severe loss of diversity occurred during and after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) rather than just during the out-of-Africa migration". In contrast, Post-LGM hunter-gatherers in Europe displayed the lowest "ever observed" genetic diversity. The woman is estimated to be around 34,000 years old and unrelated to the earlier 40,000 year old

individuals.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pestera Muierilor 1952 archaeological discoveries Upper Paleolithic Homo sapiens fossils Caves of Romania Prehistory of Southeastern Europe Peopling of Europe Cave bear Prehistoric sites in Romania Paleolithic sites

DNA analysis

See also

References